The "I" was missing from Rhode Island guard Frenchy Tomlin's jersey during last night's game at Rec Hall, but that wasn't all that was missing on the Rams' side of the court. The house detectives were all on the lookout for Rhode Island's entire offense as Penn State dropped URI for a 74-67 victory.

"We really don't take a lot of notice (to offensive and defensive production) during the game," Lion center Ed Fogell said. "But we think it's great that they weren't scoring."

The Rams' (12-9, 8-4) usual scoring stars were in an unusual slump. The last time the two teams played, guard Eric Leslie was the team's high scorer with 20 points. This time he repeated as highscorer with 17 points, but shot an abysmal 4-of-14 from the floor.

Even worse for the Rams was the performance of star center Kenny Green. The Lion defense gave him no room to breathe, making him shoot well beneath his average of 17.5 points per game. He finished with only 12 points, shooting 5-of-15 from the floor.

"The guys we had on (Green) were really giving forth an effort, moving their feet, and not just leaning on him," Coach Bruce Parkhill said. "If you just lean on him and they do a good job of rotating the ball, he'll seal you up and get it.

"But our guys were willing to put forth the extra effort to move their feet and step out around him. We made him ... throw a lob, and the percentages on that play aren't that good."

After the Lions (15-5, 8-3) did a number on Green's defense, they turned the big man's offense into Jell-O. Not only did three Lions score in double digits, but Green, the nation's leading shotblocker with 93 this season going into the game, was limited to only two blocks. Fogell, who only had 15 blocks going into last night's game, finished with four.

The rest of the team didn't do any better than its two stars. From the outset the Rams could not find the basket. They did not score a point until 15:08 remained in the first half and could not hit again until the clock read 11:51. Their first-half field goal percentage was a mere 26.7 percent.

"They made us rush a few shots, especially early in the game," Rams coach Al Skinner said. "We didn't necessarily show the patience that I was hoping that we would show. Because of that we took a couple of shots that were a little bit out of character for us. When we settled down and took our time, we got some of the shots we needed."

During the second half the situation got much worse. Almost six minutes elapsed before the Rams scored their first points of the second half. Green's drought lasted even longer. The Lion defense held him to seven points until 28 seconds remained in the game, when a Ram comeback was almost certainly beyond reach. He scored five points in the last half minute.

Originally Parkhill was concerned about the Lions' fighting spirit before the game. He said his team was flat in Wednesday's practice, and it didn't seem to be "up" before the game.

"We didn't have the greatest practice," Fogell said. "But Coach's job is to get us up for the game, so he got on us real hard yesterday, hoping that we would respond and get angry so we'd come out here ready to play. I think we took it upon ourselves anyway, even without him yelling at us, to get pumped up anyway. You've got to get up if you want to win."