Friar Basketball

Huge PC Comeback Falls Short

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On a night where PC students finally answered the call, the Friars almost forgot to show up. Trailing by as much as 23 points, Providence was nearly driven out of their own building by a 7th place St. John’s team. A 16-0 scoring run, in the second half, helped save the blow-out but the Friars eventually fell to the Johnnies by a score of 86-76.

In the games first twenty minutes St. John’s came out firing and quickly grew an 18-6 lead. It seemed as though every shot that St. John’s threw up was going in. Not only were they converting from mid-range and deeper, the Johnnies were also dominating the paint. Through the game’s first seven minutes, the Red Storm had already outscored PC under the basket 20-2. PC wound up taking a 16 point deficit with them into half time, and Ed Cooley was left scratching his head for answers.

Coming out of the intermission things didn’t get any better. After St. John’s converted on two early shots, the lead was stretched to 20. At the 14:50 mark, St. John’s owned their largest lead of the game at 23. Just when it seemed as though Ed Cooley and the Friars were ready to throw in the towel, everything changed.

Rattling off 16 straight points, the Friars kept St. John’s from finding the basket for just over 6 minutes. During those 6 minutes, Bryce Cotton scored 9 of his game high 32 points. At the end of the run, PC trailed by just 7.

Despite the second half resurgence, the closest PC would come to capturing the lead would be 6. Ed Cooley attempted to extend the game by beginning the foul game at the 1:43 mark but it was too little, too late. Providence’s 15 turnovers were the killer.

St. John’s improved to 4-6 in the Big East with Tuesday’s victory and have now won two straight. D’Angelo Harrison and JaKarr Sampson both recorded over 20 points as Harrison finished with 22 and Sampson with 21.

Outside of Cotton’s Big East career high in points, Batts added 15 points and 10 rebounds.

Now at 6-4 in conference, PC will travel to Ohio to take on a struggling Xavier team this Saturday afternoon.

Email Craig Belhumeur – craig.belhumeur@friarbasketball.com
Craig on Twitter – @Craig_Belhumeur

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