Friar Basketball

Providence/Seton Hall Wrap Up

Pip and Kalif USA Today USA Today

1. Alpha Diallo’s 35 points, on 11-15 shooting, came against the team that Ken Pomeroy has ranked 10th in the country in Defensive Efficiency. The buckets came in bunches, as the Hall led 2-1 at the 16 minute mark of the first half, and roared back from 25 down with a 41-18 run that made it 52-50 with 7:42 to go in the second half. Plus, Diallo sat for a long stretch in the second with four fouls.

After a timeout, Diallo went one on one and scored on a short jumper to bump the lead to 54-50. A minute later, he missed a mid-range shot, grabbed his own rebound and finished a layup. Then, Diallo was fouled on a step back jumper with 4:18 on the clock. He was later fouled on a step back jumper and made a free throw to push the advantage back to seven. It was the second time he was fouled on a jump shot — amazing how defenses react when shots starting dropping.

2. Providence’s defense was key over the game’s final eight minutes. The Pirates went without a field goal, and scored just four points, from the 8:04 mark of the second half until there was 1:31 on the clock. Seton Hall finished 9-28 from 3-point range (32%), a number that would have been uglier had they not buried four 3-pointers in desperation  over the final minute. PC led by nine with a minute to play.

Credit the Friars for slowing Quincy McKnight (1-8 shooting) and Romaro Gill (4 points, 1-3 shooting), as that duo torched PC in a 73-64 win in Newark on 1/22. They consistently burned Providence in the pick and roll game that night, with Gill finishing with a season high 17 points on a number of lobs, and McKnight going for 11 points and eight assists.

Myles Powell scored 27 points, but was 4-13 from 3 with seven turnovers. Two of those 3-pointers came in the final minute. You aren’t likely to stop Powell, especially coming off of a 1-11 performance from deep the game prior, but David Duke’s length caused him some problems.

3. Luwane Pipkins made a pair of clutch shots in the second half, finishing and and-1 on a short jumper and taking a step back two that went. Pipkins finished with 13 points and five rebounds.

4. Ed Cooley was not effusive in his praise of Greg Gantt in the postgame press conference, but Cooley’s actions said it all. Gantt was out there during crunch time in the second half and rewarded Providence with another active body on the glass. His nine rebounds and four offensive boards were both season highs.

5. Gantt did foul McKnight with .2 seconds on the clock on a meaningless 3-point attempt in the second half. That led to a technical foul, as Providence’s students stormed the court, assuming the game was over.

Court storming is always a hot button topic, but I’ve never had an opinion one way or the other. I can’t see how it would negatively impact recruiting or the image of the program. How many people, outside of Providence and Seton Hall fans, paid that much attention to it?

6. Bryce Cotton continues to shine in Australia. What a great story he is.

5 Comments

  1. B Hall

    February 17, 2020 at 4:10 pm

    Which team is going to show up Wednesday night , Dr Jekell or Mister Hyde.

  2. Wally

    February 18, 2020 at 1:21 pm

    HaHa great ? and the answer is: Who the hell knows??? Actually play hard like they did against the Hall – Take care of the Ball and WAKE UP WATSON!!!!
    GO FRIARS BABY!!!

  3. rayi

    February 18, 2020 at 8:13 pm

    The previews of the games have been good but you two summed it up. This season the quality of the opponent is secondary. It’s which pc team or players show up and play 40 minutes of good ball.

  4. Happy to see BC toil in obscurity

    February 19, 2020 at 10:50 am

    Effort, basic basketball skills, and good decision-making and this team can beat anyone.

    Go Friars!

  5. Wally

    February 19, 2020 at 11:13 am

    AMEN!!!!

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