Providence Friars 78 (5-0)

Delaware State Hornets 48 (2-3)

Oswin Erhunmwunse came off the bench to drop 13 points, leading Providence to a 78-48 win over Delaware State on Tuesday night. Erhunmwunse also grabbed six rebounds for the Friars, who remain undefeated at 5-0. Corey Floyd Jr. added 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including 2-for-4 from deep, and matched Erhunmwunse with six rebounds. Bensley Joseph chipped in 11 points, shooting 4-for-7 and 2-for-4 from three, while dishing out seven assists.

Providence was up 36-23 at halftime, with Floyd putting up eight points in the first half. The Friars then sealed the deal in the second half with an 11-0 run, stretching their lead to 20. Erhunmwunse led the second-half scoring for the Friars with nine points.

Game Notes:

• With Delaware State scoring just 48 points, this marks the first time that Providence has held their first 5 opponents of a season under 70 points since the 1982-1983 season.
• Providence is 31-1 in their last 32 non-conference home games.
• Speaking of, PC is 109-6 in non-conference home games over the last 15 seasons.
• This is PC’s first 5-0 start in three years since 2021-2022. Under Ed Cooley, they started 5-0 in 4 of his 12 seasons as Head Coach including 2013-2014, 2014-2015, & 2015-2016.
• Providence outscored Delaware State, 42-25, in the second half.  
• PC out-rebounded the Hornets, 48-24, including 26-12 in the second half. 
• The Friars had the advantage in bench points (23-8), points in the paint (22-12), & points off turnovers (7-3).
• Oswin had, by far, his best game as a Friar. As of last game, I mentioned his insane field goal percentage thus far on the early season but prefaced it by noting that he only shot twice in each game up to that point. Well, he sure as hell showed me that it wasn’t just because he was only taking a pair of shots why his shooting percentage was so good. Oswin went 6-for-6 from the field and improved his field goal percentage to an ungodly 92.9%. He’s coming for you Kalkbrenner.
• Oswin is looking more and more comfortable on the court with every additional game of experience.
• Another Friar who has his best game of his young Friar career was Justyn Fernandez. Fernandez has been one of the players easing his way back from injury and his shots hadn’t been falling the first couple of games in limited minutes, despite playing incredibly hard and well in practices, per Kim English.
• Justyn went 2-for-5 from three, making his first buckets and scoring his first points as a Friar. Hopefully with Byrce Hopkins coming back and the rotation most likely shrinking soon, this will propel him going forward.
• I think it’s safe to say that Corey Floyd Jr. has officially found his shot now that he has put together three straight games shooting better than 50%. In his first two games, Floyd shot a combined 5-for-18 but has now shot a combined 13-of-20 over his last three. The Friars are going to need 3 guys to have things going well offensively to compete with higher competition in the near future, so it’s comforting to see Corey making that jump.
• Floyd finished with 12 points and 6 rebounds.
• Speaking of finding his shot, Jabri Abdur-Rahim is also looking confident from deep, not hesitating at all in letting it fly and looking for a heat check at any moment.
• Jabri is back up close to his collegiate three-point shooting average at 33.3% but needs to be a little more consistent on a game-to-game basis. His defensive effort has noticeably picked up as well.
• Despite not scoring a point, Ryan Mela once again made an impact any time he was on the floor. Mela finished with 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals in his 13 minutes.
• Somehow, Bensley Joseph always ends up surprising me with his play. Joseph handed out a season-high 7 assists to just 1 turnover and is averaging 4.0 apg on the season. He currently has 20 assists to 11 turnovers on the season and is as steady of a player as this team has. He reminds me a lot of Al Durham when he transferred to Providence with his leadership and calm demeanor.
• Kim English challenged Christ to grab 3 offensive rebounds in this game. He grabbed 6 on his way to 12 boards total and 9 points. His aggressiveness to go out the ball has been night-and-day from the beginning of the season and I’m here for it.
• Bonke with 3 offensive rebounds in the last two minutes of the game…and a bucket. Bonke is a freaking treasure.
• Post Game Press Conference…