Bloggers
Listen to a bunch of good audio clips from the post game press conference — Courtesty of the blog “Rush the Court”
Also check out their excellent full recap article, as they reported from the game.
PC Players
Keno Davis
DeJuan Blair talks about the game.
It’s been awhile since we’ve seen a game like this — You know, Providence comes out really flat, and falls way behind in the first half. Late in the game they wake up and start a furious comeback, which falls juuuust short. Painfully short. So short I wanted to cuddle in my slanket while drinking some hot tea go lift weights.
Providence was down by as many as 20 points in the second half. However, the Friars used the three ball to climb back into the game at around the 6 minute mark. Weyinmi Efejuku was on fire in the 2nd, getting 21 of his 23 points in the half. As Villanova kept drilling their foul shots in the last few minutes, PC kept firing away — Sharaud Curry (25 points, 6-10 from 3FG) hit two DEEP threes and kept the Friars barely breathing. Efejuku even hit a ridiculous three with 1.1 seconds left to cut Nova lead to 1 — Pretty amazing considering how much they were outplayed in the first 35 minutes. The Wildcats hit two more foul shots, and the Friars couldn’t get a last shot off to try to tie it.
Turnovers, poor defense, and rebounding ultimately did the Friars in (going 20-30 from the line didn’t help either). PC committed 19 turnovers (12 in the sloppy first half) and Villanova pulled in 18 offensive rebounds. The Wildcats had 3 players with 10+ total rebounds — Dante Cunningham, Dwayne Anderson, and Reggie Redding — and outrebounded the Friars 47-37 overall.
The Friars were able to make a game out of it by going 17-40 (42.5%) from behind the arc. Jeff Xavier was 5-13, Curry was 6-10, and Efejuku was 4-7 from three point land.
Scottie Reynolds led the Wildcats with 31 points, going 13-15 from the line. Dwayne Anderson (um, who?) set a career high with 19 points (who doesn’t against us!)
Providence falls to 6-4 in the BIG EAST, while Villanova improves to 6-3.
STUFF TO NOTE:
1. Brian McKenzie FOULED OUT of the game at the ELEVEN MINUTE mark in the 2nd half. WTF?
2. Marshon Brooks turned his ankle in the first half and had to go to the trainers room to tape it up. He came back in the game but wasn’t really effective and didn’t see much time in the 2nd half.
3. LOST better be good tonight, or I’m REALLY going to lose it here.
4. Tim Higgins Sucks. I mean, I rarely complain about the refs here, but that was borderline atrocious. Please leave your thoughts on Tim Higgins here. And curse as much as possible. I encourage it.
Despite the loss, Marvin Barnes had this to say after the game:
Xavier was probably just harmlessly dribbling here, but he probably got called for a foul or traveling for no apparent reason
QUICK LINKS
Check back tomorrow for the usual recap roundup.
Now on to LOST.
“I saw that! Thabeet killed a guy! Did you throw a trident?”
That’s pretty much sums up the 2nd half of the game. I’m pretty sure there were horses, and a man on fire at some point.
Despite keeping it close in the first half by trailing only 38-34, The Providence Friars (14-7, 6-3) got absolutely blown out in the 2nd on the way to a 94-61 loss to the #2 UCONN Huskies (20-1, 9-1).
Your 2nd half scoring? UCONN 56, PC 27.
UCONN outplayed Providence in every way imaginable. Blocking, rebounding, outside shooting, foul shooting, not getting any fouls called on them…you name it. Their fans even won at being most despicable unoriginal, chanting “How’s Your Father” “How’s your brother” to Weyinmi Efejuku Jeff Xavier as he was shooting foul shots on the court (his father passed away a few weeks ago his brother is an idiot). You stay classy original Connecticut! (Oh, and if you think I’m being a hypocrit after what the fans said to Eric Devendorft, you are wrong. That was at least true, and not going after the guys family!)
The Friars had no answer for Hasheem Thabeet inside, who had a ridiculous triple double - 15 points, 11 rebounds, 10 BLOCKS. He really dominated on defense, as PC could not getting any inside game going.
AJ Price finally backed up his trash talking from a year ago, barely missing anything out on the court. He finished with 19 points on 8-12 shooting, 3-4 from downtown…during the game he reached 1,000 career points.
Randall Hanke led the Friars in scoring with 14 points, although some of that was during garbage time. There really were no other performances worth mentioning other than Kale’s 12 points, which pretty much all came in the first half. Oh, and Kale and McD both got technicals. That was sure fun.
With the win, UCONN will move to #1 in the country after current #1 Duke lost to Wake Forest earlier in the week.
UCONN’s starters came out ready to fight today
QUICK LINKS
Thanks all who participated in the live blog! It was fun, should do it again sometime.
Check back for a full recap tomorrow
UPDATE: Apparently the chants were directed towards Xavier and “Where’s your brother”. If that is true, I indeed apologize for jumping the gun on what was initially reported.
UPDATE 2: I caught up with Marvin Barnes and asked what he would do to Thabeet if he was still playing
What started out as an anti-three point contest, turned into a possible blowout, which then morphed into an almost tight game in the final two minutes.
Both teams shot like ass from behind the arc for the first 90% of the game — but the Friars shot less like ass overall and capilized on Cincy turnovers to hold a small lead for most of the game.
With 6:30 remaining in the game, the Friars led by SEVENTEEN points after several Cincinnati turnovers (they had 17 for the game) lead to easy Providence buckets. Randall Hanke was really getting it done on both ends of the court — he scored 11 of his 15 points in the second half.
Easy peasy win, eh? Not so fast chachi.
Dion Dixon (0 points in the first half) decided to take matters into his own hands and just start launching threes with no fear. He hit 3 in a row to cut the lead to 8. After finally missing one, Dixon hit yet another three. Cincinnati found themselves only down 7 with the ball, and only a few minutes remaining.
Uh oh. I already saw this episode over the weekend.
Thankfully, the Friars were able to make a few offensive plays and nail their foul shots down the stretch.
Sharaud Curry had a great game (especially in the first half, to spark the team when they were down by 4 points), finishing with 12 points, 5 assists, 4 steals, and 3 rebounds.
Jonathan Kale also was solid on offense, scoring 14 points on 5-6 shooting (4-6 from the LINE!).
Geoff McDermott led the game with 11 boards. Randall Hanke grabbed 7 rebounds to go along with his team high 15 points.
The Friars shot a disgusting 3-20 (15%) from downtown.
Mike Williams led Cincinnati in scoring with 21 points on 10-16 shooting. Cincinnati shot 6-20 (30%) from behind the arc, but 5 of those came in the last 5 minutes.
Cincy star Deonta Vaughn was held in check with only 6 points.
QUICK LINKS
Check back tomorrow for the full recap as usual.
The Providence Friars (11-5, 3-1) fell short again on the road, losing their first BIG EAST game of the season to the Georgetown Hoyas 82-75.
The Friars looked great in the first half, leading by as many by 9, and took a 36-33 lead into halftime. Weyinmi Efejuku started out the game on fire, getting 11 points in the first half.
Four minutes into the second half, the Friars were up 44-40 thanks to Brian McKenzie’s third three-pointer of the game (he’s starting to come around, eh?). Then it all went to hell. Over the next 9 minutes the Hoyas went on a 26-6 run, thanks to poor Friar shooting, Greg Monroe being awesome, and horrible, horrible officiating.
However, the Friars did not quit when they were down 14 points with 6 minutes left. They were able to cut the lead to THREE with a minute left, and had the ball.
Missed layup by Weyinmi Efejuku. Monroe ends up with a fast break dunk. Awful 4 point swing. Sound familiar? Almost the same scenario at the end of the BC game. Frantic comeback in a short period of time; could have been in a position to win if not for a missed layup.
The Hoyas couldn’t hit their foul shots, but the Friars comeback fell short with missed threes on consecutive possessions by Sharaud Curry and Brooks.
Greg Monroe was phenomenal all around, getting 18 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists, 5 steals, and 3 blocks. Whew.
The Hoyas just killed the Friars on the boards, with a 39-29 overall advantage.
Marshon Brooks led the Friars in scoring with 13 points, 15 of them in the 2nd half.
Providence continued their hot shooting from behind the arc, hitting 10-23 (43.5%).
Despite the loss, the Friars showed a lot in the this game — Hanging with one of the big boys of the B-EAST on their own home court, and showing a lot of heart in their 2nd half comeback.
Next game for the Friars is huge. ESPN2 against 4-0 Marquette next Saturday at the Dunk.
QUICK LINKS
Check for the full recap article tomorrow!
What a shooting performance!
The Providence Friars improved to 11-4 on the season and 3-0 in the BIG EAST after defeating Cincinnati on the road in a crazy 87-79 victory.
The Friars controlled most of the game, leading by 7 at the half, and up by as many as 12 with 10 minutes to go in the game. However, Cincy quickly roared back, eventually tying up the game at 66-66 with 7 minutes left. Providence would get their lead back to 9, thanks to a big three by Jeff Xavier (12 points, 3-5 from downtown) and Weyinmi Efejuku’s ability to get to the line.
The Bearcats would make yet another charge, cutting the Friars’ lead to 2 with only 2 minutes left. Jeff Xavier then hit an amazing clutch three-pointer (he was not even close to being set) to push PC’s lead back to 5 with :53 seconds left.
The Friars were an incredible 12-24 (50%) from three-point land, with SIX different players hitting a three.
Weyinmi Efejuku was the leading scorer for PC with 18 points, thanks to an 11-14 effort at the line. He also had 7 assists, 6 rebounds, 2 steals, and a block!
Randall Hanke had 4 blocks. McD had 8 rebounds.
Deonta Vaughn and Mike Williams both had 20 points for Cincinnati, who falls to 10-5 overall and 0-2 in the BIG EAST.
As expected, the Bearcats were a force on the offensive glass, pulling down 19 offensive boards for 21 second chance points. PC had 7 offensive boards, and was out rebounded 40-34 overall. However, one of those 7 offensive rebounds was incredibly important — Geoff McDermott pulled down an Efejuku miss with 1:53 on the clock, allowing the Friars to keep the possession to allow Xavier to hit the big three.
3-0! Bring on Georgetown!
LINGERING QUESTION
Why was Curry wearing #10 instead of the usual #4?
QUICK LINKS
Check back tomorrow for the regular full recap article!
The Friars are now 2-0 in the BIG EAST after defeating DePaul at home by a score of 62-54.
Providence was in control most of the game, and led by as many as 12 after an unusual hot start. DePaul clawed back and never let the game get too far out of reach. With 10 minutes left, DePaul was able to cut the defecit to 1. However, Geoff McDermott stepped up offensively and scored PC’s next 5 points. DePaul continued to hang around, but PC was able to put them away with some clutch possessions.
Quick Points of the Game
- Sharaud Curry was the story in the first half, picking up 11 points and 4 rebounds.
- McDermott took control in the 2nd half when DePaul was threatening to make a comeback, hitting a long 3 and a nice jumper consecutively. He finished with 11 points and 9 rebounds for the 2nd half (13 points, 10 rebounds overall)
- Weyinmi Efejuku played the role of a closer, swishing a key 3 pointer with 1:49 remaining to push the lead to 7, and converting on a wide open layup when DePaul forgot to guard him on an inbounds play.
- Providence shot 9-25 (36%) from behind the arc.
- DePaul’s sophomore star Dar Tucker only had 12 points on 4-17 shooting…DePaul shot only 20-57 (35%) from the field overall.
Quick Links
Random TV Highlight
At the end of the game Shawna Hasset interviewed Efejuku and coach Davis. Hasset asked Weyinmi:
“What are you going to say to your teammates after the win?”
Wey said something about saying what a great game they played and to work hard in practice. The best was my wife’s response.
Mrs. Blog remarked, “Well That’s a pretty stupid question, dumbass [referring to Hasset]”
Indeed.
The Friars started off their Big East season with a 75-54 win over the St. John’s Red Storm. They had their typical slow start and found themselves down 11-0 early on. However, Sharaud Curry stepped up and scored a few consecutive baskets. The Friars grabbed the lead at 18-17 and did not look back.
St. John’s made a ton of mistakes in the first half, comitting 13 turnovers of their 16 turnovers. The Friars took a 33-25 point lead into the half.
Providence would not let the Johnnies back into the game into the second half, shooting 60% from the field versus St. John’s 32%. Providence even shot well from behind the arc, hitting 4-8 in the second half (6-18, 33% overall).
Sharaud Curry and Randall Hanke were clearly the stars of the game.
Curry ended up with 16 points and 8 assists, hitting a lot of nice pull up jump shots. Is he back?!?
Hanke was great on both ends of the court. The big man had 17 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 blocks.
The Friars’ next game is Saturday night versus DePaul.
The Friars put together a near flawless first half of basketball to jump out to a big lead that Maine would never be able to come back from.
Final Score: 83-62
It was Jeff “Please don’t dribble” Xavier’s turn to be the star today, getting 23 points (16 in the first half) off the bench. He hit 5 threes (4 in the first half) and was a perfect 6-6 from the line.
McDermott filled up the stat sheet again, pulling down 14 boards (6 offensively) and scoring 12 points. However, he struggled again from the line, shooting 3-8.
The Friars pretty much won the game in the first half. But Oh, it was such a glorious first half. Best ball the Friars have played all year. They only had ONE FREAKING TURNOVER IN THE WHOLE HALF (Regardless if Jeff Xavier’s uncle was in fact the official scorekeeper). The Friars forced 10 Maine turnovers in the half and scored 22 points off those miscues. PC shot 50% from the field, and hit 7 threes (4 by Xavier).
The second half was a little sloppier, as the Friars committed 9 turnovers and only shot 2-10 from beyond the arc. However, Maine couldn’t capitalize and only shot 40% from the field, getting only 7 points off turnovers. Providence still outscored Maine 33-30 in the 2nd. The best highlight was a full court McDermott football pass caught by Marshon Brooks who slammed it home.
Sharaud Curry had a quiet shooting game, but had a lot of nice passes that led to 7 assists. He sat out a bunch in the 2nd half, but Keno Davis said he wanted to rest him since it was the 4th game in 8 days.
Kale had a strong shooting game from inside, hitting 6-9 from the field and getting 13 points.
Providence had another game of 10 or more steals, McDermott, Efejuku, and Xavier all had 3.
MORE TO COME TOMORROW (Charts, breakdowns, and BOWLS OF PASTA)
First of all, no live blog tonight…I had to run out at the last minute but followed the score on my trusty update-every-10-minutes stupid ESPN.com through my phone.
Final Score: 111-87
It shouldn’t even have been as close as that…the Friars led by 34 late in the game until they decided to let Sacred Heart score some pity points.
Just a quick recap…the Friars absolutely destroyed Sacred Heart tonight thanks to the season debut of the PROVIDENCE FRIAR THREE-POINT SHOW. It’s good to see you again. It’s been too long.
Specificially, Marshon Brooks does it again — this time outdoing his previous career night which occurred….oh… a mere 48 HOURS ago. Marshon poured in 30 points (24 in the first half) on 11-15 shooting, nailing 5 of 8 from super downtown. Oh and he had 5 steals. IN 23 MINUTES. I think he spent the other 17 minutes operating the scoreboard and announcing the game. It was the first time a Friar scored over 30 since Randall Hanke against Northeastern in 2005.
As Joe Hasset put it, Brooks was “HOT AS A PISTOL”
Curry also had his best game of the season to date, scoring 15 points and hitting 3/4 from 3-point land. He also had 8 assists.
McDermott was the leader of the glass, bringing down 13 boards while also chipping in 12 points.
More to come later tonight.
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