'Saders can't solve Rams; Winless streak reaches 4 games.

• Position: SPORTS

Byline: Paul Jarvey

KINGSTON, R.I. - Holy Cross started a three-game cross-country road trip yesterday, but the Crusaders have already visited a place none of the players had ever seen before.

After losing 92-75 to Rhode Island in the Rams' home opener at the Ryan Center, HC finds itself at 0-4 for the first time since the 1984-85 season and just the fourth time in school history.

The Crusaders, who play at UNLV on Wednesday and at Western Michigan on Saturday, have been 0-5 just once, 1940-41 under Ed "Moose" Krause when they lost their first seven games and finished 4-7.

The 92 points was the most HC has given up since allowing 112 to New Mexico on Dec. 29, 1997. The most the Crusaders yielded in the Ralph Willard era was 91 in an overtime victory over Colgate in 2003.

Suffice to say, this wasn't the kind of start new coach Sean Kearney was hoping for.

He has the Crusaders playing more of an up-tempo style this season. The problem yesterday is that Rhode Island played even faster, pressing full-court and running at every opportunity.

Kearney said it seemed at times like the Rams had seven players on the court and he was surprised to look on the stat sheet and see that HC had only 10 turnovers. He thought there were a lot more.

"We kind of gave in to the style they want to play, up and down," said Andrew Keister who led HC with 21 points and had a game-high 11 rebounds. "One of our keys was to not let them dictate the tempo. We didn't do a good job of that. We have to focus on that a little better."

The Crusaders had a decent shooting game (47 percent, although just 54 percent from the free-throw line), but they gave up too many easy hoops at the other end.

"We're just trying to find where we're at, find that little thing that's going to help us," said Andrew Beinert who scored 14 points on 6-for-10 shooting. "We need to play defense. We know the only way we're going to win is to play defense. You can't give up 92...