ALBANY – The season opener for University at Albany men’s basketball got too close for comfort, and coach Dwayne Killings didn’t mince words as to why.
“If we’re going to be a real team,” Killings said, “we’ve got to be better defensively.”
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The Great Danes, who went 11-21 a season ago, started their 2026-27 season with a win Monday at Broadview Center, beating Division III Rhode Island College 74-67, but things were far from rosy. After going up by 28 points with 13 minutes, 11 seconds left in the second half, UAlbany seemed to switch off, settling for 3-pointers on offense and allowing the Anchormen to build up steam on the other end of the floor.
The lead was never seriously challenged – RIC only got within seven on a basket by Noe Bom in the game’s final seconds – but it was an effort that left Killings concerned heading into the team’s America East-Metro Challenge games on the road against Manhattan and home against Merrimack later this week.
“I thought we really relaxed in the second half,” Killings said. “We just kind of thought we had that 20-point cushion, and thought we could ride it. Credit to them, they just kept chipping away. I didn’t do a good enough job in terms of giving us a sustained defensive effort for 40 minutes.”
There were positive signs for the Great Danes, especially over the game’s first 27 minutes as they built up a 59-31 lead.
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Junior point guard Ollie Engen missed his first four shots, but settled in after a brief stint on the bench to finish with a team-high 25 points on 12-of-21 shooting while also adding six assists and five rebounds. Engen was a steadying influence down the stretch, scoring back-to-back baskets to stem RIC’s momentum after UAlbany’s lead had been cut to 10.
“I try my best to do that all the time. Try to keep guys composed,” Engen said. “I think I need to do a better job communicating that through the whole team, and keeping everybody steady and on the task at hand, which is winning.”
Freshman guard Tyler Jones turned the ball over four times, but also turned in a number of splashy plays en route to 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting off the bench. Erwann Bussing was the only other UAlbany player to finish in double figures, scoring 10 points in 19 minutes off the bench.
Zacharie Matulu grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds for UAlbany, but the Shaker High product managed just five points on 2-of-10 shooting. Freshman forward U-Mier Graham, a Green Tech graduate, started the game and scored seven points before fouling out in the second half. Senior Abdoulaye Fall, starting the season on a minutes restriction, had four points in eight minutes and didn’t play in the second half.
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While the Great Danes got 29 bench points, 26 of those came from the duo of Jones and Bussing. UAlbany’s other four reserves – Miles Rose, Moustapha Ndao, Papa Kounta and Wilkin Paulino – combined for just three points.
Meanwhile, Troy Santos scored a game-high 30 points for Rhode Island College and the Anchormen shot 10-of-25 from 3-point range – including 6-of-15 after halftime – en route to outscoring UAlbany 36-15 over the game’s final 13:11.
“We got up 28 with 13 minutes left in the game … and you could see from their body language, they were starting to have a good time,” Killings said. “I think what Rhode Island College did is they kept playing and kept executing. … We lost our focus.”
Up next for UAlbany is a Thursday evening road game against Manhattan in the America East-Metro Challenge, followed by a home game Sunday against Merrimack.
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This article originally published at UAlbany men’s basketball stumbles down stretch, but still wins season opener.
