It was tough to watch, for Friar fans anyway. When a team wins 25 games during the regular season, you might expect to deliver a 27-point beat down, not absorb one.
But that’s precisely what happened to the Providence Friars Friday night at Madison Square Garden in the Big East semifinals against Creighton. They absorbed an 85-58 loss – just their fifth of the season – but this one is liable to leave a mark.
For how long, is now the question.
The Friars lost at Marquette by 32 points on the road in January before ripping off an 8-game win streak. This time? “We don’t need to win eight. Whatever it is, I know it’s not eight,” PC head coach Ed Cooley quipped. “My job right now is to make sure our players know we’re a hell of a team. We didn’t play well. But we have great players, and I want us to know we can win our next game regardless of who the opponent is.”
Friday night’s semi-final was a back-and-forth affair over the first 15 minutes. With the game tied at 25 and 5:38 remaining, the Blue Jays clamped down defensively…while the Friars suddenly became the gang that couldn’t shoot straight. Creighton closed with a 17-2 run to end the first half with a 42-28 lead.
And to open the second half, that run continued as the Jays poured home 12 unanswered points before Providence could score. In all, the run of 29-2 over 10-plus minutes bridging the two halves decided this one quickly. Creighton’s Arthur Kaluma, a Big East all-freshman team selection, was particularly impressive with 10 points scored during the dominant run.
“We missed layups. We missed a couple wide open shots that we’d been making, and then we pressed.” Cooley said. “We had a big turnover, I think a defensive rebound, and (Kaluma) made a basket. Then a turnover and he (Kaluma) made a three.”
With Creighton running off 12 straight points to start the second half, that made the final 15 minutes not much more than garbage time. There would be no comeback from a double-digit deficit this time. “Definitely want to get back into the gym and work on what we’ve been working on all year, watch film and try to find that offensive flow we had going into this game,” Friar guard Jared Bynum said. “And hopefully, we can get it back going into the tournament next week.”
Providence closes the regular season at 25-5, winners of the Big East regular season title, and awaits its’ seeding and placement in the NCAA Tournament Sunday evening. For now, that will need to satisfy fans for a season well-played overall.
It was just this last one that was particularly tough to watch.