PC Eliminated From Big East Tournament by Villanova
Joe Calabro, GoLocalProv Sports Team
PC Eliminated From Big East Tournament by Villanova
Come Back Falls Short
The Friars trailed by 14 points, 52-38, with 10:30 to play in the second half before going on a 15-3 run to get within two, 55-53, with 7 minutes to play after a Kyron Cartwright three went down.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTProvidence made the run without forward Ben Bentil, who fouled out with 9:40 left to play in the game.
From that point, Villanova went on a 10-3 run to go up 65-56, with 3:32 to play in the game.
PC would not get closer than 6 points the rest of the way.
Slow Start Proves Costly
Providence trailed 29-20 with 2:56 to play in the half before cutting their deficit to four, 29-25, on a Rodney Bullock three.
However, PC would trailed 32-27 at the half.
In the first half, Kris Dunn and Ben Bentil combined four 4 points and the Friars went 5 of 15 from three and 4 of 8 from the free throw line.
Bullock had 8 points in the first half, keeping the Friars close.
The Leaders
Rodney Bullock led the Friars with 18 points and 7 rebounds in the game.
Meanwhile, Kris Dunn had 9 points but made only one shot from the floor and went 7 of 11 from the free throw line.
Selection Sunday
The Friars will now wait for Sunday night when the NCAA Tournament selection show takes place on CBS.
The Friars are projected to be an 8 seed in the tournament as of Friday, March 11.
More to come...
5 Takeaways From PC's Semifinal Loss to Villanova
Rodney Bullock
Have to give credit to Rodney Bullock who got himself in early foul trouble but was able to play through it and really kept the Friars in the game, especially in the first half.
Bullock finished with 18 points on 7 of 11 shooting from the field, including 4 of 5 from three-point land.
He also grabbed 7 rebounds.
Bracketology
The Friars will be in the NCAA Tournament when the brackets are revealed on Sunday. However, they are not going to have a great seed.
According to the latest bracket projection from ESPN's Joe Lunardi, the Friars are seeded 8th and playing Texas Tech in the first round.
The 8/9 game is usually teams that are pretty equal and the winner faces the 1 seed in the next round.
Providence was projected as low as a 2 seed early in the Big East season and were projected as high as a 10 seed just within the last couple of weeks.
Points in the Paint
The Friars offense, especially in the first half, was almost elusively jump shots and it did not work out for them.
As an example, PC shot 15 three-pointers in the first half and connected on 5 of them.
Overall, Nova outscored the Friars 40-22 in the paint.
PC is not a good three-point shooting team, they are not a good shooting team. They have to get into the paint.
Ben Bentil
After lighting the Garden up on Thursday afternoon against Butler, Bentil struggled in this one and on top of that fouled out with 9:40 to play in the game.
Bentil finished the game with three points, 6 rebounds and 5 turnovers.
Dunn vs. Arcidiacono
Kris Dunn was awarded Big East Player of the Year this year after he and Ryan Arcidiacono shared it last season.
In this matchup, it was Arcidiacono getting the better of Dunn and it wasn't that close.
Arcidiacono finished with 15 points on 6 of 16 shooting from the field along with 7 rebounds and four assists.
Kris Dunn had 9 points in the game but made only one shot from the field and went 7 of 11 from the free throw line.
Dunn dished out 6 assists but had three turnovers.
