Ben Bentil has been on the Big East Weekly Honor Roll twice this season, but he has now moved up the list and was named Big East Player of the Week on Monday. Bentil had a career-high 32 points in Providence’s lone game last week at UMass. The Providence sophomore also had 12 rebounds, marking his 3rd double-double of the season. Bentil is currently leading the league in scoring (18.8 points/game) and is 6th in rebounding (8.0 rebounds/game). He is having a breakout season alongside Kris Dunn and is arguably as big a reason for Providence’s 12-1 start and top 10 national ranking as Dunn at this point in the season. Bentil winning this award snaps a 3 week streak of Butler players taking home the weekly honor.
Ben Bentil’s star has been on the rise since the Providence Friars went out West over Thanksgiving weekend. Since Bentil set a career-high with 24 points in Providence’s opening round win over Evansville in the Wooden Legacy Tournament on Thanksgiving night, the sophomore from Delaware — by way of Ghana — has been on a tear of 20 point scoring efforts. Bentil scored 21 points in Providence’s blowout win against Hartford on Tuesday night at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center and followed that up by notching a game-high 23 points, including the game-winning tip-in as time expired against in-state rival Rhode Island on Saturday night.
The Big East had a very successful week as a league during “Feast Week”. There were 4 Big East teams that won their respective holiday tournaments (Creighton, Marquette, Villanova and Xavier) and Providence finished 2nd in the Wooden Legacy Tournament. Through the first few weeks of the season the Big East is 45-14 (.763) against non-league opponents. On Monday, the Big East released their weekly awards and for the second time in three weeks the Big East Player of the Week is Kris Dunn.
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