PC pushes past Holy Cross

PC pushes past Holy Cross

Things could really get interesting if the Friars played Holy Cross every year.

Renewing a one-time annual rivalry with the Crusaders for the first time since 2006, PC managed to squeeze by with an 82-77 win Tuesday night at the Dunkin Donuts Center.  Sophomore guard Bryce Cotton snapped out of a three-game scoring funk with 24 points to lead all scorers, while Vincent Council added his 4th career double-double (19 points, 11 assists).  The Friars' offense also benefited greatly from the first start of the year for sophomore guard Gerard Coleman (18 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists), and another career night from freshman LaDontae Henton (17 points, 9 rebounds).

They needed every one of those performances on this night.

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Holy Cross came into the Dunk having lost on the road at Maine Sunday night, but the Crusaders also own a win over the ACC's Boston College (82-64) earlier this month.  The dangerous Crusaders stayed in step with the Friars in the early going, and managed to take a 22-19 lead with 11:04 to play in the first half - thanks in part to some solid interior play from center Dave Dudzinski and forward R.J. Evans.  From that point, the Friars ripped off a 24-10 run with an uptempo offense and solid outside shooting from Cotton, Council and Coleman to grab a 43-32 advantage.  PC held a 47-38 lead at the half, thanks to a scoring advantage in the paint (30-20) on continued penetration into the lane by the guards.

In the second half, PC still held a nine-point lead with 15:20 to play when the Friars scored seven unanswered points on HC to take a 64-48 advantage with 14:04 remaining.  It was at this point, however, that the Friars took their foot off of the gas.  The Crusaders began to pop with consistency from the outside, and continually penetrated the lane on the Friars inside for a huge 21-5 run over the next 7:49 to tie the score at 69.  Holy Cross then edged ahead for the first time since midway through the first half on a basket from freshman guard Justin Burrell, to make it 75-73 with 2:10 left on the clock. 

It was still Crusaders by two, 77-75, with 1:25 remaining when PC put a stop to the madness.  Henton managed a reverse layup on an offensive rebound, and was also fouled on the effort...completing the three-point play to start a game-ending 7-0 run.  Cotton canned two free throws with :02 seconds left for the final margin, and the Friars escaped a valiant second-half comeback attempt with the win...pushing their record to 5-2 on the season, and stopping a brief, two-game slide from the South Padre Island Invitational in Texas over Thanksgiving weekend.

"It was great basketball from an offensive standpoint," Friar coach Ed Cooley said afterward.  "But from a defensive standpoint, I wanted to throw up."

A close call, to be sure.  And perhaps another reason to think about things, before putting the Crusaders on the schedule again.

Friar Notes

The game was the 69th meeting between the two New England rivals, who played each other every season (sometimes two and three times per year) from 1956 through 1989.  After a particularly controversial game played at the Crusaders' home floor of the Hart Center in 1991 (an 85-84 Holy Cross win), former PC coach Rick Barnes vowed at the time to never play them again - or at least not in Worcester, any more.  PC and Holy Cross did meet again in '92 (a 77-74 Friar win) in Providence, but then did not play again until 1999 - and the Crusaders beat the Friars at the Dunk 54-43.  Tuesday night's game was just the third time the two have faced each other in the past 13 years...PC leads the overall series with Holy Cross 41-28...the Crusaders remain one of 16 schools in the country who have won both an NCAA title (1947) and an NIT championship (1954) in their program history...second chance points for PC were a huge part of the eventual outcome in the game, as the Friars managed a 16-2 margin in that category, and bested a bigger HC team with a 19-13 edge off of the offensive glass...Providence scored a total of 34 field goals (in 66 attempts, 51.5%), which was a season high...20 of those came in the first half.  By contrast, in the win over Southern, the Friars managed to score just 13 field goals for the entire 40 minute game...the defense managed a season-best seven blocked shots...Dudzinski led Holy Cross with 21 points and 11 rebounds, while Evans also scored 21, and Burrell hit for a career-best 15 points and six assists...the Crusaders' win over Boston College November 18th was their first over the Eagles since 2002 when BC was a member of the Big East, and their first over an ACC team since 1959...their last win over a Big East team came in 2005, beating Notre Dame in the post-season NIT...PC will board a chartered flight for Columbia, SC Wednesday and travel to play the South Carolina Gamecocks Thursday night at 7:00 pm (103.7 WEEI-FM, www.friars.com) in the Big East-SEC Challenge...