This Thoughts from the Road: Standing Around in a Bar Edition is brought to you by Vince asking for the foul situation every few minutes and is fueled by boneless wings at Croxley’s Ale House in Farmingdale.
Providence started slow, clawed back into the game, went on a second half run to open up an 8-point lead and then went cold and allowed Marquette back into the game. That’s a pretty simple summary of the action in Providence’s game against Marquette on January 5th. It was another slow start for Ed Cooley’s group, as the Friars trailed, 7-0, 4+ minutes into the game before they scored their first basket at the 15:40 mark of the first half on a Kris Dunn layup. Prior to that, there were 4 turnovers and 5 missed field goals. Slow starts are going to be a lot harder to overcome in Big East play and with a fairly short rotation it will be asking a lot for Providence’s core players to expend energy every night coming back from early deficits.
Providence got off to a slow start and after coming back to go up by 8 in the second half, couldn’t put Marquette away. The Golden Eagles finished the game on a 15-6 run.
Ben Bentil was Providence’s main scoring cog, doing a lot of his damage at the free throw line where he went 10/10. Bentil finished with 28 points and 9 rebounds.
Kris Dunn played solid but had some critical turnovers and mental errors. He finished with 17 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds.
Haanif Cheatham led Marquette with 16 points and appeared to be able to get to the rim at will against a Providence defense that clearly showed a lack of rim protection tonight against Marquette’s drives.
Henry Ellenson finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds, a few points shy of his average but right on the nose for rebounds. He had a big block to close things out.
Free throws for everyone not named Bentil were an issue and could have been the difference in the game. Dunn was 3/6 and Bullock was 1/2.
Bullock had a solid rebounding total at 9 boards but never seemed to get into any offensive rythym. He had 8 points on 3/11 from the field.
Duane Wilson hit the game-winner for the Golden Eagles on a tough drive where he finished through some contact from Bullock.
Marquette gets their first Big East win of the season and its on the road against the #8 team in the country.
Providence falls to 2-1 in league play.
The Friars return to action on January 12th against Creighton at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha at 8:30pm EST. The game will be televised on Fox Sports 1.
This Thoughts from the Road is brought to you by nachos and pizza from Trinity Brewhouse and is fueled by the hospitality of the Smerkers and their insanely comfortable couch.
Before I get into my thoughts from the actual game against St. John’s, I want to share a text I got from my buddy Charlie: “I think the bandwagon is finally full for this team.” Chaz is right on with that thought. Downtown Providence was absolutely hopping on Saturday. Murphy’s filled up by noon and the wait for a table at Trinity approached an hour. When this season started, Providence vs. St. John’s on a Saturday afternoon of New Year’s weekend being a sellout was not something I would have expected. That’s exactly what happened. Ed Cooley told people he was going to light Providence on fire. If you haven’t gotten onboard, as Cooley suggested, you’re late.
The Dunkin’ Donuts Center was packed for Providence’s Big East home opener against St. John’s. The crowd was a sellout and was pretty loud during the first half. The second half being dominated by whistles certainly stemmed some of the momentum, but overall the crowd was very good.
Kris Dunn showed why all the seats were filled. The Friar star was excellent, hitting step-back 3-pointers and setting teammates up for open looks all afternoon. Dunn finished with a game-high 26 points on 9/17 shooting and added 9 rebounds and 6 assists.
Kyron Cartwright was a big part of Providence building a 43-31 halftime lead. Cartwright was a blur with the ball and had a stretch where he propelled his team to easy buckets. He finished with 11 points on 4/6 shooting.
Ben Bentil was held at bay for large chunks of this game, but the improving big man got going with some buckets inside. He also was 8/9 from the free throw line in the game. Bentil was a rebound shy of a double-double. He had 20 points and 9 rebounds.
Providence figures to jump back into the top 10 in the AP poll after opening Big East play 2-0 with a road win against 9th ranked Butler to start league play off.
The Friars return to action on January 5th against Marquette at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center at 7:00pm EST. The game will be televised on Fox Sports 1.
This post will serve as the recap and Thoughts from the Road: Church Pew Edition. I attended a wedding during the game and was following the game tracker on my phone, during the mass — sorry I’m not sorry Bridget — and only got a chance to actually watch the game on New Year’s Day. Big thanks to FriarTVfor having the recap available at his site.
This Thoughts from the Road: Couch Edition is brought to you from the very comfortable blue couch at my parent’s house. It was powered by a chicken parm from Rustica and aided by the company of my mom and Declan. With Big East play on the horizon, I am planning to have some more actual Thoughts from the Road that involve me driving to Providence and attending games in person. Stay tuned in 2016.
pcbb1917.com - Providence College Basketball 