PC Handles Brown 80-49. Gardner Appeal Denied By NCAA
Tuesday, December 06, 2011
The Brown Bears were hoping to pick up their second upset over in-state rival this season Monday night. It didn’t happen. The Providence Friars handled the Bears 80-49.
Much like their game at Iowa on Saturday, the Bears got off to a cold shooting start connecting on just 4 of their first 20 attempts. That allowed the Friars to jump to a double digit lead they would never relinquish.
Providence led 34-19 at halftime. The Friars held Brown to 22% from the field in the game’s first 20 minutes (7-32).
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe Friars extended their lead to as many as 41 points in the second half. Providence dominated play in the paint outscoring Brown 42-12.
Junior point guard Vincent Council led PC with 21 points. Council was one rebound shy of a triple-double as he finished with 11 assists and 9 rebounds. Sophomore Bryce Cotton had 19 (4-8 from three) as did freshman LaDontae Henton who also pulled down 9 rebounds.
Brown was led by junior Andrew McCarthy who had 12 points and 7 rebounds. Fellow junior Matt Sullivan was the only other Bear in double figures with 10 points.
The win lifts PC’s record to (7-2) on the season while the loss drops Brown to (4-6).
The Bears return to action Wednesday night when they entertain UNH at the Pizzatola Sports Center while the Friars host Boston College at the Dunk Thursday night.
NOTES:
-PC received a bit of bad news before the game when it learned that freshman guard Kiwi Gardner was ruled officially ineligible for the remainder of the season. The school exhausted all of its appeals in an effort to get Gardner eligible this season but was unsuccessful in overturning the NCAA’s initial decision.
-Ed Cooley has the Friars playing the way that he wants them to play which is light years better than last year’s team under Keno Davis. Providence actually puts in effort on the defensive end of the floor this season and they run a much more disciplined offense and share the ball more than they did last season.
-Former Friar Joe Hassett is among the many Friar faithful who believe in new head coach Ed Cooley. Hassett said that Cooley is as good a communicator as he has ever seen in college basketball.
-Had Council picked up one more rebound for the triple-double, he would have been the first PC player since Geoff McDermott who had 12 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists against Harvard at the Dunk on 12-22-06.
-In the last 2 games against Brown, Council has had a total of 40 points and 27 assists.
-The string of bad luck continues for the Bears. Starting power forward Dockery Walker did not make the trip to the Dunk suffering from flu-like symptoms. He is the third player to miss a game recently due to the flu. Freshman Longi Yiljep missed the Iowa game due to the flu while fellow freshman Jon Schmidt missed the Monmouth game with the flu.
-The radio voice of the URI Rams – Steve MacDonald was on hand to watch the game Monday night. MacDonald’s Rams host the Friars December 23rd at the Ryan Center.
