PROVIDENCE — The Providence College men's basketball team that made plenty of headway during the month of February was present and accounted for during Wednesday night’s game against Xavier.
Alas, the Friars team that made a habit of committing way too many basketball sins during the season’s first three months also showed up at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.
Ultimately, Ed Cooley’s crew was more on point than off target as PC scrapped and clawed its way to an important 80-74 win in front of 11,736. Now winners of five straight and seven of their last nine, the Friars continue to grab wins by any means necessary in hopes of not having to sweat it out come Selection Sunday.
“I’m worried about DePaul," Cooley said. "We’re just trying to take care of the work we can take care of. I’m not on the selection committee, but I think we’re making a great case for ourselves.”
The Friars have 11 Big East wins, but whether they're safely in the NCAA Tournament is anybody's guess. They host the Blue Demons in Saturday’s Senior Night game and there's still next week’s Big East Tournament.
The win over the Musketeers means the Friars officially have one regular-season win over every Big East team — a point that Cooley made sure to make as his postgame presser wrapped up.
“[That fact] will be hard to beat,” he said.
The Friars (18-12, 11-6 Big East) will be a tough out if they keep getting the kind of production from Alpha Diallo (25 points), Luwane Pipkins (23 points), and David Duke (16 points). The trio combined for eight of Providence’s nine 3-pointers and proved to be the driving forces behind the team’s hot start and strong finish.
The timely play during crunch time was started when the Friars ran an isolation play for Duke, who calmly buried an elbow jumper that put PC up 71-68. Xavier’s second-half trend of trying to catch Providence continued as the Musketeers’ deficit stood at one, 75-74, after Zach Freemantle cleaned up a missed shot with 1:39 remaining.
Coming out of a timeout, the Friars dribbled the ball along the perimeter before Diallo bounced a pass to Pipkins. Standing along the right wing and the shot clock down to four seconds, Pipkins buried a 3 that made it a two-possession game with 71 seconds left in the contest.
Xavier’s Naji Marshall airballed a 3-point bid, and Pipkins came down and sealed it with a shot in the lane that danced around the cylinder a few times before dropping through with 25.4 seconds left.
“When it came time to execute … I thought Pip made some big shots late,” said Cooley. “Those five points were really big.”
Diallo’s timely pass to Pipkins was the cherry on top of a 40-minute sundae that came after the senior suffered an eye injury in last Saturday’s win at Villanova. Whether it was driving the ball, posting up or connecting from midrange, Diallo spent most of the night on a perch that succeeded in avoiding Xavier’s sting.
“I told Alpha he’s got to cut his other eye,” Cooley said with a smile. “If he can get 25 with one eye, cut both of them and get 50.”
Minus senior guard Maliek White, who’s officially day to day with a foot injury, the Friars stormed out of the gate and had Xavier (19-11, 8-9) on the run after opening up a 22-8 lead with not even seven minutes gone by. Pipkins was the driving force with 10 early points as PC got off to a 9-of-15 start from the field.
“Unfortunately, you can’t get off to that rough of a start in the Big East. You can’t spot them 16 points (PC’s biggest lead in the first half was 15 with 7:49 remaining before halftime),” Xavier coach Travis Steele said. “We were timid with the ball and weren’t confident.”
The Musketeers were able to crawl back into it to trail by nine at halftime, then kicked it up several notches. Taking advantage of a PC defense that was springing leaks all over the place and a Friar offense that missed quite a few point-blank shots, Xavier continued to hover around. The closest the visitors came was one, 69-68, after Marshall nailed a jumper with 5:37 left.
To the Friars’ everlasting credit, they refused to be caught on a night they were outrebounded 31-26 and outscored in the paint 38-32. Marshall finished with 25 points while Freemantle ended up with 13. PC succeeded in slowing down Tyrique Jones (nine points, nine rebounds after he collected 14 points and 18 rebounds when Xavier won at home last month).
“We knew they were going to make a run,” PC senior Kalif Young said, “but that’s the biggest thing coach said. Don’t lose that lead.”
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RIM RATTLERS: The Friars have now lost 56 games due to illness/injury this season. … Pipkins has now scored in double figures in five straight games. … PC’s 47 points in the first half are the most Xavier has allowed this season. “We weren’t ourselves and didn’t stay true to our system,” said Steele. … Wednesday marked the eighth time this season the Friars have welcomed 10,000-plus fans to The Dunk. “The crowd has been spectacular all year, particularly during Big East play,” said Cooley. “The energy in the building gave our guys a spark even when Xavier went on their run.” … The 2019-20 Friars are the first team in school history to defeat every Big East team at least one time during the regular season. … Xavier’s Paul Scruggs missed the game with a hamstring injury. He’s averaging 12.7 ppg.
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