Providence Friars 90 (10-6)

Marquette Golden Eagles 95 (11-4)

With leading scorer Rodney Bullock unexpectedly sidelined with an illness, Kyron Cartwright coming off a game in which he re-aggravated an ankle injury, and still without Maliek White, the Friars were given a tall order of beating a visiting hungry Marquette squad at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.

Even with those things working against them, the Friars still held a 6-point lead with under two and half minutes left in the second half at home in a game that they should have been able to close.

They probably didn’t expect Markus Howard to drop 52 points and play like he was in NBA Jam, but this is a game that the Friars will look back on and be frustrated that they didn’t pull out the win.

Game Notes:

• This might be the first time that I’m going to start off with an opposing player in the game notes but what Markus Howard did was pretty special.  That’s what 52 points will make you do.
• The one highlight is that he only tied MarShon Brooks’ Big East record of scoring 52 points in a game…and Brooks accomplished his feat in regulation.
• After a pretty quiet first half, Howard exploded in the second half of the game, tying his personal best of making 11 threes in a game, going 11-19 in the game.  Howard was 17-29 so it wasn’t like he was just volume shooting to get a lot of points.
• Howard is 100% from the line this year and sunk all 7 free throws.
• His shooting is next level and incredible to actually watch.  I’m not sure why they didn’t just have someone faceguard him to deny him the ball up and down the entire court but when they overplayed his three-point shot, he easily drove by whoever was in front of him to finish at the rim.  Howard is, in my opinion, the best shooter in college basketball, period.

• Howard’s incredible performance unfortuantely overshadowed how well Kyron Cartwright played in the game, scoring a career-high 29 points on 8-15 shooting and 12-15 from the line.  He recorded a career-high in attempts and makes from the foul line but he unexpectedly also recorded a career-high 9 turnovers on the night.
• Cartwright only record 3 assists to his 9 TOs (it’s usually the other way around) and stayed in sole possession of 5th place in PC history.

  1. Vincent Council – 725

  2. Ernie DiGregorio – 662

  3. Kris Dunn – 552

  4. Billy Donovan – 546

  5. Kyron Cartwright – 541

  6. Carlton Screen – 532

  7. Ricky Tucker – 520

  8. Bob Misevicius – 490

  T-9. Erik Murdock – 487

  T-9. Vin Ernst – 487

• Isaiah Jackson got the start in place of the ill Bullock and dropped in 19 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and a block.  The 19 points were the most Jackson has scored since becoming a Friar.  He did score a career-high 22 points during his Freshman season with George Mason against Wright State.
• Jackson was also 9-10 from the line and is reapidly becoming one of the more trustworthy guys at the line down the stretch.
• Kalif Young played his best game of the season and was hustling all over the joint during the game.  Young scored 10 points on a perfect 4-4 shooting from the floor, grabbed 7 rebounds and tossed out 4 assists.  The 4 dimes were a career-high for Kalif, having never recorded more than 2 in any game in his career.
• Nate Watson saw limited action but was his usual efficient self in his short minutes, scoring 9 points on 4-6 shooting in just 16 minutes.
• Alpha Diallo played well, bouncing back from a rough game against Creighton, scoring 16 points on 6-9 shooting, taking down a team-high 8 rebounds and handing out 3 assists with no turnovers.
• Jalen Lindsey wasn’t his usual self and it came out after the game that he was battling a 103 fever during the game.  Despite not being able to do much, he hit an absolutely enormous three down the stretch (his only bucket of the game) and in doing so, kept his three-point making streak alive in the process.
• Lindsey has now made a 3-point basket in 42 straight games, 33 of those with multiple made threes.  Here’s a breakdown of made threes over the streak from Jalen.
  • 1 made three – 10 games
  • 2 made threes – 12 games
  • 3 made threes – 10 games
  • 4 made threes – 9 games
  • 6 made threes – 1 game
• After being the only two guys to contribute off the bench against Creighton, Makai Ashton-Langford and Drew Edwards weren’t able to score a single point between the two of them in 25 minutes of action.
• I swear Greg Elliott complained about every single call that went against him.  Elliott, a former Friar recruiting target looked very good on D but struggled a bit offensively.
• The Golden Eagles shot the lights on the game, going 50% from the field, 50% from three, and 87.5% from the line.
• Although Andrew Rowsey couldn’t really get things going on the night, it’s not really fair for Marquette to have both Howard and Rowsey shooting for the same team is it?

Up Next, the Friars welcome #5 Xavier to the Dunkin’ Donuts with an early Noon Tip on Saturday.