Bulldogs' bark almost bites PC

Bulldogs' bark almost bites PC

For the first 33 minutes, Bryant looked like the 8-2 team on the floor at the Dunkin Donuts Center - not Providence.

But thanks to a late defensive surge and a career high performance from sophomore guard Bryce Cotton, the Friars were able to get past the Bryant Bulldogs 72-61 Saturday afternoon.

The noon-time start seemed to catch PC napping at the beginning, as two early Bulldog baskets forced Friar coach Ed Cooley to call a time out two-and-a-half minutes into the game.  Replacing two of his four starters with walk-ons Chris Carter and Ted Bancroft, the Friar regulars did get the message.

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But the message didn't really arrive until much later in the game.

A 15-4 Bulldog run gave Bryant a 23-17 lead with 5:05 left in the first half, as from the opening tip it appeared PC had a head start on their semester exam break.  Cotton kept the team afloat with a phenominal 20 first-half points, and his teammates managed to respond somewhat with a 12-5 run to give PC a 29-28 lead late.  Bryant's Corey Maynard hit a running jumper before the half as the Bulldogs - surprisingly - led the Friars 30-29 at halftime.

After Providence scored the first basket of the second half, Bryant then ripped off nine unanswered points - forcing Cooley to call another early time out.  The Bulldogs, 1-8 coming into the game after two double-digit road losses earlier in the week at Yale and Quinnipiac, led the Friars 39-31 with 16:26 to play. 

It was still an eight point Bulldog lead before an 11-3 spurt, led by freshman LaDontae Henton, pulled the Friars into a 44-all tie with 12:12 to go.  However, with Maynard, Dan Calandrillo and Frankie Dobbs finding the mark from long range, Bryant managed to keep PC at bay and pulled out to a 56-49 advantage with just 6:50 left on the Dunk clock.

An upset in the making?  It certainly could have been.

From this point, however, it appeared that PC's superior conditioning and defensive pressure began to wear the Bulldogs down, as Cotton finally received offensive help from Henton, Vincent Council and Gerard Coleman.  Most of the damage came from the free throw line, as PC connected on 14 consecutive free throws as a team in the second half...and they slowly pulled away.  With the near perfect day from the line, the defense finally turned up the tempo on the Bryant offense, limiting touches to super soph Alex Francis (17 points, 13 rebounds), and rushed shots from Dobbs, Maynard and Ben Altit.

The result was an overwhelming 19-0 run to end the game, over a 6:09 stretch off of the clock.  After leading by seven, Bryant could not score again until Maynard hit a rather meaningless layup with just :41 seconds left.  The Bulldogs missed 12 of their final 14 shots from the floor, missing 10 in a row at one point, while PC hit seven of their last 11. 

Ball game.  Defensive pressure, combined with no panic from the regulars, runs the Friar record to a solid 9-2 at the semester break, while the Bulldogs look to be a better team than 1-9 might suggest.  Give the opposition credit.  But the Friars have a 10-day break for semester exams...and they've earned every minute of their time off.

Even if it seemed to start a little early.

Friar Notes

Providence shot 22-24 from the free throw line for the game, hitting at a 91.7% clip - the top performance so far this season, and their best mark in a little more than a year.  They needed every last one of the freebies to drop in this one...Cotton's day included 11-16 from the floor (hitting the only two threes PC had for the game), and a perfect 10-10 from the line for his career high 34 points.  Cotton had 26 points earlier this season against Florida A&M, and 24 in the win at Fairfield...Henton contributed 13 points and a career-best 12 rebounds in collecting his second double-double of the season, plus added a career high 6 blocked shots.  In two of the previous three games played, the Friars got 7 blocks from Brice Kofane against Boston College, and a career-high 7 blocks from Bilal Dixon in South Carolina...Gerard Coleman added 13 points and five rebounds, while Council struggled with 3-14 shooting and just eight points.  He did add 7 assists and two steals...Bryant was led by Francis' 17 points and 13 rebounds, and received solid contributions from Dobbs and Calandrillo with 12 points each.  Maynard chipped in 11 points with six assists for the Bulldogs...the PC defense, allowing Bryant to shoot 48% from the floor in the first half, limited the Bulldogs to just 35% shooting in the second half...6-10 freshman center Ben Altit had a solid game with seven points, three rebounds and three blocks, showing some range with a three pointer as well...a big game key came from second chance points in this one.  While Bryant had one more offensive rebound than PC for the game (10-9), the Friars scored 13 second chance points, while the Bulldogs scored zero...Bryant has eight days off before continuing their season-opening Bataan-like march of 11 road games out of 12 played.  They'll face Boston College at BC on December 18th...PC has 10 days off for semester exams, and will next play New Hampshire on December 20th at 7:00 pm...it's now been more than 12 years since the Friars lost to a team from the Northeast Conference, while Bryant is now 0-13 in their hoop history against Big East schools...PC Director of Player Development Kevin Kurbec spent the past three seasons as a recruiting assistant coach on Tim O'Shea's staff at Bryant, before returning to Smith Hill...former Brown head coach Frank "Happy" Dobbs is an assistant on the Bryant staff, watching his son Frankie run the show at the point guard position...