Ed Cooley was just happy that his Friars got the win against Albany on opening night at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center on Saturday night. “We didn’t have our best team day,” Cooley said after the game. Cooley continued, “I thought today’s win was a culture win. I think our culture won today.  We’ve played in so many close games over the years, particularly with LaDontae [Henton] and Tyler [Harris] we just found a way to win.”

The first half was marred by poor shooting by the Friars as they only managed 31.3% on 10/32 from the floor. Even more alarming was the horrid percentage they shot from the free throw line, a strength of last year’s team. The Friars missed 7 free throws of the 11 they attempted in the first 20 minutes of play. That 4/11 performance translates to 36.4%. Not pretty. Albany took a 27-26 lead heading into the locker room. LaDontae Henton led the Friars with 11 first half points but got those on 4/12 shooting from the floor. Peter Hooley led the Great Danes with 9 points.

The second half started off better for the Friars as the crowd started to get into the game after not having a lot to cheer about in the first half. One key sequence that got the crowd into the game began with a steal by LaDontae Henton that led to a Tyler Harris three pointer to tie the game at 33 with 17:08 left in the second half. That tie was the 5th of the night and it would be the last time the teams were tied as they traded 1 point leads for much of the second half. In total, there were 11 lead changes.

Providence took the lead for good at the 4:30 mark after LaDontae Henton hit a jumper to put the Friars ahead 54-53. Albany had pulled the lead back from 4 to 2 with just over 2 minutes remaining. The two teams would trade missed three point shot attempts before Harris would connect from downtown with 48 seconds in the game to “close the game out” as Cooley put it during his postgame press conference. That gave Providence a 5 point lead which would be cut to two when Kris Dunn stepped up to the free throw line with 32 seconds on the clock.

Dunn was 0/5 from the field at that point and had missed 2 earlier free throw attempts but he calmly knocked down those crucial shots from the charity stripe to get the lead back to 4. After that Dunn fouled Hooley who hit a pair of free throws but the Friars were able to break the Albany press and play keep away long enough to run 12 precious seconds off the clock before Harris was fouled with 6 seconds remaining. Harris knocked both of those free throws down to seal the victory for Providence on opening night.

Cooley called his team a “work in progress.” Cooley finished his opening remarks this way: “We have a long way to go as I’ve been telling everybody. This is a different team and hopefully we’ll improve as we continue to play.”

Cooley and the Friars won’t have to wait long for their next opportunity to improve as they welcome Binghamton to the Dunk Monday night at 9pm as the first of 4 games they will play as part of the Hall of Fame Tipoff.

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