UPDATED: PC Holds Off St. John’s 61-57 to Keep NCAA Tournament Hopes Alive
Sunday, March 04, 2018
The Providence College Friars men’s basketball team kept its NCAA Tournament hopes intact on Saturday, beating the St. John’s Red Storm 61-57 at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.
“We found a way to win coming off a tough Xavier loss. I thought we were really gritty against Xavier, I thought the turnovers hurt us, I thought the turnovers today hurt us a little bit, but we were able to hold on,” said Providence head coach Ed Cooley in his post-game press conference.
The win improves the Friars to 19-12 overall and 10-8 in the Big East Conference.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTAs of Saturday, March 3, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has PC as one of the last four teams into the NCAA Tournament.
Friars Hold on
The Friars took a 12 point lead, 48-36, with 8:26 to play in the game before St. John’s would rally.
The Red Storm would go on an 11-2 run to cut Providence’s lead to 50-47 following a dunk by Justin Simon with 3:30 to play in the game.
Providence still led by that score with 1:35 left to go when Kyron Cartwright knocked down a straightaway three to push PC’s lead back to six, 53-47 with1:35 to play in the game.
St. John’s would get back within five on two different occasions in the final minute before the Friars would seal the game at the free throw line.
PC was led by Rodney Bullock and Alpha Diallo, who each poured in 13 points, while Cartwright added ten.
Sloppy First Half
Trailing 16-15 with five minutes left in the half, the Friars went on a 6-0 run capped off by a Diallo layup to take a 21-16 lead with 3:56 to play.
The Red Storm would come right back, getting a three from Marvin Clark II and a layup by Bashir Ahmed to tie the game at 21 with just over three minutes left in the half.
After PC pushed the lead to 25-21, St. John’s would come back to tie it on a tip-in by Tariq Owens with 54 seconds to go.
Bullock knocked down one of two free throws with five seconds left to give the Friars a 26-25 lead at the half.
Providence had the lead at the half despite not connecting on one three and turning the ball over ten times.
Next up
The Friars will play Creighton in the quarterfinal round of the Big East Tournament on Thursday.
Game time is set for 2:30 p.m.
Related Slideshow: Providence College Basketball 2017-18 Projected Starting Lineup
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