Providence Friars 40 (5-1)
Virginia Cavaliers 58 (4-2)
I guess that’s where they get the saying, you can’t win them all. A day after catching fire from three against Northwestern to the the tune of making 14 three pointers, the Friars went ice cold from deep, connecting on only 3 of their 22 attempts (13.6%). It is not as if Providence was any more efficient from the field, finishing the game shooting just 23.5% against a stingy Virginia defense.
Game Notes:
- The Friars played 9 guys in the game. Only 4 of those players made a field goal. Between Justin Minaya, Jared Bynum, Ed Crosswell, Alyn Breed, & A.J. Reeves, the 5 of them played a combined 79 total minutes, going 0-15 from the floor.
- Noah Horchler was the only Friar to shoot at least 50% from the field, going 4/8 for a team-high 14 points. Noah also took down a team-high 7 rebounds and gave out a pair of assists, while collecting a steal and block.
- That makes it 10 assists through 5 games on the season, already almost matching the 14 total assists he distributed to teammates last year.
- Justin Minaya flat out hustles and it is impossible not to take notice of it while watching a game.
- I’m still holding out hope that Minaya takes it easy on the three-point attempts unless he’s left alone and in rhythm because 75% of his shots should definitely not be of the three-point variety.
- With the Friars seemingly unable to hit an outside shot, Nate Watson had a tough time getting looks down low with the Cavaliers defense able to hone in on defending him in the post.
- The length of the Virginia defense also seemed to give Jared Bynum some fits. With the D hedging towards Watson, the driving lanes for Bynum fell to the collateral damage of the Cavaliers defensive sets.
- I would have liked to have seen Al Durham take on more of the lead guard duties seeing as Virginia continued to force the Friars deep into the shot clock and Bynum does not have the same ability as Durham to create his own opportunities during those situations.
- Al was the only other Friar to finish in double-digits, scoring 10 points to keep his streak of double-figure scoring games in tact since joining the team.
- Once again, Durham led the team in minutes with 38, further cementing his place as one of Ed Cooley’s most trustworthy players.
- Brycen Goodine has earned himself more minutes over the last couple of games and played the most most of anyone one off the bench (19 mins).
- Although Goodine was just 1/7 from the floor, he was still the only sub to score in the game (5 points).
- A.J. Reeves was still feeling under the weather and subsequently broke his made three-point streak on the season with an 0/3 night from distance.
- With Goodine’s bump in minutes, Alyn Breed saw a decline in his, totaling his lowest amount of playing time so far this season (9 mins).
- Croswell saw the floor but was unable to make much of an impact other than some decent rebounding (3).
- Cavaliers Forward Hayden Gardner looked like a heck of a player throughout the game, racking up a double-double with 21 points and 13 rebounds. He was facing up to the basket, crashing the boards nonstop, and doing everything in between.
- Armaan Franklin was scoring in bunches and if it wasn’t for the constant foul trouble, looked like he would have poured it on during the game.
- Al Durham and Noah Horchler did make the All-Tournament Team, which is pretty good considering they didn’t win the 4-team tourney.
Next Up, the Friars return tot he friendly confines of The Dunk to take on Saint Peter’s on Saturday at Noon on FS2.
The Morning Hangover 