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Jackpot: Henton Goes Off at Mohegan

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LaDontae Henton was so good in Sunday’s 75-74 victory over Notre Dame that he nearly brought Ed Cooley to tears. There’s seemingly been a special bond between the coach and his first Providence recruit since Henton stepped foot on campus, and Cooley was very emotional when speaking about him after the Friars’ fourth win of the season.

“Today when the final buzzer went off I had to recollect on when LaDontae first committed to us — when he was our first recruit. I’m proud of him. I’m really, really proud of him. He’s grown up, I’ve seen him become a man.

I’m sentimental because of how much I’ve seen this kid grow,” said Cooley.

This was Henton at his finest — 38 points on 14-19 from the field, 4-8 from 3, 6-7 at the free throw line and 40 minutes played.

This had all the makings of a hard luck loss. Freshman Jalen Lindsey went down with an ankle injury after connecting on a 3 pointer (making him 6-7 from deep this weekend) and did not return. Then Kris Dunn sat much of the second half with four fouls, injured his knee in the final minutes and had to sit at a critical juncture.

When Notre Dame ripped off an 11-2 run to take a 66-58 lead with just over five minutes remaining the Friars looked to be on the brink of their first loss, but Henton and his teammates had other plans.

Carson Desrosiers sank four free throws in those final five minutes, Dunn scored on a beautiful spin move, Tyler Harris (an efficient 17 on 7-13 shooting) countered an Irish 3 with a short jumper, and then Henton carried them home.

The Lansing native scored nine points in the game’s final 3:28, including a 3 pointer to give the Friars a 73-71 lead with 43 seconds left, and a pair of free throws to make it 75-74 with 14 ticks on the clock.

And when Notre Dame had a shot in the final seconds to win, it was Henton deflecting it away.

How’s this for efficiency? Providence didn’t miss a field goal over the final four minutes of the game, they made 56% of their shots on the afternoon and 92% from the free throw line. All of those numbers would have been moot had Henton not strapped on the Superman cape.

“Henton was fabulous. We tried a little bit of everything, but we couldn’t stop him,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said afterwards.

It was an effort that brought back other memories for Cooley, who reflected on a tape PC assistant coach Bob Simon showed him of Henton going off in similar fashion in high school, “He had one of those games where I’m like ‘wow, this kid has a chance to come to Providence?”

“There’s nobody in the country I want next to me more than LaDontae Henton,” said Cooley.

That’s for good reason. The bigger the shot, the more likely Henton is to make it.

The Friars are 5-0.

Email: kevin.farrahar@friarbasketball.com

Twitter: Kevin_Farrahar

23 Comments

  1. Carole Gianola

    November 23, 2014 at 10:54 pm

    The Best!!!

  2. Sean Lenahan

    November 23, 2014 at 10:56 pm

    So many buckets!

  3. John Whetstone

    November 23, 2014 at 10:56 pm

    The Beast!!!

  4. John Allen

    November 23, 2014 at 10:58 pm

    Friars are actually 5-0

  5. Christopher Macli

    November 23, 2014 at 11:11 pm

    Beast of the Big East

  6. Michael Graham Adamowicz

    November 23, 2014 at 11:13 pm

    Henton is the Man!

  7. Clif Colwell

    November 23, 2014 at 11:18 pm

    🙂

  8. Mario Teixeira

    November 23, 2014 at 11:27 pm

    HENTON OF THE YEAR

  9. James Adams

    November 23, 2014 at 11:28 pm

    Coach Cooley is the best recruiting job the Friars completed , if they didn’t sing him when he was available then we probably wouldn’t have the excitement we have around here ! Keep up the good work!

    #friartown

  10. Michael Caldwell

    November 23, 2014 at 11:48 pm

    It takes talent and a great coach to coach them up P.C. Has both

  11. Casey Arnold

    November 24, 2014 at 12:11 am

    Great game today!

  12. Jim Jaques

    November 24, 2014 at 12:19 am

    Great performance. I can’t stop saying LADONTAE.

  13. Jim Jaques

    November 24, 2014 at 12:19 am

    Great performance. I can’t stop saying LADONTAE.

  14. Ronnie Coelho

    November 24, 2014 at 12:43 am

    Frairs are fun to watch! Disciplined & well coached! Keep it going

  15. Raymond Wolslegel

    November 24, 2014 at 1:18 am

    We are the best team in the ACC and the Big East #pcbb

  16. Jack Durkan

    November 24, 2014 at 1:25 am

    LaDontae Henton’s greatest college game thus far. Fantastic offensive performance. PC would have lost this game by at least 10 points as they were playing against a great team that is excellent and our defense was unable to stop them from driving to the basket except once they stopped them near games end and it changed ND’s momentum. When PC is pushed by a good team, the defense must stop these easy baskets. Good teams see a major Achilles heal in our defensive effort and they attack it over and over. Fix this problem this week or KY will not be a pleasant trip. Congratulations team with the tremendous effort exerted and the great win in this important tournament.

  17. Allan Petteruto

    November 24, 2014 at 1:26 am

    thank God for the dayton coach who left !!

  18. Derec Lamendola

    November 24, 2014 at 2:20 am

    That’s Right LET’S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BIG East Providence College Friars Will GO Friara We Shrd Be Kitcktike We Shrd PC TOP 25 This IS MY BOUHTER Year

  19. Thomas Walters Jr

    November 24, 2014 at 4:44 am

    I like it ! heart and soul-good day to score big !

  20. Bill Howard

    November 24, 2014 at 3:08 pm

    It was one of the must exciting PC games I ever attended. Looking forward to Sunday’s game against Kentucky with a lot more enthusiasm.

  21. Timothy Rogers

    November 24, 2014 at 5:29 pm

    Henton can put this team on his shoulders especially with the experience of his supporting cast,Harris,Desrosiers, Dunn and Cartwright,Lindsey, will b great guard rotation. Bentil, Lomomba, and our other twin tower pachuka coming off bench,deep team

  22. Stephen Cole

    November 24, 2014 at 9:31 pm

    Long time coming

  23. Domenic Zannella

    November 25, 2014 at 1:36 pm

    I always believed he was a great player but I never guessed he could be this kind of scorer

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