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Henton Scores 35 in Win Over Creighton

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The Big East’s opening day marathon was another opportunity for LaDontae Henton to remind the league’s coaches that they made a mistake in all league voting in the preseason.

With all ten Big East teams taking to the floor, Henton was the league’s best player on the first day of conference play — and it wasn’t all that close.

In Providence’s 65-53 victory over Creighton, PC’s senior put on a show, scoring 35 points on 12-21 shooting. He played the full 40 minutes, grabbed eight rebounds, blocked a shot, made three 3-pointers, came up with a steal and didn’t turn the ball over once.

Henton was left off of the Big East coaches’ preseason 1st Team, but he’s been as productive as any player in the league to this point. He entered this game leading the league in points per game, and over the last four games he’s had scoring outputs of 19, 27, 25 and now 35 points — shooting over 50% in each of those games. He’s made over 50% of his field goal attempts in 8 of the Friars’ 14 games this season.

If the league needed a reminder of Henton’s snub, head coach Ed Cooley is always ready to serve it up, “For him not to be a preseason Big East 1st Team selection is a joke and I’m not going to let anyone forget it, especially him.”

Providence has now won five straight games, and the play of Henton and point guard Kris Dunn are the biggest reasons why. It’s not coincidental that Henton has been at his best when Dunn has it going as well, and the duo was in sync against the Bluejays.

Foul trouble might have been the only thing keeping Dunn from his first triple double of the season. He finished with 12 assists, eight rebounds and six points, and repeatedly found Henton in transition for easy baskets.

Over his last three games Dunn has 36 assists, 10 steals and 18 rebounds.

Cooley lauded Dunn for his preparation and his “big time maturity” after the win. Cooley believes the best is still to come for Dunn. That’s a scary thought for Big East opponents considering how well Dunn is playing, and the positive impact he’s having on his teammates.

Wednesday’s win over Creighton was the third straight victory in which Providence controlled the game in the second half. Creighton led this game for just 23 seconds, and while Henton’s explosion will make headlines, Cooley thought his team’s defensive effort was the key.

Providence shut down Austin Chatman (3-11 shooting), held Creighton to 27% shooting in the second half, and limited the Jays to just 23% from 3-point range on the night.

PC hasn’t lost since their embarrassing stumble against Brown on Dec. 8. In fact, the Friars have defeated four of those five opponents by double figures and the closest game was a 68-60 victory over Rhode Island.

It’s been a dominating stretch for the Friars and they’ll hope to carry this momentum to Milwaukee this weekend when they visit Marquette.

Twitter: Kevin_Farrahar

Email: kevin.farrahar@friarbasketball.com

9 Comments

  1. Derec Lamendola

    January 1, 2015 at 7:15 am

    THIS GAME TIME GET YOUR GAME FACE ON LET’S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO LaDoNte Henton Weeeek We Need zthis And Derec Lamendol GOT BE ON YOUBTE And I TElling Ypu Wing Streeek This Year We Needd This BIG East

  2. Brian Shortsleeve

    January 1, 2015 at 7:47 am

    Go get em!!

  3. Joshua Michael Corrente

    January 1, 2015 at 11:50 am

    Great win- congratulations Coach Cooley-

  4. Nancy Noon Cronin

    January 1, 2015 at 2:08 pm

    Big East coaches need to wake up and take another look!

  5. John Cappuccilli

    January 1, 2015 at 3:42 pm

    He was awesome last night!! Who cares about preseason polls and rankings?! I venture to bet Cooley and Company love being under the radar.

  6. Ross Riordan

    January 1, 2015 at 4:51 pm

    Kris Dunn can play a little huh

  7. Mike Mckenna

    January 1, 2015 at 4:58 pm

    Great win!! Go Friars!

  8. Hamilkarr Roldan

    January 1, 2015 at 7:12 pm

    Anthony Roman

  9. Michael Trenn

    January 1, 2015 at 10:25 pm

    The Coaches will come to realize the magnitude of their mistake, in the fullness of time.

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