Providence Friars 89 (9-4)

Sacred Heart Pioneers 75 (5-8)

The Providence Friars finished up their out of conference schedule with a convincing win over visiting Sacred Heart and will enter Big East Conference play with a 9-4 record.  PC took it to Sacred Heart early, scoring 49 first half points, taking a 17-point lead into the half and never trailing in the game.

The first half may have been the most complete half that the Friars have played all season and gives Friartown a little more optimism heading into Big East play.  The main thing for Providence is for them to get healthy as the Friars were without Kyron Cartwright, Maliek White, and Alpha Diallo in this game.

The Friars start off their Big East slate at St. John’s, at Creighton, home against Marquette, and home against Xavier, so they have no time to start slow or short-handed.  The Friars will need their depth at guard when they visit St. John’s, a team spearheaded by two playmaking guards in Shamorie Ponds and Marcus LoVett.

The Friars were led by Rodney Bullock (31), Isaiah Jackson (17), and Jalen Lindsey (13) en route to their win, although they didn’t quite cover the spread.

Game Notes:

• Rodney Bullock scored a season-high 31 points on 50% shooting for the game (12-24) while also grabbing a game-high 8 rebounds and 4 blocks.
• The Friars were having themselves a swat party, blocking 9 shot on the evening.
• Bullock was stellar on the offense and defense end and led the team in scoring for the 2nd straight game.  After scoring in single-digits in the first two games out of the gate, Bullock has now scored in double-figures in every game (11) since then.  Bullock is leading the Friars in scoring with 16.8 ppg and has averaged 18.5 ppg over that 11 game double-figure scoring streak.  This was Bullock’s 5th game scoring over 20 points this season.
• Rodney was pulling the trigger all night on his favorite trailing 3-pointer.  He only ended up going 3-10 from three but they were all good looks and in the flow of the game.

Straight out of a pick up game with the passing #pcbb pic.twitter.com/sEDQW609QD

— The Morning Hangover (@TheMorningHang) December 23, 2017

• Bullock was 9-14 on two-point shot on the night and has really risen to the occasion with the injuries taking a toll on the Friars.
• Isaiah Jackson continued to take advantage of his increased role and played arguably his best all-around game in his Friar career.
• Jackson finished with 17 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists with 0 turnovers.  He also blocked two shots and had a steal while playing 37 minutes.  The extended minutes didn’t seem to bother Jackson as he pulled off this smooth three at the end of the game to finish off Sacred Heart.

Isaiah Jackson capping off a fantastic night with a dagger three #pcbb #IsaiahJackson pic.twitter.com/En1J01kFCn

— The Morning Hangover (@TheMorningHang) December 23, 2017

• Jalen Lindsey is obviously the resident sharpshooter on the Friars squad but it is actually Isaiah Jackson who is leading the team in 3-point shooting percentage.  Jackson is an incredible 54.5% from three this season.  The Friars currently have 4 players shooting over 45% from three; Jackson, Lindsey (49.2%), White (47.4%), and Cartwright (45.2%).  The team is shooting 39.5% as a team from distance, good for 43rd best in the country.  Impressively enough, that’s only good for 4th best in the Big East behind Villanova (21st), Marquette (31st), and Creighton (40th).
• Speaking of Lindsey, he kept his made 3-point streak alive, going 3-7 from deep en route to 13 points.  Lindsey has now made a 3-point basket in 39 straight games, 31 of those with multiple made threes.  Here’s a breakdown of made threes over the impressive streak from Jalen.
  • 1 made three – 9 games
  • 2 made threes – 11 games
  • 3 made threes – 10 games
  • 4 made threes – 9 games
• Jalen also took down 6 rebounds.
• Makai Ashton-Langford had a rough time trying to score while handling the bulk of the point guard duties for the Friars.  MAL finished with just 1 point without connecting a a shot all night (0-4) while recording 4 turnovers.  Over the last three games, mostly without Cartwright and White, MAL has shot just 3-30 (10%) from the floor, including 0-8 from three-point range.  Yikes.
• Makai did dish out career-high 8 assists, grab 5 boards, and have 2 swipes.

Makai with a great find of Kalif Young. Young with great positioning #pcbb #MAL #KalifYoung pic.twitter.com/vmOM6FfHnu

— The Morning Hangover (@TheMorningHang) December 23, 2017

• Drew Edwards picked up the back-up point guard duties with Cartwright and Wright out of the game and filled in quite nicely.  Edwards recorded a nicely rounded out stat line of 9 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals.
• Edwards looked pretty comfortable with this transition pass if you ask me.

Drew Edwards with the perfect transition pass to a streaking Isaiah Jackson #pcbb #DrewEdwards #IsaiahJackson pic.twitter.com/34lkXGwNVr

— The Morning Hangover (@TheMorningHang) December 23, 2017

• Nate Watson was held scoreless in the first half, only playing 4 minutes while dealing with foul trouble.  In the second half, Nate went on a personal 8 point run of his own, showing off all that mouth-watering potential of his.  My favorite part was Nate going 4-4 from the line.
• Kalif Young was really good from the floor (4-5) but not so good from the line (2-6).  After starting the season 12-17 (71%) from the free throw line over the first 5 games of the season, Young has gone just 5-16 (31%) since then.
• Tommy Planek: 2 minutes, 1 steal.  Planek now has 3 steals in 13 minutes of action this year, good for 9.2 steals per 40 minutes…just saying.
• The Friars went back to looking like themselves with their ball movement and unselfishness, finishing the game with 19 assists and only 9 turnovers.  That’s the kind of stuff I like to see from this team.
• Sacred Heart is a fun team to watch, especially Senior Mario Matasovic.  The Croatian pulled out some nifty moves during the game.
• The Sacred Heart guards had some of the weirdest shooting mechanics I’ve seen in a while.

Next Up, the Friars open up Big East play against St. John’s at Carnesseca Arena (I wish it was at MSG so that Friartown could show up in droves) on Thursday, December 28th at 7:00 PM.