PC falls again on the road, 49-40 at Georgetown
Sunday, January 01, 2012
Sometimes, victories are achieved in ways other than on the scoreboard.
Behind a stand-out defensive effort that locked up the Friars’ offense over the last 4:27 of the second half, the 12th ranked Georgetown Hoyas beat Providence 49-40 Saturday afternoon at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC.
That’s right, it was 49-40. A good, old-fashioned Big East brawl that resembled a rock fight, more than a basketball game. But while the Hoyas ended up with the win, the Friars found out they could also bounce back from a tough loss by giving a maximum effort on the defensive end.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTIn a 91-67 defeat at St. John’s Tuesday, PC allowed the Red Storm to shoot 56% from the floor. Against a better shooting team from Georgetown, the Friar defensive effort held the Hoyas to just 30% shooting, and only 3-17 (17%) firing away from three point range.
The Hoyas, now 12-1 on the year (2-0 in Big East play), came in as one of the top shooting teams in the league.
It was the Georgetown defensive effort, however, that ultimately proved to be the difference in this one. After a 4-2 lead early, PC saw the Hoyas rip off 15 unanswered points in the first half to assume command of the game at 17-4, with 10:30 to play. However, unlike at St. John’s, the Friars buckled down on their own defensive end, and despite going scoreless for an incredible 8:30 off of the game clock, PC hit the backboards and managed to pull back within eight at the break, trailing 27-19.
In the second half, the Hoyas managed to squeeze out a nine-point lead in the opening four minutes before the Friars finally found some offense. A 10-1 run, led by LaDontae Henton, Vincent Council and a three-pointer from Bryce Cotton, tied the score at 35 with 8:05 left. After allowing Georgetown six straight points, a big three by Council (putting him over 1000 points for his career), and another basket by Henton pulled PC back within one, 41-40, with 4:27 remaining.
Game on, right? Not so fast…as the Hoyas’ defense was equal to the task.
Georgetown held the Friars scoreless over the final 4:27, with key scores from Markel Starks and Jason Clark, plus free throws down the stretch, to seal the win. Despite a scoreless streak of their own in the second half lasting 7:45, the Hoyas had enough offense at the end to pull away.
Credit the Georgetown zone defense over the last four minutes, with a switch made by Coach John Thompson III to put extra length at the top of the zone (6-8 freshman Otto Porter and the 6-3 senior Clark) that gave the Friars fits. With the PC big men in foul trouble – both Kadeem Batts and Brice Kofane fouled out of the game – the tentative play against that zone, coupled with clutch shooting by the Hoyas, proved to be the difference.
PC ended the game missing 11 of their final 13 attempts from the floor, while the Hoyas hit five of their last 10….after connecting on only three field goals in the first 15 minutes of the period.
The defensive effort was there. But defense alone was not enough on this day to win a rock fight, on the road against a nationally-ranked team in the Big East.
Friar Notes
The Friars fall to 11-4 on the season, now 0-2 in the Big East…PC was limited to just 13 made baskets for the game, matching their season low total (also 13 vs. Southern)…the 40 points scored was the lowest game total for Providence since a 51-41 loss to Brown on November 18, 2006. The last time BOTH teams failed to reach 50 in a game was February 24, 2000 when PC beat Boston College at the Dunk 45-40…Henton and Council were the only Friars to reach double figures in scoring. Henton (13 points, 11 rebounds) did have his 4th double-double effort, while Council (10 points) became the 44th player in PC history to surpass 1000 points for his career (now at 1001)…Gerard Coleman suffered through what must have been one of the toughest games of his young career. The sophomore guard from Boston finished with just three points (1-10 from the field), and hit on only one of his eight free throw attempts…Clark led the Hoyas with 16 points, while 6-10 center Henry Sims chipped in 11. Freshman Otto Porter had 12 rebounds…PC’s 25.5 % shooting performance for the game was a season-low, but they held the Hoyas to only 30.5 % themselves, the second lowest mark of the season (Brown shot only 26.5 % in a November win)…Georgetown has had six NBA draft selection over the past five years, tops in the league, with four players named to the all-Big East first team...PC opened the conference schedule with two road games for the 11th time in the now-33 year history of the league. They are now 4-19 in those road games...the losing streak in conference play extends to 17 straight, with the last Big East road win coming on January 14, 2010 at DePaul...Providence has not won against a ranked team on the road since '04, when they won at UConn...when the “Killer C’s” can’t score, the PC offense is in trouble. Council, Coleman and Cotton combined for just 7-33 from the floor, 3-13 from three point range, and only 2-10 from the line for 19 total points…Kofane turned in a strong defensive effort, finishing with nine rebounds in his 19 minutes before fouling out…it was just a year ago that Marshon Brooks scored 43 points – more than the entire team total this year – for the Friars in an 83-81 loss to Georgetown in DC…Wednesday night, the Friars will get their Big East home opener against #1 ranked Syracuse in a 9:00 pm tip-off (8:15 pre-game on 103.7 WEEI-FM, friars.com)…find out more on the Friar team by visiting www.friarbasketball.net...
