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PC Cruises to Victory against Stonehill

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Providence College cruised to a 93-49 victory over the Stonehill Skyhawks Saturday afternoon before a crowd of 4,234 at the Dunkin Donuts Center. Tyler Harris led PC in scoring with 19 points as five Friars scored in double figures. Harris also led the Friars in rebounding with eight. Freshman point guard Kyron Cartwright finished with 18 points and handed out four assists. Other double figure scorers for the Friars were LaDontae Henton (16 points), Kris Dunn (13 points, seven rebounds, and five assists), and  Ben Bentil (13 points and seven rebounds). Carter Smith led Stonehill with 14 points.

Below are some takeaways from the first time seeing this year’s Friars in live game action.

  • Picking up Kyron Cartwright last spring after he decommitted from Loyola Marymount is going to turn out to be a real steal. He is definitely a high major player and is only going to get better. Kyron has a nice shooting stroke, is cat like quick, and has very good court vision for a point guard. There are going to be some Pac 12 schools kicking themselves for not recruiting him harder.
  • The Friars aren’t going to be as good a three point shooting team as last year but they are not going to be awful either. Six different Friars made at least one three pointer against Stonehill as they went 8-19 from beyond the arc. Obviously you have to consider the competition, but early impressions are that PC may have the ability to make teams pay if they pack in a zone defense against them.
  • One of the problems for the Friars last year was that PC’s big guys (Carson Desrosiers and Kadeem Batts) were prone to foul trouble. Unfortunately, it may be more of the same this year as Paschal Chukwu had three fouls and Desrosiers had two by halftime. Hopefully they will work on this and be less foul prone as the season progresses.
  • Dunn was the best athlete out on the court and he showed no ill effects from his shoulder injuries. He still has to shake off some rust, but you can easily see why he was a McDonald’s All American in high school. When commenting on Dunn after the game Cooley said “Kris is as athletic and talented as any guard in the country.”
  • The other freshmen all had spurts where they showed why they were ranked in the Top 100 recrutis coming out of high school. Ben Bentil is an absolute beast and an incredible athlete. He had a put back dunk in the second half that was amazing. Jalen Lindsey is still not 100% back after suffering a dislocated finger that makes it tough for him to shoot the ball, but you can tell he has all the tools to be a big time high major wing player. Chukwu needs to put on some weight, but has a world of potential and runs the court incredibly well for someone his size. These guys are going to be part of a very special class by the time they are through at Providence College.
  • Ed Cooley finally has a bench. Expect the Friars to go nine deep this year without having a fall off in talent. After the game Cooley said “Our first three years we were building a program and then you have all these injuries — it is tough. It is going to be nice to be able to substitute a lot and not have to worry about it. Our substitution pattern is good so our depth will help us.”
  • Expect Dunn and Cartwright to spend significant minutes on the court together this year. Cooley has often said he’d like to have more than one ball handler on the floor at the same time. Kris and Kyron spent quite of bit of time on the court together today and looked very effective.
  • Just how tall are the Friars this year? At one point during the game the Friars had a lineup on the floor which included 7’2 Chukwu, 7’0 Desroisers, 6’9 Harris, and the 6’7 Lindsey. Yikes!
  • The crowd was a little better than expected at around 4200, and there was a nice student turnout. The PC administration made an outstanding change this year as they moved the band to the other side of the arena to be with the students. They should be able to fire up the students when the meaningful games start.
  • PC starts the regular season next Saturday hosting Albany University at the Dunk. Game time is at 7:00, but fans should arrive early as the Big East Championship banner will be unveiled before the game. The first 5000 fans will also receive PC Big East Championship t shirts.

 

email Craig at Craig.Leighton@friarbasketball.com

follow Craig on Twitter: @CraigL78

2 Comments

  1. Jeremy Nunes

    November 9, 2014 at 2:21 am

    Nice write up Craig, my thoughts exactly

  2. Victor Ellingsen

    November 9, 2014 at 6:39 pm

    So you beat up on a Division II school that had a losing record last year. Congratulations.

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