Providence Friars Fall Flat at Home Against St. John’s, 83-70

St. John’s entered their game at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center 0-3 in the Big East and last in 3-point shooting. Neither of those things were immediately evident as the Red Storm started the game on fire from downtown. Behind an 8/13 (61.5%) performance from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes St. John’s was able to force Ed Cooley’s team out of their zone defense and take a 42-30 lead into the locker room. Chris Obekpa only played 5 minutes in the first half due to foul trouble but it didn’t matter as Phil Greene IV 4/7 from deep and D’Angelo Harrison went 3/5 from 3-point range.

Asked after the game whether he regretted not coming out of the zone sooner Ed Cooley responded, “no. I regret our desire and focus early. This loss is on me.”

The Red Storm lead ballooned to 17 at the 17:19 mark of the second half. Providence showed some fight though as they went on a 16-2 run over the next 9 minutes to draw the Friars within 3 points with Tyler Harris scoring 7 straight points to finish off the run. St. John’s would answer with 8 points between Harrison and Greene and eventually the lead was back to 10 and St. John’s was in control the rest of the way.

LaDontae Henton scored 22 points to lead all scorers and did his best to carry the team but the Friars were ultimately done in by their perimeter defense and poor performance from the free throw line. The Friars were 14/25 from the charity stripe which is a less than good 56%. Providence had 19 offensive rebounds and scored 20 second chance points against St. John’s 28 total rebounds. That wasn’t enough to diffuse the hot shooting for St. John’s who finished 10/17 from 3-point range on the game. The Friars were 6/21 from 3-point range on the night.

Kris Dunn had another impressive statline but the statistics are less meaningful when you lose at home. Dunn finished with 17 points, 10 assists, 8 rebounds and 2 steals. He also had 5 turnovers.

Greene and Harrison led St. John’s with 20 points a piece, Sir’Dominic Pointer had 18 points and Rysheed Jordan had 17 points. The only Red Storm starter not in double figures was Obekpa who finished with 2 points and eventually fouled out of the game.

“Urgency and concentration was not there. Harrison caught it and our hands were down and missed too many free throws,” said Cooley about why his team lost. The Friars will look to rebound from this home loss when they travel to Omaha to take on Creighton on Saturday night.

Notes:

• LaDontae Henton passed Ernie DiGregorio to move into 9th on the all-time list of points scored in a career in his 119th career game.
• Tyler Harris scored 12 points off the bench and showed some signs of improvement. He also showed some of the same issues he has been dealing with.
• Ben Bentil scored 8 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Bentil still takes too many 3’s and jumpers for my liking.
• Providence led for just 10 seconds in this game.

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Mike Hopkins

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