Friars Struggle to Beat Yale 58-55

Friars Struggle to Beat Yale 58-55

There’s still a lot of basketball to be played, most of the season in fact. But when you’re a Big East team and you struggle mightily to beat a team projected to finish in the middle of the pack in the Ivy League on your home floor, it doesn’t bode well for the upcoming season.

The Providence Friars defeated the Yale Bulldogs…….barely. The Friars led for most of the first half taking an 8-point lead to the locker room at 29-21. But the second half was a different story.

Two Vincent Council (team-high 18 pts) free throws and a Marshon Brooks (15 pts, 12 reb) bucket put the Friars up by a dozen in the opening minute of the second half before Yale made its run.

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In the next four minutes, Yale would drain five 3-pointers. Porter Braswell (13 pts) and Austin Morgan (16 pts) made two each while big man Greg Mangano (11 pts, 9 reb) hit one as well. It brought the Bulldogs to within one at 39-38 and the game was on.

For the remaining 14:56 of the game, the largest lead held by either team was a 4-point advantage by Yale.

The Bulldogs led by 1 with just over a minute to go when the Friars Duke Mondy scored to put PC up 56-55. A missed 3-pointer by Braswell with :30 seconds left was rebounded by Marshon Brooks who was fouled with :19 seconds to go. Brooks drained both free throws forcing Yale to call a timeout to set up a play for a game-tying three.

Mangano’s three missed as time expired and PC escaped with a 58-55 win.

The Friars shot just 39% from the field going 19-49. They were only 2-14 from “3” at 14%. Yale shot 33 % from the field and 35% from “3”.

Next up for the Friars is Morgan State Thursday night at the Dunk. The schedule is set up for Providence to go 7-0 heading into their clash with intra state rival URI. However, after their struggles with Yale Monday night, nothing is certain for these Friars.