Bentil's 38 Points Helps PC Roll Butler, Advance to Big East Semi-Final

Bentil's 38 Points Helps PC Roll Butler, Advance to Big East Semi-Final

The fourth seeded Providence College Friars defeated fifth seeded Butler 74-60 on Thursday afternoon at New York's Madison Square Garden in the quarterfinal round of the Big East Tournament. PC advances to the semi-final which will be played on Friday night at 6:30 p.m.

Friars Pull Away

The Friars trailed 35-32 with 18 minutes left in the game before going on a 11-3 run to take a 43-38 lead with 14:56 left to play in the game. 

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A three by Butler's Kellen Dunham cut PC's lead to two, 43-41, before the Friars went on a 13-4 run, sparked by multiple Ben Bentil threes, to take a 56-45 lead with 10:22 to play.

The Bulldogs would not get closer than 7 points the rest of the way.

1st Half Solid Start, Poor Finish

The Friars led 32-20 with 4:55 to go in  the half after Junior Lomomba knocked down a three.

From that point,  Butler closed the half on  a 10-0 run, sending Providence into the locker room up just two points. 32-30.

The Leaders

Providence was led by Ben Bentil who poured in 38 points on 16 of 24 shooting from the field, including 5 of 9 from three-point land. The 38 points tie a Providence College record for most points in a Big East Tournament game.

Kris Dunn followed up with 15 points on 6 of 8 shooting from the field to go along with 7 assists.

Next up

PC will face top seeded Villanova on Friday night in the Big East semi-finals. Game time is set for 6:30 p.m. The Big East Championship game is set for Saturday night if the Friars were to win Friday.

More to come...