#10 Providence College Friars (18-4) 73
Georgetown Hoyas (13-9) 69
I just want it in the records that the Providence Friars Men’s Basketball Team is 1-0 in game I have attended this year. Great, just so we have that straight and on the record.
The two-headed monster of Kris Dunn and Ben Bentil (better known as “Ben There, Dunn That”) controlled the entire game for the Friars in a matchup with the ever-pesky Georgetown Hoyas at the Verizon Center in Washington D.C. Even after watching the matchup of Big East foes, I still can’t figure out this Hoyas team. At times they look like they can play with anyone but their record says otherwise. It looks like they’re one of those teams that plays up or down to their competition.
Every time the Friars looked like they were going to put the game out of reach, the Hoyas made some plays that put them right back in the thick of things. In the end, it came down to the Friars having the two best players on the floor and they were able to stay undefeated in true road games this season and grab another win for their ever-growing NCAA tournament resume.
Drink of choice for the game: Goose Island IPA
Apparel of choice for the game: Providence “Dunking Friar” T-Shirt
PC Player of the game: Ben Bentil/Kris Dunn Co-Players…as usual
Game Notes:
- Kris Dunn and Ben Bentil.
- The best 1-2 punch in College Basketball.
- Each guy dropped 26 points in this one.
- It’s always great to hear praise for your team’s players from the opposing coach. My favorite JT3 quotes:
“How many steals did Dunn have, four? It felt like 12. He’s a one-man wrecking crew on defense.”
“[Dunn] may be the best guard that’s come through this league in a long time.”
- We’ll start with Dunn.
- John Thompson isn’t wrong. Dunn is a complete hazard to opposing offenses. He notched 4 more steals and recorded his 3rd straight game with 3+ steals. He has 15 steals in his last 3 games.
- Dunn dropped 26 points on 8-17 shooting from the floor and seemed to come up with every big shot or drive, exactly when PC needed it.
- I mean, come on. Of course this would be his 1,000th career point. Just an insane finish.
Kris Dunn with the acrobatic finish for @PCFriarsmbb & 1,000 career points! #BIGEAST https://t.co/uvN10ImezP
— FS1 (@FS1) January 31, 2016
- Dunn was efficient from both the free throw (8-10) and three point line (2-3), a couple of facets that he’s been having a little trouble with this year.
- Kris only recorded 3 rebounds and 2 assists, both below his season averages, but was able to more than make up for it by putting the ball in the basket.
- Ben Bentil was great once again for the Friars.
- Ben scored the team’s first 7 points and ended the game with 26 total points on an impressive 8-12 from the floor. He was dunking every time you turned around, displaying his patented righty baby hook, and draining shots from distance as well. It was a perfect all-around game from Dunn.
- Bentil added in his usual 9 rebounds and a pair of steals just for fun.
- The same problem has been cropping up over the last couple of games for the Friars and is essential for them as a team going forward. Who is going to be that third source of scoring? It turned out that Rodney Bullock was once again up to the task, after having a string of off games, which understandably coincided with the Friars struggling as a team offensively.
- Bullock scored ten points, which was a much welcomed sight. But even more importantly, and impressively, took down a game-high 14 rebounds for the Friars. He did struggle with the turnovers (7!) but I’ll take a more aggressive Bullock over a passive one that we’ve seen of late, any day of the week.
- It was nice to see Quadree Smith back in action. Once I saw him come in, I thought that we might actually even see a little more of him based on the size of Georgetown big man Bradley Hayes.
- Can I say something about Hayes? How in the hell did Georgetown not go to him in the post, at least to start every possession. His hook shot, over a much smaller Bentil, seemed basically unstoppable. Hayes finished with 13 points on 6-12 shooting and capped off a double-double with 10 rebounds. He appeared to be a matchup nightmare for the very thin Friar frontcourt, but the Hoyas didn’t seem to want to exploit that. Fine by me…just seemed odd.
- FAZ3KAS was back with a 3. Love it.
- Drew Edwards had another dud in the scoring column. That’s the third straight game where Edwards hasn’t recorded a point and he has just 10 total points in his last 8 games combined.
- I see you Tyree Chambers…
- Junior Lomomba was pretty quiet in this one but he didn’t take anything off the table as well. He’s there when you need him.
- The Friars had one of their first good games from 3 in a long ass time. They shot 5-11 from distance (45.5%) after shooting a ridiculous 34 3-point attempts in their loss against Xavier. Newsflash, I really appreciate it when teams don’t play zone against Providence. The Friars are a pretty poor 3-point shooting team, which is one of the reason they struggle against the zone.
- Here’s the highlights from the game.
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Pre-Game Drinks/Apps at Chruchkey |
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Ben Bentil on the line, per usual knocking down some free throws. |
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End of the game celebration from the Friars. |
Next Up, the Friars travel to Illinois to take on Depaul at the Allstate Arena on Tuesday February 2nd at 9 PM on FS1.
The Morning Hangover 