Jonah Hinton scored a career-high 29 points and made 9 of 15 3-point attempts to lead Rhode Island to an 81-76 upset over No. 18 Saint Louis in an Atlantic 10 showdown on Tuesday night in Kingston, R.I.
Myles Corey tallied 15 points and made 11 of 11 free throw attempts for the Rams (15-11, 6-7 A-10), who defeated an Associated Press Top 25 team for the first time since Nov. 23, 2017, against Seton Hall.
Tyler Cochran added 11 points for Rhode Island, which snapped the Billikens’ 18-game winning streak.
Robbie Avila led Saint Louis (24-2, 12-1) with 21 points. Dion Brown contributed 19 points and Amari McCottry chipped in 10 points for the Billikens, who committed 18 turnovers that led to 28 Rhode Island points.
Rhode Island never trailed in the second half, but a Quentin Jones putback pulled Saint Louis within 77-74 with 1:10 to go. Avila followed with a layup that capped a 7-0 run and made it 77-76 with 29 seconds left.
Corey drilled a pair of foul shots to push the Rams’ lead to 79-76, then Ishan Sharma and Avila missed game-tying 3-point attempts. Cochran grabbed the rebound and sank two free throws with 12 seconds left to seal the win.
Hinton’s career-high marksmanship from beyond the arc staked the Rams to a 43-37 halftime lead. He nailed 7 of 9 3-point attempts and tallied 23 points.
Hinton sank five 3-pointers in the opening 6:49 to stake the Rams to a 19-15 lead. Rhode Island forced Saint Louis into 13 first-half turnovers, which led to 20 points as the Billikens never led after the opening six minutes.
