Marshon Brooks scored 26 points and Vincent Council added 17 points and 10 assists as Providence defeated Rhode Island 87-74 on Saturday.
Bilal Dixon set a career high with six blocks, and also had 12 rebounds for the Friars (8-1).
Delroy James scored 25 points for the Rams (5-3), and teammate Marquis Jones added 15 points.
James spent nearly half of the first 20 minutes on the bench with foul trouble, but still scored 14 points in the half.
A 17-4 Providence run midway through the half opened up a 12-point lead for the Friars but nine points from James in a little more than two minutes cut the Friars' lead to 43-39 at the half.
The Friars made 18 of 22 second-half free throws (81.8 percent) and put together a 15-3 run to stretch their lead to 16 points, but URI's bench began to heat up, as Daniel West and Nikola Malesevic combined for 23 points and brought the deficit back into single digits.
Poor ball-handling down the stretch resulted in several Rhode Island turnovers and prevented the Rams from closing in on the lead any further.
Providence had four scorers with at least 12 points and shot 48 percent from the field to Rhode Island's 39 percent. An alley-oop from Council to Coleman with 36 seconds remaining got the crowd on its feet and earned Council, a sophomore, his second career double-double.
The game was the 121st meeting in 90 years between the instate rivals, who have each played the other team more than any other opponent.
