A swarming PC defense carried the day in a win over Villanova (Photos: Louriann Mardo-Zayat)
By KEVIN McNAMARA
PROVIDENCE – Did anyone really believe that the Providence Friars could lose a basketball game with Billy Donovan, Delray Brooks and many other legends from the 1980s at the Amica Mutual Pavilion?
No chance.
The Friars snapped their four-game losing streak in emphatic fashion Saturday, shooting treys and playing some lock-down defense in a 75-62 win over Villanova. While the style was not exactly the run-and-shoot, press and pray style that Billy the Kid and his teammates deployed during their 1987 Final Four run, it was good enough on this night. The Friars made nine threes in the first half to open a 36-24 lead and finished with 13-of-27 (48%) shooting from downtown.
After the Friars’ shootaround, Donovan addressed the team. The Chicago Bulls head coach was in town to have his jersey retired and provided the players a message about battling adversity.
“It definitely hit home, we came together and really rallied around that,” said guard Jayden Pierre, who led all scorers with 19 points, five threes and four assists. “We have to cherish these moments and the games we have left together. We want to embrace this adversity, come through it and be able to say that we gave it our all.”
Billy Donovan surrounded by his teammates and PC President Rev. Kenneth Sicard
The Friars came out firing, pushing the tempo and making 3-point shots. PC made three of its first five treys, six of nine and finished nine of 16 to never trail the entire game. Pierre scored the game’s first points with a 3-pointer, backcourt mate Bensley Joseph (17 points, 6 assists) and wing Rich Barron (9 points, three treys) all shot the ball with confidence.
“A lot of credit goes to Providence,” said Villanova coach Kyle Neptune. “They threw a hard punch at us and we never recovered.”
Villanova was coming off a home win over the Big East’s first place team, St. John’s. The Wildcats fall to 15-11 overall and 8-7 in the league. Providence is now 12-14 and 6-9 in the Big East with a trip to Georgetown up next.
The Friars played without Corey Floyd (concussion protocol) and Wesley Cardet (leg). Those two are the only injured players who could return this season.
“I think it was the toughness we have,” Joseph said when asked about the strong start. “Back to the wall, soldiers down. We still have enough to compete and get the job done.”
Asked about the team’s confidence, Pierre said “we’re in a good spot. I feel like this week in practice we set a great tone which led into the game today. That’s something we will continue to do. Me and Bensley, as older guys, harp on that knowing we need to keep the momentum going. We play confident.”
The Friars limited the nation’s leading scorer, Eric Dixon, to just 15 points. Dixon shot 6-of-15 from the floor and made just one of his seven 3-point tries. Freshman Oswin Erhunmwunse did a good job bothering Dixon and making his catches be uncomfortable.
“As a team we all know how good of a player he is, big-time shooter,” Joseph said. “We just tried to make everything tough for him. Oswin’s not alone. We wanted to make sure we had four other Friar jerseys in front of him and make Dixon feel us on the defensive end. I thought we did a great job of holding him to what he had tonight.”
Kim English began his post-game remarks with some words about his exit after getting ejected from the Xavier game earlier this week. After official Brent Hampton gave him his second technical with 18 minutes left in the game, English was seen barking at the refs as he was pulled off the court.
“After my ejection I had choice words for one of the game refs,” English said, “and I just want to be clear. It’s never my intention to put our college, our conference or our athletic department in a negative light.”
