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Providence Friars Overcome Injuries, Foul Trouble & Refs for Road Win at #24 Georgetown
The Providence Friars and (#24) Georgetown Hoyas met at the Verizon Center Wednesday night in Washington DC. Kris Dunn was dealing with a sore back and was routinely being stretched out by a trainer during long timeouts. You wouldn’t have known Dunn’s back was bothering him by the way he played. The soaring sophomore had a big first half and finished the game with 12 points, 3 rebounds, 7 assists and 7 steals. Dunn spent more than 6 minutes on the Friar bench in the middle of the second half but LaDontae Henton came alive during that time. Henton was joined by contributions from Ben Bentil, Carson Desrosiers and Junior Lomomba.
Henton struggled for much of the night but was able to grit through an apparent nagging injury to lead the Friars, along with Bentil, with 16 points. Henton did move ahead of PC legend Marvin Barnes to take sole possession of 6th place on the all-time points scored list and now trails Jamel Thomas. Bentil had a career game for the Friars and recorded his first ever double double with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Bentil and Desrosiers were able to keep Josh Smith in check for much of the night. The Georgetown big man ultimately would foul out late in the game and finished with 10 points and 6 rebounds. Desrosiers finished with 14 points, 3 rebounds and 2 blocks.
Lomomba’s impact isn’t readily seen in the box score but the sophomore transfer from Cleveland State was very good on the defensive end and even made a couple key baskets in the second half. Lomomba and Kyron Cartwright were able to handle the guard duties while Dunn was down with foul trouble. Tyler Harris only played 12 minutes off the bench and was ineffective. Harris scored 3 points on 1/3 shooting. Jalen Lindsey had 5 points off the bench in 12 minutes.
Georgetown got out to an early lead but Providence used a run in the last 4 minutes to close the gap and take a lead for a short time late in the first half. With the game tied at 38 on the final possession of that half Georgetown’s leading scorer D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera buried a deep wing trey to give the Hoyas a 41-38 lead heading to the break. Smith-Rivera finished with a game-high 21 points.
The story at the end of the game was the referees and that’s always a sad state of affairs. Desrosiers was called for a dead-ball technical foul in one of the most bizarre calls I’ve ever seen. With Big East head of officials John Cahill in attendance I’m sure a discussion will be had with this officiating crew.
The Friars were able to overcome Henton’s nagging injury, Dunn’s foul trouble and the refs to grit out another Big East road win. This marks their 3rd road win in the league season so far and its the first time Providence has beaten a ranked team on the road since 2004. Providence will travel to Xavier on Saturday afternoon to take on a Xavier team that lost their first home game of the season Wednesday night against Creighton. Saturday’s game will end this tough 3-game road stretch for Providence.
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2 responses to “Providence Friars Overcome Injuries, Foul Trouble & Refs for Road Win at #24 Georgetown”
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Tremendous work ahead with the hardest part of the schedule ahead. Team Defense must improve. Free throws, second half must be continued. At first they were causing the loss before they insured the win. Freshman must grow dramatically in the next 2 weeks. Dunn should be given every break to deal with his injuries. LaDonte needs to get fire back in his belly. Carson and Chuke are both playing much better. Harris is the deciding factor on what this team will do. Focus and effort must improve to achieve a fantastic season.