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Cotton’s Top 10 Games: #1 Career Night vs Carolina

CottonUNClayup

Friarbasketball.com takes a look back at the top ten games of Bryce Cotton’s senior season.

Game: March 21 versus North Carolina

Why it is #1: Cotton gave Providence fans everything in his senior season: playing more minutes per game than anyone in the country, sliding over to point guard when Kris Dunn went down (topping the Big East in assists in the process), and ultimately winning the school’s first Big East title in 20 years and leading PC the NCAA Tournament after a 10 year hiatus.

Just when it seemed like Cotton gave Friar fans everything, he had one final gift against North Carolina. The Tarheels weren’t in the midst of a vintage UNC season heading into the 2014 Tournament, but they’d won 12 of their last 13 regular season games, and featured Marcus Paige — a 6’3 McDonald’s All American point guard who’d recently been named 1st Team All ACC.

Paige, like his Carolina teammates, were supposed to be too much for PC — too much size, too much talent, too much athleticism, too much history. Roy Williams’ teams had never lost in their first NCAA Tournament game, but they were on the ropes against the Friars, trailing by seven with under five minutes to play.

Cotton was a huge reason why.

The PC senior saved the greatest performance of his career for the biggest stage, scoring a career-high 36 points (13-23 FGs, 7-7 FTs) with eight assists, five rebounds and one of the most memorable steals in Providence history.

Cotton_steal on Make A Gif

Ultimately, it wasn’t enough, as PC fell 79-77, but Cotton played the best postseason game of any Friar since 1997, scoring on an array of floaters, three pointers and layups.

“Bryce Cotton played one of the best games I’ve ever had anybody play against us,” Williams said afterwards. “My whole thought defensively was what can we do to stop him?”

The answer was nothing, but Carolina did just enough to advance.

It was a heart-breaking loss for Cotton and the Friars, but if he was going to bow out in defeat this was certainly the way to do so.

Here’s a look back at Cotton’s amazing performance, which was the talk of the first weekend of the tournament.

Twitter: @Kevin_Farrahar

Email: kevin.farrahar@friarbasketball.com

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