Friars Win: (5) Butler 60, (4) Providence 74

• The first half saw Providence get off to a very hot start from the field. Ben Bentil started 7/8 before missing his last 4 shots of the half. The Friars were outplaying Butler and looked like the better team. Butler managed to cut a Providence lead — that had climbed to 12 at one point — down to 2 at the half by shooting a blistering 7/10 from beyond the 3-point line.
• Providence was able to quell Butler’s 3-point shooting in the second half and force the Bulldogs to take tougher two point shots.
• Bentil was on absolute fire all afternoon and finished with XX points. That ties Greedy Peterson’s record of 38 points in a Big East Tournament game and was 4 points shy of Donny Marshall’s Big East Tournament record of 42 points.
• Kris Dunn played well, finishing with 15 points and 7 assists on the afternoon. He was an efficient 6/8 from the field.
• Jalen Lindsey had another strong showing at Madison Square Garden even though he only scored 8 points in this game. He pulled down 7 rebounds and played very good defense on Roosevelt Jones, Kellen Dunham and Kelan Martin at different points.
• Rodney Bullock wasn’t flashy but led the Friars with 9 rebounds and added 8 points.
• The Friars advance to take on top seed Villanova on Friday, March 11th at Madison Square Garden at 6:30pm ET. The game will be televised on FS1.

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Mike Hopkins

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