10:07 PM Fri, Nov 20, 2009 | Permalink
Kevin McNamara  Email
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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - A late-game meltdown has caught the Providence Friars in their trip to Alabama.
The Friars led by a point with 70 seconds left but Alabama closed the game on a 10-0 run to beat PC, 84-75
Jamine Peterson scored a career-high 27 points for the Friars and added 14 rebounds. Marshon Brooks chipped in with 22 points. Sharaud Curry did not score a point until he made two free throws with 12 minutes left in the game and finished missing all nine of his field goal tries.
Mikhail Torrance led Alabama (2-1) with 26 points.
Alabama scored the game's opening five points but the Friar offense kicked into gear mainly do to an early flurry by Peterson.
Duke Mondy hit PC's first field goal and first 3-pointer of the game to get PC rolling but then Peterson took over. He put back his own miss for a hoop, hit a nice floater in the lane and then banged home a 3-point shot. A Alabama turnover led to a fastbreak that ended with Peterson gliding to the rim with a nice finger-roll finish.
That score gave PC a 17-13 lead and then it was Brooks' turn. His swished a deep 3-pointer for a 22-16 lead, a nice stop-and-pop 12 foot jumper and then a driving runner off the glass that kept PC in charge, 26-21. Alabama responded with its best run of the half as it ripped off nine straight points to grab a 30-26 lead.
The Friars switched defenses into a zone at that point and the Tide went cold. Over the final 4:25 of the half, Providence outscored the home team, 11-3. Brian McKenzie hit a nice 3-pointer at the start of the run but Brooks ended it with a behind-the-back, Paul Pierce-like fallaway jumper that gave the Friars a 37-33 lead at the half. The hoop gave him 14 first half points.
Alabama shot 29 percent in the opening half and made just one of 8 threes. The Tide changed its tune at the start of the second, however. The home team made four of its first five shots to regain the lead, 46-43. The lead grew to five points but a steady diet of Peterson's board game and low-post scoring kept the Friars close. Curry finally scored his first points with 12 minutes left when he hit two free throws that tied the game, 53-53.
The two teams then played back and forth for most of the rest of the half. Alabama held leads of no more than three points and then PC went ahead, 73-72, on two Peterson free throws. A tough spin move in the lane by Brooks made it 75-74 but 'Bama's Andrew Steele scored with 1:10 left to put the Tide back in front. PC's Brooks then had the ball stolen by Torrance with 47 seconds left and he breezed in for a layup and a foul on Curry. His free throw pushed the lead out to 79-75 and the home team was out of the woods..
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Last week, I bet a buddy $50 that Providence would be the first BIG EAST team to put one up in the 'L' column. Every year the Friars seem to lose to a cupcake. OK, Alabama is a BCS team, but they lost to Cornell ... at HOME ... for crying out loud! Embarrassing!
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I was at the game and it was hard to take that loss when we had the game almost the entire game. I think Coach Keno is making a mistake red shirting Batts. The inside game struggles. We can't live and die by the 3 point shot
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All teams in all sports seem to have stupid fans: The Patriots seemed to kept them at bay for a few years, but they came back last year and now are part of the conversation again-I tell them to go back to Fenway where they belong, but they don't. The Friars have a bunch of really ignorant "fans" most of which think they own the team, and every year, even winning years, just seems to kill any momentum those kids may develop like a ball and chain on a swimmer.
Most friar 'fans' thought it was a mistake to red shirt Peterson and Dixon too- but it wasn't. Maybe, just maybe, the guy who actually coaches knows more than the experts quietly sitting on their hands in the stands; which is why Davis is actually on the sidelines, making the actual game plans, holding the actual practices, doing the actual evaluations and selling the actual high school kids and they are just burping the same stupid comments as 20 years ago. Shut up and let the real coach, coach and the kids play; will you please!
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Yeah, you just may be right JMC... It wasn't a bad thing based on the production from Peterson and Bilal so far this season.... I must admit the team has a lot of young raw talent..... If experience is the problem then that goes across the board... But why waste a year with limited minutes is Coach Keno's view I'm sure... Ok let Coach be the Coach....Let's go Friars!!! Hang in there Kadeem.. Red shirt is not a bad thing it just feels bad right now.......................
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Can't believe Keno got a pass in recruiting a real center for the Friars. Bob Driscoll should have taken Keno to Kenya, Croatia, or Germany to get a big man the day after he signed his $7 million dollar deal. Don't want to hear about another new guard coming to PC.
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