Friars fall short, Irish fight back to win 75-69
Saturday, March 03, 2012
It was an opportunity missed for the Providence Friars. And opportunities like this one don’t come along all that often.
Despite some cold outside shooting during the first half, PC managed to stay in the game on the road with 20th ranked Notre Dame – trailing by only three at halftime.
Then, the trap door opened. And the Friars fell through it.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTPaced by 6-9 junior center Jack Cooley’s dominating first half performance, the Fighting Irish fought through their own shooting woes and caught fire against the Friar defense to open the second half, and held off a late run to win 75-69 at the Purcell Pavilion in South Bend, IN.
“We’ve fought for open shots all year and had them tonight, we just didn’t put them down.,” head coach Ed Cooley reflected afterward. “Our guys have also fought hard all year long and there were stretches tonight where our lack of depth really showed.”
In an evenly played game early, the Friars and Fighting Irish exchanged leads, with PC threatening to run past an Irish team wounded from two straight road losses in the past week. But the reason the Friars couldn’t run off and hide was two-fold.
One, PC was woeful from the three-point stripe, an astounding 0-for-10 in the first half despite open, uncontested looks. And two, was Jack Cooley.
Cooley nearly matched his career high in the first half with 21 points and 10 rebounds (his 12th double-double of the year), scoring 21 of the first 27 points the Irish put on the board. Even with the Friars misfiring from the outside, Vincent Council managed to keep PC close with mid-range jumpers, and Providence found itself down 31-28 at the break – but still very much in the game.
That changed at the start of the second half. After LaDontae Henton managed the first basket of the half to pull PC within one, Notre Dame started an incredible 29-5 stretch over the next 10:29. Providence missed 14 consecutive shots during the run, while the Irish hit 10-of-14. 6-7 sophomore Alex Dragicevich got the hit parade started with the first made three-pointer of the game early in the half, and ND never looked back.
Behind Dragicevich, Jerian Grant and Eric Atkins, the lead extended to 60-35 with 8:57 to play. It didn’t take long for matters to get out of hand.
However, the Friars showed some fight. Behind Council, Henton and Gerard Coleman, a 14-2 Providence run pulled PC within 13 and 5:39 still remaining. It was tough closing further, even though a Coleman steal and layup brought it to 69-63 with :53 seconds left.
That would be the end of any comeback, however.
Cooley led all scorers with a career high 27 points, with a career high-tying 17 rebounds, and Dragicevich added 12 points off the bench as five Irish players hit double figures. PC was led by Council and Coleman with 17 points each, and Henton contributed his 9th double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds.
“I thought we showed some resiliency,” Cooley said. “But our inside game really let us down. We had some defensive breakdowns and it really hurt us.”
And it also helped the Friars miss out on a golden opportunity.
Friar Notes
PC’s shooting problems got a contribution from Bryce Cotton, who missed his first six shots, and nine of his first 10…many of them open looks. Cotton finished with seven points, all in the second half…four players tried to defend the post against Cooley, with no one having much success. Kadeem Batts fouled out with 14:37 left in the game, scoring just two free throws; Brice Kofane also had two points before fouling out with less than a minute left. Bilal Dixon had six points with two rebounds, Ron Giplaye started but played only four minutes, scoring two points…while shooting the first half “oh-fer” from three-point range, PC actually hit better than 50% of their two-point attempts…the Friars also committed a season-low five turnovers for the game, but were outrebounded 40-35…ND wrapped up an outstanding 16-1 home record (21-10 overall, 13-5 Big East) with the win, which gave them a double-bye in the Big East Tournament next week. The Irish are also 47-6 at home against league opponents over the past six years, which is the best home record in the conference over that time…Notre Dame has five wins this year over Top 25 teams, and will reach the post-season for a school-record 12th consecutive year…while the Irish won’t play in New York until next Thursday, the Friars (15-16 overall, 4-14 Big East) will open up in the Tournament’s first round Tuesday night at 7:00 pm as the 15th seed facing the #10 seed. The opponent won’t be determined until after Saturday’s play…