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PC Outscores Maine Behind Batts, Cotton

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Bryce Cotton scored 19 of his 22 points in the first half, Tyler Harris had 18 on 8-11 shooting and Kadeem Batts added an efficient (10-13) 22, as Providence improved to 10-2 by beating Maine 94-70. Batts crossed the 1,000 point mark for his career — making him the 47th Friar in school history to reach the milestone.

This was a two possession game after 10 minutes, but Providence closed the first half on a 32-13 run. Cotton was phenomenal early, making seven of his nine shots, passing for six assists and coming up with three steals.

Providence dominated on the glass, grabbing 22 offensive rebounds and doubling up the Black Bears 46-23, with Batts leading PC with 11 offensive rebounds.

For all of the offensive numbers, Ed Cooley’s focus in the post-game was the defensive lapses that have begun to creep up over the past two games and how his group continues to navigate its way through adversity.

Of particular concern to Cooley was a second half in which Maine shot 57% from the field — this coming on the heels of allowing Yale to shoot an almost unimaginable 68% in the second half on Tuesday.

Part of the problem is a lack of guards, forcing the likes of 6’9 Tyler Harris to cover 6’3 guards, while the other part is a lack of determination according to the coach: “We’re playing against all of these guards that are very quick, so I’m trying to get our guys to use our length rather than our foot-speed because we lack foot-speed at some of the perimeter positions… but you have to be gritty. Defense is an attitude. Rebounding is an attitude. You don’t have to be the most skilled person to be a really good defensive player. You have to have a mindset of wanting to do it.”

It’s a message being echoed by senior forward Kadeem Batts, who said he needs to be more vocal on that end of the floor, “It can’t always come from Coach. Players like me and Cotton need to be more vocal and dig in deep to try and get stops.”

It came back to the term grit on several occasions for Cooley, who noted that he was pleased with how his team moved the ball offensively, but clearly the defensive effort will have to improve soon, as there are no more Maines left on this schedule.

In fact, Providence’s next game comes against a Massachusetts team that has one of the best RPI’s in the country, despite losing Saturday to Florida State in Florida. For a team that’s struggled to keep guards out of the paint, slowing UMass point guard Chaz Williams will be a considerable challenge.

“We’re as ready as we’re gonna be. I’m excited about it,” said Cooley. He also added at the end of the press conference, “We’re going to have to be really, really gritty defensively.”

The road trip to UMass is PC’s final non-conference test, closing out a 13 game stretch in which Cooley and his staff have had to mix and match lineup combinations due to the aforementioned adversity.

Cooley’s message to his team in the locker room afterwards? “There’s a lot of people who want to be in the seat that we’re in right now; unfortunately we’ve had to deal with deaths, we’ve had to deal with a lot of adversity, but enjoy the moment because you can’t get these moments back.”

Going forward, every game and every moment will be a big one.

 

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