WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. — The atmosphere was totally different, but the performance by the URI basketball team was pretty much the same last night.

The Rams, coming off their huge effort at Duke, did not have a letdown when they visited the Boylan Gym to take on Monmouth. Playing in what likely will be the quietest atmosphere they will have all winter (the attendance was 1,604), URI played cleanly, crisply and efficiently as it swept past the Hawks, 85-62, in the opening round of the Philly Hoop Group Classic.

The game was never in doubt. Rhode Island scored the first eight points, in the opening 84 seconds, and was in control throughout as it raised its record to 2-1.

“We got into what we needed to do,” said URI coach Jim Baron. “We were concerned with how we’d come out after the Duke game.”

Baron said he used a focus on defense to make sure his team was ready to play.

“I’ve been really challenging them to be solid on the defensive end,” he said. “I took out films of how we played against Brown last year at Brown. We played really solid in that game.”

The Rams played solid in this one at both ends. Keith Cothran led the way. The junior guard set the tempo. He had a steal off the press for an easy basket as part of the run in the first two minutes that gave URI control. And he kept going.

He finished with a career high 18 points as he continued to become a major force. Cothran has been in double figures in all three games. He was 7-for-10 from the field in this one, including making two of the three 3-pointers he took last night. He was not even aware he had set a career scoring high. When he was told, he did not seem to care much about it, either.

“We just wanted to go out and play hard. We didn’t want to come to this game and think these guys were just going to roll over. We wanted to be aggressive,” he said. “If we can play all our games being aggressive we should be fine.”

In addition to Cothran’s 18, Jimmy Baron had 15, Kahiem Seawright 13 and Delroy James 10. Travis Taylor, an impressive freshman forward, led Monmouth (0-3) with 14.

The Rams shot 64 percent (16-25) as they built a 48-30 lead by halftime. Monmouth had actually played pretty well offensively. It was 12-for-28 from the field, 6-for-12 on 3-pointers. The fact that the Hawks were down 18 despite that was not a good sign.

“We scored enough,” said Monmouth coach Dave Calloway. It was his team’s inability to stop URI that was the problem, he felt.

“But then Duke didn’t defend them too well, either,” Calloway said.

Monmouth beat Charlotte from the Atlantic 10 last year. It needs to control the pace.

“The games we’ve won against teams like this it’s been by scores like 65-60,”’ he said. When URI took an immediate lead, the Rams dictated the pace and that killed any chance the Hawks might have had.

“We turned them over 18 times, which is good,” Baron said. “We shared the ball, too. We had 19 assists. It was an excellent team effort for us.”

It was a business-like performance, including the second half.

pkenyon@projo.com