‘Desperate’ Friars dominate
Providence secures seventh Quad 1 win Saturday
PROVIDENCE – Right now, the Providence Friars are a dangerous bunch.
The late-season push continued in fine form Saturday as PC led wire-to-wire en route to dispatching scoring star Markus Howard and No. 19 Marquette, 84-72. It’s the third straight win for the Friars – a first this season – and marked the fourth time that a nationally-ranked outfit has gone down against Ed Cooley’s crew.
Just as important, Providence now has seven Quad 1 victories. Only seven teams in the country exceed the Friars in an important category when it comes to meriting NCAA Tournament consideration.
“There’s no more desperate team in America than Providence College. We know we didn’t start [the season] the way we wanted to, but we’ve talked to the players about finishing well by taking care of one game at a time,” said Cooley, referring to his team’s lackluster 7-6 non-conference record that in the eyes of many left the Friars stranded on the side of the road. “We’ve probably been desperate for the last month.
“We gave away some games early as we were trying to build our identity and chemistry, but I can’t worry about what we did two months ago,” Cooley added. “I’m just excited about where we are today and where we’re trying to go.”
The Friars go forward with a 16-12 overall record, 9-6 in Big East play. Their stock is clearly rising, which isn’t the case for Marquette after the Golden Eagles dropped their third straight. The visitors fell behind by 17 points in the first half and remained well out of reach with five minutes remaining after PC built a 7150 advantage.
“Hats off to Providence. They’re playing like a desperate team. Ed has done a great job rallying his team,” said Marquette coach Steve Wojciechowski. “They outplayed us on both ends of the floor.”
Howard’s ability to put the ball in the hoop at a prodigious rate was the story coming into Saturday. The nation’s second leading scorer saw plenty of David Duke and Maliek White and ended up with yet another big number against PC.
The game-high 38 points that Howard registered came with him shooting just 10-of-25 from the field and 3-of-9 from three. He didn’t truly get going until after Marquette (17-9, 7-7 Big East) fell into a 21-point hole as Howard netted 19 points over the final five minutes. He went to the foul line 17 times (making 15) while drawing a whopping 12 fouls.
“I’m just glad to be done with him until hopefully the Big East [Tournament] finals,” said Cooley when asked about Howard, who was dubbed Superman by the PC head coach during his postgame remarks. “I’m really happy that I’ll never see him [in the Dunkin’ Donuts Center] again.”
The most effective guard was Luwane Pipkins. He sparked the Friars with 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting and was a major reason why Providence started off the game on a major upward swing. Pipkins scored the game’s first seven points and continued to attack on his way to compiling his finest performance in a Friar uniform.
The graduate transfer from UMass has now scored in double figures in three straight games and earned a heap of praise from Wojciechowski after he saw Pipkins register just one point in the first meeting with PC.
“I’m his third coach in five years and it takes a lot of time to gain trust and learn a new culture of discipline and accountability,” said Cooley. “You go up and down with guys. Maliek came to me and suggested that he come off the bench and I told Pip that we’re going to roll with you.”
Offensively, Saturday may have been the Friars’ finest effort of the season. Six players scored 10-plus points while 18 assists were recorded on 26 baskets.
“We talked about sharing the ball and the guys followed the game plan,” said Cooley.
Added senior Kalif Young, who had 10 points, “We started out the season pretty much leading the country in assists. We had to get back to understanding who we are and understand we have a lot of different weapons.”
The only time the game got a little hairy was when Marquette moved to within nine points after Greg Elliott converted a three-point play with 11:21 remaining. PC received a reprieve after a kicked ball violation was called after the shot clock appeared to go off. With a second chance, Young backed his way down on Marquette’s rugged big man Theo John and finished strong at the rim to put the Friars back up by double figures (54-43).
“We were reeling a little bit and I looked at Kalif and told him to keep the ball and make a play,” said Cooley. “He did that.”
As expected, Howard finally caught fire with seven straight points to bring Marquette to within 13 points with 4:09 left. The Friars, however, were able to withstand the late charge and emerge with a win that keeps their NCAA hopes alive.
“We don’t want to have a NIT finish. We want to go to the big tournament,” said Young.
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RIM RATTLERS: The last time the Friars defeated four ranked teams in the same season was 2015-16. … The announced crowd of 12,805 marked the seventh time this season the Friars have drawn 10K or more in a single game at The Dunk. … Twin brothers Makhi and Makhel Mitchell checked out Saturday’s festive atmosphere from behind the PC bench. Both are 6-foot-10 power forwards and both are looking for a fresh start after transferring from Maryland in late December. … The Friars are now off until next Saturday when they travel to Villanova. … Marquette cooled off the red-hot Alpha Diallo (10 points on 1-of-9 shooting) yet the Friar senior got the free-throw line eight times and led PC in plus/ minus with a plus-12. … The Friars now have a second series sweep of a Big East opponent as Marquette joins Georgetown in said category.