Friars hold off Stags, 78-69

Friars hold off Stags, 78-69

The stated goal before Friday’s game with Fairfield was simply to get out to a better start, after falling behind early in three games this week at the Paradise Jam.

Providence (7-1) did that, all right. It was what happened afterward that could prove to be a problem. The Friars beat the Fairfield Stags 78-69 at the Dunkin Donuts Center, but they could never put away a reeling team that has now suffered six straight losses. It took a record day from the free-throw line for PC to earn its’ 7th win of the season.

“We want to show diversity across the board that we can score, but we’ve got to do a better job,” PC coach Ed Cooley told Friarbasketball.com after the game. “We had six field goals in the last 25 minutes of play so that means the ball wasn’t moving efficiently enough, and hopefully we do a better job of that moving forward.”

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The first 15 minutes of the game could not have worked out much better than it did. PC hit its’ first eight shots from the field, held Fairfield to 32% shooting defensively and led the Stags 37-18 with 5:27 left before halftime. At that point, the offensive spigot turned off…as Fairfield ended the half with a 12-3 run to trail by 10 at the break.

The run continued four minutes deep into the second half, as senior Maurice Barrow – the only Cooley recruit remaining on the Fairfield roster – hit a three to pull his team within six, 44-38, with 15:55 still to play. That’s a 20-7 advantage over an almost 10 minute stretch on the game clock.

From this point, the Friars seized control once again…led by LaDontae Henton, Kadeem Batts and Tyler Harris. A Batts layup gave PC another 19-point advantage, 61-42, with 9:30 to play. But this too, did not last. Again the Stags stayed relentless on the offensive end, with a 13-3 run to pull back within nine and 4:55 left after a Steve Smith three-pointer.

The free-throw line – the one consistently strong area for PC through the first month of the season – proved to be its salvation again. Bryce Cotton led the parade with a school-record tying 18 made free throws (in 19 attempts) as part of his game high 24-point performance, including 12 straight down the stretch over the final four minutes. And the Friars needed just about every one of them, scoring but six field goals over the last 25 minutes of game time.

“We needed free throws because we couldn’t score,” Cooley explained, “so we had to get scoring from somewhere and we got it from the line. If we can continue to be efficient with free throw shooting we feel we can have some success.”

Five Friars ended up scoring in double figures, led by Cotton’s 24 points. Henton added a solid all-around game with 12 points, seven rebounds, two blocks and five steals. Harris, coming off of an all-tournament performance in St. Thomas, scored 16 points before fouling out and Josh Fortune added 10, including two three-pointers. Fairfield (1-6) was led by Marcus Gilbert’s 23 points and 20 more from Barrow (14 in the 2nd half).

So one goal was accomplished, even if the end result left a little something to be desired without a knockout punch against a game, but overmatched opponent. Now, full attention can be squared upon Sunday’s Brooklyn battle with nationally-ranked Kentucky.

Friar Notes

Cooley’s post-game comments with regard to the matchup with the Wildcats are sure to gain some notoriety…if not find some room on a Kentucky bulletin or message board. "We play high-profile programs every day in the Big East," Cooley said. "That keeps coming back. Kentucky. It's another game. The Big East is the best basketball conference in the country. We're going to play teams like that every single day." And the Friar head coach wasn’t finished there. “It's a game. Congratulations, they're good,” Cooley added. “They have all these great players. You know what? We have some great players, too. I do not want anybody to look at my team as if we are some step-child hoping to get lucky," he said. "We're going to go down there and we're going to be confident, passionate and we're going to play with a lot of pride. I don't give a damn about Kentucky." After hitting their first eight shots of the game, Providence managed to score only 11 more baskets the rest of the way, on 38 attempts…finishing the game at 41%. The line was a different story, as PC hit 38-of-45 from the stripe (84%), outscoring Fairfield by 17 points from the line (21-24)…Henton hit the 1000-point mark for his PC career on a made free-throw with 12:33 to play in the first half.  He becomes the 46th player in Providence history to hit the 1K mark, and now has 1009 points with another year-plus to add to the total...Batts is only 32 points away from hitting the 1K career mark as well...Kris Dunn did not play for the Friars, held out of the game with a sore right shoulder that he tweaked in the Paradise Jam title game against Maryland last Monday night. Cooley said he’s “day to day”…normally a strong second-shot team, Providence managed just seven offensive rebounds (to eight for Fairfield) in holding a slight 34-30 edge on the boards…Cooley's first five seasons as a head coach in the college game (he's currently in his 8th season overall) were spent leading the Stags' program.  He's now 3-0 against his former employer...the game with Kentucky will be just the second time ever for the two schools to play, with the Wildcats having beaten PC 79-78 in the 1976 NIT at Madison Square Garden in New York…