OMAHA, Neb.—Road wins are few and far between in the BIG EAST Conference, especially by unranked visiting teams challenging Top 20 rivals. But on Wednesday night, the unranked Friars were up to the task when they traveled to Omaha to challenge the No. 11 Creighton Bluejays, and came away with a 74-70 victory.
Anyone familiar with Providence-Creighton games know that regardless of records and rankings, they are always competitive and eminently interesting contests. Last night was no exception.
Creighton struggled from the outset as the Friars raced out to a 7-0 lead and never looked back.
“We definitely had a lot of energy,” Nate Watson said. “I’m in charge of getting the guys hyped up before the game, so we came out blazing. We wanted to throw the first punch.”
With 15:37 remaining in the first half, freshman Alyn Breed from Powder Springs, Ga., grabbed a defensive rebound and assisted on a fastbreak dunk by A.J. Reeves, giving the Friars their first double-digit lead, 13-2, at the first media timeout.
Providence continued to have success on both ends of the floor. Entering the 11:50 media timeout, the Friars had made four of their last five attempts and led by 16, at 22-6. Meanwhile, Creighton had missed 10 straight attempts and had not scored in nearly three minutes.
At the 7:45 mark, Creighton's Damien Jefferson bamged om a trey which the Friars promptly answered with a three-pointer from David Duke, staking the Friars to an 11-point advantage, 28-17.
By the final media timeout of the first half, Creighton had narrowed the gap. The Friars were on a five-minute scoring drought. Watson ended the drought with a layup with 2:17 left. The teams traded several scores in the closing minutes of the half, and the Friars went into the locker room leading 39-34 at intermission.
Providence shot 13-28 (46.4%) from the field, including 3-for-11 (27.3%) from beyond the arc, and 10-for-14 (71.4%) from the free throw line. A pesky Friar D held the Bluejays to 39.3% in the opening stanza on 11-for-28 shooting, including just 3-for-14 from (12.4%) downtown. Like the Friars, Creighton was so-so from the charity stripe, making 9-of-13 freebies (69.2%).
Breed scored the first points of the second half Friars from the free throw line 43 seconds in. The Friars increased their lead with a second-chance basket in the paint by Watson with 16:25 remaining in regulation. By the first media timeout of the half, Providence led 48-39.
Ahead of the next timeout, Greg Gantt converted a fastbreak dunk for his first basket of the game. Reeves assisted on the play. With 12:07 remaining, the Friars were back to a double-digit lead, 54-43.
But then Providence went stone cold from the field with 8:00 to play, missing six of seven shots. The Bluejays mounted an 11-2 run, cutting the Rriard lead to 56-54. From that point on, it was a tick-for-tac affair, but the Friars never relinquished the lead.
Breed extended the Friars advantage to six, 65-59, shortly before the final media timeout. But the Bluejays would not go away.
With 0:56 left, a layup by Creighton's Mitch Ballock made it a two-point game, but Duke responded with an improbable three-point bank shot from the left wing with 28 ticks left to give put the Friars up by five.
After Watson added two free throws, Friars were up by seven, 72-65. But the game was not over. In PC-Creighton games, it never is.
With just five seconds left in regulation, Creighton's Marcus Zegarowski knocked down a three-pointer to cut the Providence lead to a bucket, 72-70. But when Duke was fouled on the next possession, the Providence native calmly dropped in two from the charity stripe, giving the Friars a two-possession lead to close out the contest.
“I feel like there was definitely a little bit more urgency tonight,” Watson said. “Creighton, they’re a really good team, but they didn’t really have the size in there. So we utilized it.”
Providence finished 25-for-56 (44.6%) from the field, including 5-for-18 (27.8%) from beyond the arc, and 19-for-26 (73.1%) from the free throw line. Creighton, meanwhile, shot 25-for-58 from the floor (43.1%), including 4-for-23 (17.4%) from three-point land, and were 16-for-24 (66.7%) from the charity stripe.
The Friars had four players in double-figure. Watson led the way with a career-high 29 points, followed by Breed wit 15 points, Duke (12 points), and Nichols (10 points). Duke finished with a game-high five assists, and Reeves pulled down a game-high eight rebounds.
Cooley pointed to the three-pointer by Duke down the stretch as the game-breaker. Keep in mind that Duke had been having an atrocious shooting night, having converted just one of 10 shots from the field when he threw down the trey.
“I’m just really proud of his mental toughness,” Cooley said. “His three, to me, was the game-winner. I know how the game played out, but that was a dagger. When you have players like Nate and David on the floor, you are going to give yourself an opportunity night in and night out.
“To come into this building and win, we were really fortunate,” continued Cooley. “Really, really good game execution. Really happy for my team.”
Damien Jefferson and Marcus Zegarowski led the way for the Bluejays, with 26 and 17 points, respectively.
The Friars ruled the boards, out-rebounding the Bluejays by eight.
With the win, the Friars improved to 8-6 overall and 4-4 in BIG EAST play. Creighton, meanwhile, fell to 10-4, 6-3.
Up next, the Friars are bound for Philly to challenge the No. 3 Villanova Wildcats on Saturday. Tip-off at 2:30 p.m. (ET), and the game will be televised nationally o on FOX. As always, local fans can catch the game on WPRO-AM and WDOM-FM.
—with staff reports
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