NEW: PC Basketball Falls to 17 in National Poll

Ryan Fazekas

For the second straight game, Ryan Fazekas has been a positive for the Friars. Fazekas went 3 of 6 from three-point land, 3 of 7 overall, and had 9 points, single handedly shooting PC back into the game in the second half.  

Fazekas is still recovering from a battle with mono earlier in the season. 

"I'm glad to see that Ryan is getting healthy, he has had back to back games where he is getting better. He has put a lot of extra time in conditioning. We have him run a mile and a half to two miles everyday, after practice at night. So his conditioning, his legs are getting underneath him, getting a little bit more confident. He still looks really thin out there but I'm glad to see he is getting in some sort of a rhythm, we will need him down the stretch," said PC Head Coach Ed Cooley. 

2nd Chance Points

For the second straight game the Friars got beat on the boards badly, 46-29 overall. 

Kyron Cartwright led the Friars with 6 rebounds. 

Providence gave up 12 offensive rebounds which Villanova was able to turn into 13 second chance points. 

Bentil not playing at 100% in this game was a factor in the rebounding numbers as he only grabbed 2 boards in the game. 

Kris Dunn

Kris Dunn scored 11 points on 4 of 15 shooting from the field, while grabbing 4 rebounds, dishing out 3 assists and turning the ball over 6 times. 

In the last two games, Dunn is 9 of 35 from the field and if you want to extend that to the Xavier game, Dunn is 15 of his last 50. PC Head Coach Ed Cooley had some concerning comments regarding Dunn after the game.

"I think he is trying to do a little too much sometimes. He is putting a lot of pressure on himself, I think there is so many external pressures that he is dealing with as an individual, everything that is coming at him and could be coming at him 1,000 miles an hour right now.

Hopefully, I can do a better job of trying to ease some of his stress, some of his thoughts. You know, when you put yourself in his shoes, it's coming at him and in the future that's what he will be paid to do, but right now we need for him to be a college student and a college player and right now he is putting too much pressure on himself. 

I don't know if he is playing for the joy of it versus the pressure of it," Cooley said. 

Ben Bentil

Ben Bentil led the Friars with 20 points on 6 of 11 shooting from the field and 6 of 8 from the free throw line, and he did on a bum ankle. 

Bentil hurt his ankle in the last game and was questionable to play in this one. 

"Give our medical staff a lot of credit, they have done a great job over the last 48 hours, intensely working on his foot. He said it was really sore, I said lets see what we do, he says I'm ready to go when you need me and he toughed it out," Ed Cooley said in the post game. 

Bentil did not start the game but ended up playing 34 minutes. On starting him, Cooley said, "that was something we talked about it, tried to steal some minutes early, we talked about it, but he hadn't practiced since he left the floor the other day so we had prepared practice without him. But with a talent like that, it's hard to keep him off the floor if he wants to roll." 

Shooting

At the end of the day, no matter what plays a team is running or who is on the floor when, basketball is a make or miss game and the Friars have struggled in the make department, especially at home. 

Providence shot 23% from the field in the first half and found themselves in a 31-19 hole at the break. 

In the second half, PC sot 44 % from the field and got themselves back in the game. 

PC shot 33 % from the field in the game, including 37% from three. 

In their last home game against Xavier, the Friars shot 31 % from the field.