The Rams’ Kahiem Seawright scored his 1,000th point during yesterday’s game.

Providence Journal / John Freidah

PHILADELPHIA — URI basketball fans have seen the sight before: Referee Joe DeMayo going to the TV monitors at the end of a game to determine whether a last-second basket counted.

Yesterday, for the second time, DeMayo, with the help of the TV replays, ruled in URI’s favor. This time not once, but twice.

DeMayo was the referee for the first game played in the Ryan Center six years ago, when it was ruled that a basket by Southern California had come too late, thus turning a possible USC victory into a 73-71 URI win.

Yesterday at The Palestra, the score between URI and Saint Joseph’s was tied at 64 when Darrin Govens launched a 3-pointer at the end of regulation. It was short. Ahmad Nivins, the Hawks’ 6-foot-9 center, was there, with his palm up, deftly tipping it home. The Saint Joe’s side celebrated.

But Mayo and fellow officials Brian O’Connell and Eric Anderson went to the monitors — the game was televised by CBS College Sports — and, after a short delay, ruled it no good.

“The ball was right on his hand,” DeMao explained after the game. “We had a good shot of the light. That’s the big thing.”

Steve Haug, an associate commissioner of the A-10, who allowed the officials to be interviewed, agreed, saying an NCAA official at the game also broke down the pictures and that nullifying the basket was the correct call.

Amazingly, Keith Cothran hit a 3-point for URI at the buzzer ending the second overtime. Officials again had to go to the monitors. This was not quite as close. It was good, tying the score at 80 and forcing a third overtime.

Not always favorable

While URI benefited from the two looks at instant replay, it did not benefit as much from officials calls at other points.

Saint Joseph’s had 40 foul shots to 19 for URI.

“See how many foul shots they had compared to us: that bothers me,” URI coach Jim Baron said.

Baron was frustrated all day, to the point where he was whistled for a technical foul in the third overtime. Nivins scored in the lane after making several moves. Baron thought he traveled. He yelled that to the officials as they came past him on the trip back to the other end.

One official, O’Connell, went past him as Baron yelled, “He traveled.” O’Connell kept going. When Anderson came near him, Baron yelled the same thing again, with a harsh word or two thrown in. Anderson called the technical.

Baron later was also called for a technical for calling a timeout when his team did not have any. Two technicals normally mean ejection, but the technical for calling a time out is a bench tech, not charged to an individual, thus no ejection.

Milestone for Seawright

Amid all the craziness, URI co-catpain Kahiem Seawright scored his 1,000th point, becoming the 47th player in school history to do so. He did it on a layup off an inbounds play 3:12 into the game. He finished with 17 points and six rebounds before fouling out.

Seawright is the 10th player in Rhody history to surpass 1,000 points and 700 rebounds. He joins Art Stephenson, Antonio Reynolds-Dean, Kenny Green, Jimmy Wright, John Fultz, Jeff Kent, Andre Samuel, Mike Brown and Sly Williams.

“Of course I wanted to get my 1,000th point in a win,” he said.

As with everyone on the URI side, he said he was not discouraged by suffering such a tough loss in the opener, one that was so similar to a half-dozen the team endured at the end of last season. He insisted that this year would be different.

“But I’m just so proud of my teammates. They played a tremendous game,’ he said. “This year is going to be different. If we play the rest of the season like we did in the second half here today, we’re going to win a lot of games.”

pkenyon@projo.com