X-Rays Negative on Ben Bentil’s Ankle, Friar Big to Miss Bryant

Providence’s locker room at halftime of last night’s game against Boston College was described by Ed Cooley afterwards as a “triage center.” Kris Dunn left the bench with a few minutes left in the first half with an apparent virus and then Ben Bentil rolls his ankle and makes his way to the locker room with a couple minutes left in the half. By the time Cooley and the rest of the Friars got to the locker room for halftime things were not looking up. Dunn left the arena with the virus but Bentil did return to the bench for the final 7 or so minutes of the game to watch with his teammates. All of Friartown was holding its collective breaths awaiting results of an X-ray of Bentil’s left ankle.

The results are in and the x-ray came back negative, per Kevin McNamara of the Providence Journal. No fractures. That’s good news for Providence as Bentil has been a key cog in the midst of a breakout sophomore campaign. Bentil will miss Saturday’s game against Bryant and there is no official timetable for his return, but getting the good news that he didn’t fracture anything in his foot or ankle is a big positive for Providence. Bentil was seen on campus with a boot on his left foot and he is on crutches.

McNamara also reported that Cooley classified Bentil, Fazekas and Dunn as “doubtful” for the Bryant game. Fazekas has a confirmed case of mononucleosis and Dunn didn’t leave his dorm room on Thursday with a stomach bug.

If the Friars were going to have to deal with a rash of injuries all at once, this isn’t a bad time for it to happen. The next game is Saturday against a 2-8 Bryant team that has one win against Division III Emerson College and the other against Prairie View A&M — a team ranked 344th by Kenpom.com making them 7th worst in NCAA Division 1. After that game, Providence has a 6 day final exam break with no games and limited practice time before they face Rider, a 1-8 team with the win against Houston Baptist — the team ranked 1 slot behind Bryant by Kenpom.com at 326th. The next game is a road trip to Amhert to face UMass on December 21st before another long break leading up to Big East play beginning on December 31st at Butler.

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Mike Hopkins

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