Providence Friars Fall Flat, 89-61, On Villanova’s Senior Night

The game started with Villanova jumping out to a 9-0 lead and that was a bad omen for the night. For much of the early first half Providence had more turnovers than field goals. Villanova scored 14 points of 14 first half turnovers by the Friars. The number for the game would be an ugly 25 Villanova points off 15 Providence giveaways. Other ugly disparities on the stat sheet in Tuesday night’s game was 26/31 from the free throw line for Villanova against just 6/12 free throws for Providence and 13/25 from downtown for the Wildcats while the Friars managed just 3/10 from 3-point range.

Senior night at The Pavilion had the fans extra enthused but they would keep the cheering up all night as senior Darrun Hilliard went off for a game-high 24  points, including 6/11 from downtown. Fellow senior JayVaughn Pinkston also had a good scoring night with 16 points. Junior Ryan Arcidiacono  also had a solid game with 13 points.

For the Friars LaDontae Henton was blanketed early and often but still should have been able to find more than 2 shot attempts in the first 20 minutes of action. Henton connected on both for 5 first half points and would add 7 points for a game total of 12 points but he never really got going. Kris Dunn didn’t do a lot of scoring as he finished 2/10 from the field for 4 points. Dunn did have 7 assists but also 6 turnovers in front of 12 NBA scouts in attendance at The Pavilion. The +/- numbers were pretty ugly too. Carson Desrosiers did not play in this one due to a knee injury he suffered in the DePaul game.

Tyler Harris had one of his better scoring nights with 18 points to lead the Friars. Kyron Cartwright added 12 points.

I had written this game off as a loss in my pregame prediction but I thought the Friars would keep it respectable. Many fans may try to find solace in looking back to a late season blowout loss at Creighton on their senior night but this drubbing was worse. Villanova’s largest lead was 30 and despite Providence managing to cut the deficit to 6 early in the second half, this was a wire-to-wire win for the Wildcats that never really felt like the Friars could win.

Providence will look to rebound against Marquette on Sunday. That will be Bryce Cotton Bobblehead Day at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center for the 3:30pm tip.

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Mike Hopkins

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