Friars Halt Three Game Skid, Beat Rams 68-60
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Friars Halt Three Game Skid, Beat Rams 68-60
See the Five Takeaways slide show below
"Its been a long week, it's been a long week coming off of two very disturbing losses, this was a good win for us" Friars head coach Ed Cooley said after the game.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTAnother great game
Providence led by 12 points with 7:51 to play but then ran into some problems. LaDontae Henton fouled out and Kris Dunn had four fouls himself.
URI took advantage of that and pressured the Friars in the back court forcing turnovers and easy points. With the pressure causing turnovers, the Friars ten point lead was down to three points, 63-60, with 44 seconds left. Clutch free throws by Kris Dunn extended the lead and got the Friars back on the winning track.
"They resembled more of the team through 30 minutes of the Kentucky game, they looked more like that team" URI head coach Dan Hurley said about the Friars after the game.
Providence was led by Kris Dunn who had 22 points, nine rebounds and two assists. Dunn only turned the ball over two times in the game after having six turnovers in the game against Brown.
Freshman Paschal Chukwu had a major impact on this game in the ten minutes that he played. Chukwu had nine points, two blocks and a steal for the Friars and forced URI to change their attack when he was on the floor.
"I've gotta play him more minutes" Cooley said in the post game.
Tyler Harris had one of his best games of the season netting 17 points and dishing out four assists, while LaDontae Henton had 15 points and two steals before fouling out late in the game.
Great Performance
URI was led by E.C. Matthews who netted a game high 27 points for the Rams in the loss. Matthews shot nine of 15 from the floor and three of eight from beyond the three point arc and was one of only two Rams in double figures.
Next up
The Friars stay home to host Stony Brook on Saturday, December 13 at noon while the Rams return home to host Delaware state at 2 p.m.
For a further look at the Friars win over URI, see the five takeaways slideshow below.
Five Takeaways from the Friars 68-60 Win Over URI
Tyler Harris
The Friars need Tyler Harris to play well on a nightly basis if they are going to win these games and he has not been doing that.
Tonight, however, he played one of his best games of the season. Harris netted 17 points, pulled down three rebounds and had four assists for the Friars.
Harris only hit one of four three pointers but it was a big one in the second half to give PC some breathing room.
Paschal Chukwu
Freshman Pashcal Chukwu played only ten minutes in the game but had a big impact for the Friars. Chukwu went four for four from the field and had nine points, two blocks and one steal.
Paschal Chukwu also keyed a big stretch for the Friars where on the defensive end he blocked a shot, sending the Friars in transition giving Tyler Harris an open 3-pointer in which he drained.
"I've gotta play him more minutes" Coach Cooley said after the game.
E.C. Matthews
E.C. Matthews had one of his best performances of the season, netting 27 points on nine of 15 shooting and six of eight from the free throw line. He also pulled down three rebounds for URI.
The only negative about his performance tonight was the five turnovers but other then that, he was spectacular.
Kris Dunn
Today was a good game for Kris Dunn, he controlled the game and got the Friars offense in the right spots. It was also a good game for Dunn because he only turned the ball over two times, instead of the six times he turned it over in the last game.
Dunn was aggressive looking for his shot, scoring 22 points and also helped on the defensive end, pulling down nine rebounds, one shy of a double-double.
Dunn added four steals in the game.
PC will look to see more of this Kris Dunn as the season goes on.
2-3 Zone
Over the last couple of games, PC has been primarily in man to man defense and they have gotten shredded inside.
They started this game in man to man and URI was having an easy time of it like the other teams before them.
Then Ed Cooley switched to a zone defense and the Rams really struggled to run any type of offense.
"we couldn't simulate 7'2", 7'0" and a 6'8" wing guy," Dan Hurley said in the post game about the Friars large line up. URI shot 28 percent from three point land.
