Friars Beat Holy Cross 89-79 in Their Season Opener Behind Freshmen Stefan Vaaks and Jamier Jones

On By The Morning HangoverIn Uncategorized

Providence Friars 89 (1-0)

Holy Cross Crusaders 79 (0-1)

The wait is finally over and real basketball is upon us. Frairtown got their first real look at this year’s 2025-26 team that includes ten new faces on it. Those new faces made the most of their first impression, playing aggressively and busting out to a 17-point halftime lead. According to KenPom, this was the fastest pace the Friars have played since Kim English took over as the Providence coach. Freshmen Stefan Vaaks (19 points) and Jamier Jones (16 points) led the scoring for the Friars and both did so off of the bench. But, much like many Friar teams of the past, their ability to close out the game without raising the fans blood pressure a few points popped up to say hello as well.

The first half of the game played out exactly how the Friars want to play this season. It was fast-paced and Providence defended the three-point line superbly to the tune of holding Holy Cross to 0-for-11 from three and 32.1% from the field, while pushing the pace off of the missed buckets. Kim English continually touts the important of having more possessions than the opposition and the Friars were able to get up 8 more field goal attempts in the first half. The second half was pretty much the exact opposite of the first with Holy Cross living off of three-pointers, connecting on 11-of-22 in the second stanza and actually getting up more field goal attempts for the game (65 to 62) than the Friars. There were a number of turnovers and clunky defensive rotations, leading to way too many open looks for a Crusaders team that finished last season ranked 10th in three-point shooting percentage (38.73%).

Don’t even get me started on how many times sharpshooter Joe Nugent was left with quality looks. Nugent finished last season as the 14th best three-point shooter in the country, converting on 42.93% of his deep shots. They dropped a crazy little nugget in the game that only a handful of his field goal makes last year were inside the arc (they said something like 4 or 5) but a quick look shows that 46 of his 131 field goal makes (35%) were actually 2-point baskets. So that wasn’t even close to being an actual thing. You can’t give up 50 points in a half and expect to win against the majority of teams you’re going to play this year.

I don’t want to get too carried away with the negativity but this 10-point win should have been at least a 20-point win. There are some easy things to fix that will come with more experience playing together for the team but there were also some very encouraging signs from a lot of the new faces on this year’s team.

Game Notes:

  • Stefan Vaaks and Jamier Jones do not look like your typical Freshmen basketball players. Both guys are strong and play with ferocity that seems to multiply the closer they get to the hoop.
  • Vaaks led the Friars in scoring with 19 points on 5-of-9 shooting, including 3-for-7 from distance.
  • You can tell that he’s been playing against older competition with the way he goes strong to the rim and creates space for himself against his defenders. He may eventually get called for some offensive fouls with his aggressive push off before his finishes but I’d much rather my players be overly aggressive than the opposite.
  • First college game ever and he’s already going for a heat check in the first half. I love it.
  • Speaking of love, how about Jamier Jones.
  • My guy had the biggest smile on his face after every grown man move and conversion and there were a bunch of them.
  • Jones with 16 points on a perfect 7-of-7 from the field and 2-of-2 from the line.
  • Oh, and he had roughly a month’s worth of highlights in just his first game.
  • I’m going to keep it with the bench mob for now as it looks like Ryan Mela is picking up right where he left off last season. The professional stat-stuffer finished with 9 points (on 50% shooting), 6 rebounds, 4 steals, an assist, and a block. His 4 steals matched his career-high that set last season against DePaul at home.
  • I’m calling it now, since it doesn’t appear that this year’s Friar squad has a natural point guard on its roster, Ryan Mela is going to lead the team in assists this season.
  • Despite the team racking up 17 assists on 32 field goal makes, Daquan Davis and Corey Floyd tied for the team lead with 3 apiece. Nine of the ten guys who saw action recorded at least one assist, so it looks like it will be a team-sharing effort rather than a traditional point guard when it comes to dimes this year.
  • Providence’s bench outscored Holy Cross 44 to 11.
  • The overall stats for the second team were outstanding.
    • 44 points on 15-of-22 (68.2%) shooting, 3-of-9 (33.3%) from three, and 11-of-13 (84.6%) from the line
    • 19 rebounds including 6 offensive
    • 7 assists, 7 steals, & 2 blocks
  • Oswin started out hot with an immediate dunk and multiple blocks but cooled off quickly, doing the majority of the work on the defensive end.
  • Oswin ended the game with 4 points, 8 rebounds, 4 blocks, 2 assists, and a steal.
  • His 2 assists matched his career-high he set last season against Davidson and his 4 blocks were just one shy of his career-high he set against Seton Hall. Oswin did not record an assist in 27 of the 32 games he played in during his Freshman year so his ability to find his teammates so far is incredibly encouraging. He also just physically looked much stronger.
  • Jason Edwards showed spurts of his scoring prowess and will certainly have many more games with bundles of points this season. He did have 11 points but did so on 11 shots. With 10 guys all playing double-digit minutes (without Rich Barron to boot), it may take a few games for him to be able to pick his spots. Edwards played 22 minutes while last season he only had 4 games with less than 20 minutes on the floor.
  • Jaylin Sellers is a dawg.
  • Sellers had 12 points on an efficient 5-of-9 shooting and will guarantee at least one “oh my lord” highlight for each and every game this season.
  • I’m going to take a few games to see if he plays better with his hair tight or in an afro before I determine which I like better.
  • Corey Floyd Jr. played exactly how you want your four-year Senior leader to play. He was the steady hand for the whole game and was completely reliable on both ends of the floor. Floyd is going to get a lot more open looks from three this year with how many of the other guys like to drive and kick so I have a feeling there is going to be a noticeable uptick in his three-point percentage this year compared to the last couple. He hit 2-of-4 from long range en route to 12 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal. Speaking of hair, I’m not sure when…but it’s going to take a while to get used to his new look.
  • Duncan Powell looked a bit too trigger happy from deep in this one, especially with a relatively close defender near him, which resulted in an 0-for-4 night from three. I’d like to see the majority of his three-point attempts coming on catch-and-shoot opportunities with a little more space and more to the corner than the high wing area.
  • Cole Hargrove was very solid in his backup big minutes, grabbing 6 rebounds and adding a block in 14 minutes of action. I loved seeing him crash the offensive boards which should lead to more put back opportunities going forward.
  • Daquan Davis looks exceptionally quick on the defensive side of the ball and although he didn’t record his first points as a Friar in this, he did tie with CFJ for a team-high 3 assists and didn’t commit a turnover in his 11 minutes. He’s probably the closest thing this team has to a true point guard at this point.
  • Post-Game Press Conference

Next Up, the Friars travel down the road to Friartown South at Mohegan Sun to take on Virginia Tech this Saturday. The game will be on Peacock, because, of course it will be, at 4 PM.

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