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Rapid Reaction: Maryland Takes Title, 56-52

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With a wake up call coming in just over three hours, here are rapid reaction thoughts to Providence’s 56-52 loss to Maryland in the finals of the Paradise Jam.

How the game was won. For all of the positives to come out of this weekend, Providence’s offense is still a work in progress. They’ve benefitted from tremendous free throw shooting (82% as a team coming in), doing damage on the offensive glass, and making clutch shots, but Ed Cooley could not have been happy with his team once again falling in love with the jump shot early. The Friars made just 27% of their shots from the field, and 18% from deep, as PC’s shot selection was brutal throughout much of this one.

Providence scored just two points over the final 7:30 of the first half, and then went another 4:21 in the second before getting on the scoreboard again. PC trailed by as many as 19 with approximately 12 minutes left, but as was there M.O. on this trip, they finally turned this game into a rock fight from that point on and pulled to within two with 1:31 remaining when Bryce Cotton hit a corner 3, and was fouled, to make it 51-49.

Maryland’s Dez Wells countered with a difficult floater over Kadeem Batts with a minute left and the Terps closed it out from there, despite Cotton once again making it a two point game with a toe-on-the-line jumper with 30 seconds left. That shot would have cut the Maryland lead to one if he’d been half a foot deeper. Wells made both free throws on the next possession to push it to four once again, and the game was all but over at that point.

Wells too much to handle. It seemed whenever Maryland needed a basket Wells came up with it for them. He scored eight points over the final seven minutes, including the aforementioned floater and two critical free throws to make it a two possession game with 22 seconds remaining.

Ugliness all around. LaDontae Henton (5-11 shooting) found success taking the ball inside against the likes of Evan Smotrycz, but virtually every other Friar struggled to connect. Aside from Henton and Cotton (6-17), the rest of the roster combined for just five field goals on 31 shots.

Fatigue setting in? Prior to the trip, Cooley said he was worried about how his team’s legs would hold up playing three games in four days. Maryland wasn’t much better tonight (36% from the floor, 4-13 from 3) and it’s fair to question if either team’s legs were up for the physical demands of so many games in such a short span this early in the season. It was sloppy from the start for Providence.

Willing their way back. The belief here is that the offense is going to come. Providence may not have a player like Wells who Cooley can just clear it out and watch him physically impose his will off of the dribble, but there are enough options on this team to be a good offensive club come conference play. What’s encouraging is the will of a team that was not only struggling to make shots, but was facing an opponent that had both physically challenged them in certain positions (Wells at the 1, the center position) and played the game at a pace early that no Friar opponent had set this year.

Frustration was visibly mounting on both the bench and with the players throughout, as PC looked discombobulated at times; yet they very well could have pulled this one out if not for the clutch play of Wells, who made every Maryland field goal but one over the final 12 minutes.

What’s next? Providence returns home tomorrow and takes on Fairfield on Friday afternoon. A win there and they head to Brooklyn at 7-1 with the season’s marquee matchup coming against Kentucky on Sunday.

The trip didn’t end as Cooley and the Friars had hoped, but they came back up 16 down in the opener, 10 down in the semis and were within a basket in the final two minutes after trailing by 19 nearly halfway through the second half.

It wasn’t always pretty in St. Thomas, but the Friars never stopped battling. Tonight will sting, but there were far more positives to take away from this weekend than negatives.

 

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