TEANECK, N.J. — The bad news is that the University of Rhode Island played through a couple of extended stretches of its poorest basketball of the season last night. The good news is that it didn’t matter.

The Rams still won comfortably, 95-80, over Fairleigh Dickinson before an intimate gathering of 762 at the Rothman Center.

Coming off a 10-day holiday break, URI did along the way mix in some excellent work but also had way too much sloppy play. The good stuff came in the last seven minutes of the first half. That’s when the Rams made 11 of their last 12 shots to move from a 22-21 deficit into a 47-31 lead.

Against a weak team like FDU (1-10), that was more than enough to lift Rhody’s record to 9-4. Coach Jim Baron pointed out that his team did more things wrong than it has in most outings this season, but he felt it was not entirely unexpected.

“We’re on the road. It’s after the Christmas break. Anything can happen,” Baron said. “We forced 24 turnovers, but we had 19 ourselves. We can’t do that. And we committed too many dumb fouls and put them on the line too much.”

“We got a little lackadaisical,” offered Keith Cothran, who led the Rams with 20 points. “We got the big lead. They kept playing hard. They were getting a lot of easy buckets in transition.

“We can’t blame the (holiday) break,” Cothran added. “We needed the rest. We just can’t get lackadaisical like that.”

“They shot 58 percent from the field. We were terrible defensively,” said center Will Martell. “We’ve got to get up for the little teams just like the big teams.”’

Martell was the best part of the night for URI. The seven-foot sophomore continues to come on strong. He had 18 points, 12 more than he has ever had in a game. He never missed a shot, going 7-for-7 from the field and 4-for-4 from the foul line.

Kahiem Seawright added 14 points and Jimmy Baron 13 for the Rams. Cameron Tyler had 25 points and former URI guard Terence Grier a career high 21 for the Knights.

As Martell pointed out, FDU did not have any trouble scoring. It was 35-for-60 from the field. URI was good, too, at 52 percent (36-for-69), but both teams benefitted by getting so close to the basket so often. FDU had 48 points in the paint and URI had 46. Many of those came on layups after turnovers. URI had 29 points off FDU’s 24 turnovers. FDU 21 off Rhody’s 19 turnovers.

The Rams looked rusty at the start. They made just one of their first 10 field-goal attempts. For one of the few times all season, they went through an extended stretch of poor basketball at both ends of the court.

FDU, helped by six early points from former Rhody guard Terence Grier, led, 22-21, 13 minutes in. That’s when URI finally kicked it into gear.

The Rams ran off eight points in 42 seconds as their press did the damage. The Knights could not even get over halfcourt. Lamonte Ulmer provided the spark, once stealing and then dunking and, seconds later, dunking again after a Marquis Jones steals and pass.

That started one of the best stretches of the season for the Rams — that was the start of the run that saw them make 11 of their last 12 field-goal attempts. To be fair, though, many of the shots were layups or dunks, set up by steals. By halftime, URI had 10 steals and had forced 16 turnovers. The Rams had 41 shots in the 20 minutes, to 26 for FDU.

The intensity URI displayed at the end of the first half was gone when play resumed. The second half was as sloppy as any half the Rams have played all season. URI had 13 turnovers and gave up numerous easy hoops.

Rhode Island led by 24, 71-47, 7:40 into the half. But rather than put the game away, the Rams played sloppily while FDU kept working. This is an FDU team that has played a murderous non-conference schedule. The Knights have lost all nine non-conference starts, by a total of 247 points.

pkenyon@projo.com