SOUTH KINGSTOWN — The URI basketball team gets a one-week break before heading out for a three-game road trip, and that is fine with coach Jim Baron.

“The time off couldn’t come at a better time,” Baron said after yesterday’s 82-78 loss to George Washington. “We’ve been going from one game to the next. We really haven’t had a period of time to get ourselves replenished.”

“We’ll get back in the gym and be able to work on things we need to work on,” said forward Will Daniels.

Perhaps the only negative with the break in the schedule is that the Rams will not play at the Ryan Center again until they host Saint Louis on Feb. 14.

The four-game winning streak, plus several promotions the school has conducted — it had another one yesterday aimed at fraternities and sororities — have built interest in the team higher than it has been in years.

The GW game drew 7,011 fans, the second straight crowd over 7,000. That included a walk-up sale on game day of just over 1,000, a Ryan Center record.

The student attendance, while not as big as the 2,657 for Wednesday’s game against Massachusetts, was strong again, boosted by many students who came with their fraternity and sorority shirts.

The games are the same

It’s funny sometimes how rivalries can get started. In the case of URI and George Washington, it might be because the two teams now play so much alike.

The two schools have not exactly had a good rivalry. Before yesterday, GW had beaten URI four straight times by a total of 78 points. However, URI has changed its style dramatically. It now plays much as the Colonials have for the last several seasons.

“Coach Baron has done a great job of reinventing himself as a coach,” said GW coach Karl Hobbs. “He went form halfcourt grind it out method to now where it’s wide open. . . We watch them defensively and at times we thought we were seeing ourselves.”

It’s starting to hurt

Somewhere along the line the continuing loss of personnel had to catch up with the Rams. Yesterday was it.

With center Darrell Harris sitting on the bench with cruthces and a compression boot on his injured left ankle, freshman Jonathan Cruz got the start at center. He played 16 minutes and was solid, but he cannot yet do what Harris can.

“We missed Darrell’s size in there,” Baron said.

Freshman Lamonte Ulmer, who has gone largely unnoticed all season, but who has handled himself well when he has had opportunities, turned in 10 very productive minutes. Joe Mbang played 24 minutes.

Still, the newcomer who keeps making the biggest impression is Keith Cothran. Cothran played 21 minutes with 7 points, 2 assists, 2 rebounds and 3 steals and more than held his own going against Carl Elliott, one of the conference’s premier players.

In part because of the GW lineup, URI went at times with all three of its guards, Cothran, Jimmy Baron and Parfait Bitee on the court. Cothran is playing so well it appears the Rams will find ways to get him as much action as possible.

Worth watching

URI officials have added a new attraction at games — a video presentation just before the team takes the court. Two videos have been made.

One put together by Jimmy Baron and Kahiem Seawright was shown Wednesday and one made by Pat Henderson, one of the team’s managers, was presented yesterday. Both drew nice applause from the fans.

Sly returns

For the first time since leaving URI in 1979, Sly Williams was back on campus. Williams, who looked sharp in a gray suit, was honored in halftime ceremonies for being selected to the school’s all-century team. … The game ball was presented to head official Ken Clark, an Army colonel himself, by Master Sgt. Terry Raynor, a veteran of Desert Storm. Sgt. Raynor, who served with the 82nd airborne out of Fort Bragg, is now a senior military instructor in URI’s ROTC program. … The scholar-athlete award went to golfer Mark Stevens, a finance major with a 3.5 GPA.

pkenyon@projo.com