Greedy Steals a Win From Northeastern

If the early season has been any indication of how the Men's Basketball Team intends on playing down the stretch of games, a lot of Friar fans will be developing ulcers over the next several months. After struggling in the final seconds against both Northeastern and Boston College, it is clear that this young team needs to learn how to close out games. The Friars traveled up to Boston to take on the Northeastern Huskies on Tuesday, Dec. 1, and for the first 35 minutes of play everything was relatively smooth sailing for the Friars. With the exception of a few careless turnovers, the young Friars were composed and shot the ball with great efficiency from beyond the arc. The last five minutes were a completely different story. After a Jamine "Greedy" Peterson '12 lay-up put the Friars ahead 72-59 with 4:47 remaining, the wheels came off. The Huskies turned up the full court pressure and the Friars simply could not handle it. Veterans Sharaud Curry '10 and Brian McKenzie '10 who have seen just about every type of defense imaginable in their four years of playing in the Big East, inexplicably made a few careless turnovers which allowed Northeastern to claw back into the game. After a Chaisson Allen layup brought Northeastern within four at 74-70, both McKenzie and Peterson each missed the front end of a 1-1 to keep the door open for Northeastern to steal the game late. The Huskies cut the Friars' lead down to two at 74-72 with just under a minute remaining and, with their fortunes hanging in the balance, PC turned to their go-to scorer Marshon Brooks '11 to right the ship. Northeastern, which keyed in on Brooks all night long, forced him to take a tough runner on the right side of the hoop which didn't even reach the rim. On the other end of that air ball however, Peterson was "Johnny on-the-spot" and got the missed shot and fired it off a Northeastern defender with just one second remaining on the shot-clock. Needing a quick bucket off of the inbounds play, Providence drew up a lob play for Peterson. "We like that play a lot," said Curry. "[Peterson] is so athletic that anytime you can throw the ball up to him and let him go get it, it's a great play for us." And that's exactly what Greedy did. McKenzie set a back screen on Peterson's defender and Greedy curled to the basket where a lob pass from Vincent Council '13 was waiting for him. Peterson caught the pass and finished on a tough shot as the shot-clock expired to give Providence a 76-72 lead with 15 seconds left. A last ditch effort by Northeastern was stolen by Curry, and the Friars escaped with the win. "It was another close game and we made some bad decisions down the stretch," said Curry. "Those are the types of games you need to pull out. Those ugly ones on the road, you need to be able to hang in there and come away with a win and that's what we did." For the game, Curry led the team in scoring with 19 points on 7-10 shooting from the field. He also went 3-3 from beyond the three-point arc and seems to be finding his stroke after a rough couple of games to start the year. Joining Curry in double figure scoring was Peterson with 18, Bilal Dixon '13 with 11, Brooks with 10, and Council with 11. As a team, Providence shot an impressive 56.4 percent from the field, which included going 6-11 from downtown. They also outrebounded Northeastern 30-27. Prior to facing Northeastern, the Friars hosted Boston College on Saturday, Nov. 28, and much like the Northeastern game, PC played sloppy down the stretch. BC entered the game without their best player Rakim Sanders, yet the Eagles were able to dictate play early on. "Boston College deserves a lot of credit for coming out physical and really taking it to us there in that first half," said Head Coach Keno Davis. "They were very good in their half-court sets, they're very physical, and they execute well." The Friars had no answer for the Eagles down-low at the outset of the game. BC was seemingly able to get into the lane at will and big men George Southern and Joe Trapani gave the Eagles countless second and third opportunities with their offensive rebounding. On the other side of the ball, Providence couldn't buy a bucket in the first half. The Friars shot just 30.6 percent for the half and had a countless number of shots that rimmed in and out. Boston College pushed the lead up to as many as 18 points until Providence made a late run to cut the lead to 11 at the half. Whatever Davis said at halftime made Providence's shooters wake up. Curry, Brooks, Council, and Duke Mondy '13 all knocked down some key three-pointers to bring the Friars back into the game. In a matter of minutes, the Eagles' lead had evaporated completely and the Friars claimed a two point lead with under a minute of play remaining. The Friars got a much needed defensive stop, but the Eagles once again hit the offensive glass to give themselves another possession. With the extra chance, the Eagles found their center, Josh Southern, in the paint, where he connected on a layup and was fouled. Southern calmly sank the free-throw to put BC back ahead by one. Needing a score, Curry tried to drive the lane but was stripped by the pesky Eagles' defense and the Friars were forced to foul BC to stop the clock. The Eagles once again knocked down a pair of free-throws, and Curry missed a desperation three, allowing Boston College to walk out of the Dunkin' Donuts Center with a hard-fought 82-77 victory. "Obviously I'm disappointed; I'm disappointed after every game we lose," said Davis. "But I think you could see a lot of positives coming out of this game with our young team." One positive was the play of Council. The freshman guard has gotten the most play out of all of the newcomers and has shown the ability to handle the ball with confidence and knock down big shots. For the game, he scored 12 points and went 3-3 on three-pointers. Joining Council in double figure scoring was Curry with 20 points, Brooks with 16, Peterson with 15, and Dixon with 10. Dixon and Peterson also did a solid job on the boards, hauling in nine and 11 rebounds respectively. "For a team that got down 18 points a lot of times, you'd pretty much expect to see a team lay down and that would be it," said Davis. "For us to be able to fight back and actually take the lead in the second half, I think showed us a lot. I think right now we see a lot of positives and, with our young players going through this for the first time, they can learn from this and hopefully execute a little better down the stretch." If the Friars want to compete in the Big East, they better learn fast.