GAME NOTES: Following losses on Thursday in tournament play the Santa Clara Broncos and Rhode Island Rams will meet up in consolation round action of the Orlando Classic at HP Field House on Friday.

Kerry Keating's Broncos opened the 2014-15 season with two victories at home, posting double-digit wins over both Cal State Fullerton (89-72) and San Diego Christian (70-58). The road hasn't been as kind Santa Clara, which enters Friday action on a three-game slide, with road losses at Utah State (60-54) and Michigan State (79-52), followed by Thursday's 64-57 setback to Tennessee in first-round action of this event.

Dan Hurley's Rams would like nothing better than to get back in the win column. After opening the season with three straight wins, including knocking off a nationally-ranked foe in Nebraska (66-62 OT), URI was unable to keep the momentum going on Thursday against 11th-ranked Kansas, falling to the Jayhawks, 76-60.

These two teams have met just one previous time, that being a 79-70 overtime win for Santa Clara in the 1999 Big Island Invitational in Hilo, Hawaii.

Despite having a couple of reliable scorers, depth has really plagued Santa Clara in the early stages of the season. The team is netting just 64.4 ppg and doing so on a mere .410 shooting. Brandon Clark has been the focal point of the Bronco attack, leading the team in both scoring (18.2 ppg) and assists (4.6 apg). Jared Brownridge and Denzel Johnson also boast double-digit scoring averages at 12.0 and 10.0 ppg, respectively. However, the scoring pool dries up after that with no other player on the roster netting more than 5.8 ppg.

The Broncos hung around with Tennessee for most of the game, but just couldn't pull out a win late, as the Volunteers advanced in the tournament with a seven-point victory. The loss spoiled a strong performance by Clark, who led all scorers with 21 points. Brownridge added 12 points and Johnson finished with 11, but Santa Clara shot a modest .405 from the floor in the loss and was outrebounded by the Vols, 34-25.

With the exception of the Kansas game, Rhode Island has played well at both ends of the court this season, resulting in an even +11.0 scoring margin. The team is shooting the ball at a .457 clip, leading to 73.0 ppg. In addition, URI owns a solid +9.5 rebounding margin. The Rams are led by the strong play of E.C. Matthews, who is averaging 17.2 ppg. Hassan Martin is next in line, at 12.8 ppg, followed closely by Gilvydas Biruta (11.2 ppg). Biruta and Martin are a potent rebounding tandem for Rhode Island, averaging 8.2 and 7.8 rpg, respectively.

Rhode Island fell behind early against Kansas and the Jayhawks simply never let the Rams back in the game, en route to a 16-point romp thanks to an 18- point halftime lead (43-25). Matthews led all scorers with 20 points, his second straight 20-point effort. Biruta added 16 points for Rhode Island, but Martin wasn't nearly effective, finishing with just four points in the loss.

The Rams should be able to find their way back to the win column here. The Broncos need to find more scoring from somewhere and until they do, they will lose to more well-rounded teams.