#20 Providence College Friars (18-7) 91 2OT

Ben Bentil did all he physically do to try and stop the recent losing streak that the Providence Friars are currently on but couldn’t quite drag them across the finish line as PC fell to Marquette in double-overtime dog fight on the road.

Providence is free-falling down the rankings at the moment and lost it’s third straight game and fourth in their last five contests.

Marquette sweeps the season series with the Friars with this win and takes a game that Ed Cooley’s squad was in desperate need of.  If the Friars aren’t careful, this season can turn from a dream one to a nightmare one in no time flat.  I’m still optimistic but PC needs to tighten up a lot of things if they want to make it three straight trips to the NCAA tournament.

Game Notes:

• Kris Dunn has his third straight game where he looked a little off.  It’s no coincidence that Providence has lost all three of those game.
• Dunn’s stat line is stuffed as usual with 17 points (5-9), 7 rebounds, 6 assists, and a steal but he looked very unassertive when the Friars really needed him to take over in the 2nd half.
• Dunn’s 4 turnovers were on the very lackadaisical side and consisted mostly of half-hearted passes.  Fortunately for Kris, he can quickly erase a mistake when he makes one as well.
• Dunn fouled out before the 2nd Overtime period which left the Friars offense without a rudder to guide the ship down the stretch.
• Dunn is constantly in foul trouble this season, mostly due to the fact that he’s very active on the defensive end.  You can’t be second in the Nation in steals per game with out getting a couple of reaching calls.
• Providence’s zone offense is atrocious.  Like really bad.
• What the offense was looking for was ball-handlers attacking it.  We needed Kris to be doing a lot more of this.
• Dunn only attempted 9 shots in 39 minutes.  With how thin this team is, it should be way higher than that.
• I’m kind of surprised that Drew Edwards didn’t get more time as he’s shown a very good ability of attacking the teeth of a zone and creating with his patented jump stop around the basket.  Edwards only played 7 minutes and a lot of those came after Kris fouled out.
• Kyron’s shooting struggles continued as he finished 1-6 with just 2 points.  He did continue to keep up those assist numbers (7) but he needs to start knocking down those open shots when they come his way.  Over Kyron’s last 5 games, he shooting a paltry 8-38 from the floor.  That’s a clip of 21%.  Prior to that, he had scored in double-digits in his previous three games.
• His assists have gone up over that poor five game shooting stretch and he’s dishing out helpers at a very healthy 5.8 per game.
• Junior Lomomba glued things together for PC and ended the game with 11 points (4-5), 6 assists, and 3 rebounds.  Just your typical Lomomba type of game.  He may have gotten away with a slight foul at the end of regulation but who’s to say really??

• In all seriousness, he got 0% ball and 100% arm.  The ball didn’t even come close to the basket he was so obviously fouled.  If I was a Marquette fan and PC ended up winning, I would have been severely pissed off.
• Every Single Ryan Fazekas 3 was in and out.  It was ridiculous.  When he’s not nailing threes, it is very tough for PC to be successful against any zone.
• My love/hate relationship with Jalen Lindsey continues.
• On the one hand, he misses a very catchable pass from Kris Dunn at the end of regulation that could have been a potential game winner.
• On the other hand, he made 2 super duper clutch free throws to send the game into double-overtime.
• Lindsey has some serious leaping ability and was tipping out rebounds to teammates all game.  Do those count as his rebounds when he just gets a hand on it?  They probably should if they don’t already.  He finished the game with 8 rebounds and 7 points.  He is so good at making a very good play followed immediately by a really bad play.  He certainly keeps me on my toes and my emotions completely out of whack.
• Henry Ellenson is a player.
• I would have liked to see him match up with health Bentil but Benitl was forced to give him an extra step because of his lack of lateral movement with his ankle.  Ellenson was able to take advantage of that and hit a shot when given extra space or get some momentum going directly at Bentil.  He finished with 26 points and 16 boards.  The many scouts in attendance should be happy to see that.
• This tweet is 100% accurate about Haanif Cheatham.

Up Next, Alumni Weekend at Providence as the Friars take on Georgetown at the Dunk on Saturday at Noon on Fox.