3 hours Ago By By Peter Gobis For The Sun Chronicle
The stings have been painful for the Providence College men’s basketball team with a trio of losses at the Battle for Atlantis, winding up with an 89-73 setback to No. 14-ranked Indiana on Friday. After winning their first five games of the season against teams all ranked well over 300 in the KenPom poll, the Friars traveled to Paradise Island in the Bahamas where they lost a two-point game to Oklahoma, dropped a 69-58 decision to Davidson and were dumped by the Hoosiers.
“Offense and defense are married,” PC head coach Kim English said. “In each game, it was a different story. Defense is harder when you’re turning it over, harder when you’re missing layups — it’s a harsh truth.
” Indiana shot 53 percent from the floor, tallied 38 points in the paint and had 20 assists on 32 field goals. Jayden Pierre scored 22 points (on 8-for-16 shooting) for PC. Corey Floyd (14 points, five rebounds) and Jabir Abdur-Rahim (14 points, three rebounds) also factored in for the Friars.
“We have to buckle down defensively,” Pierre said after Oklahoma hit at a 59 percent rate from the floor and Davidson at 47 percent. “All three games our opponents have shot over 40 percent which is our main objective.” The Friars faced a 10-point halftime deficit against the Hoosiers, shooting 12-for-33 overall, and 6-for-15 during the first 10 minutes of the game.
PC also surrendered 20 points in the paint to Indiana — the preseason No. 2 pick in the Big Ten Conference — and gave up 11 points off of six turnovers along with 14 fast-break points. “The ball moved and everything looked good when you’re making shots,” Indiana coach Mike Woodson said.
“We can put ourselves into being a really good team.” The Friars’ slow starts were commonplace in their three-day tournament stay. Against Oklahoma, PC shot just 10-for-29 during the first half.
Against Davidson, PC shot just 5-for-28 over the first 20 minutes, missing its first 10 shots from the floor. “We haven’t done a good enough job getting our guys to understand exactly what we expect, what our standard is,” English said. In addition, the Friars were virtually production-less in the paint in the series.
Over the three losses, the Friars’ quartet of “5” position players combined for 26 points on 9-for-25 shooting and 33 rebounds, the anomaly being 11 boards by by Oswin Erhunmwunse against Davidson and his 6-for-11 shooting with 16 points against Indiana. “We got to re-group, we got to get back to the basics,” English said. “We did some things better offensively, but it’s getting back to the core of who we are as a program, as far as the way that we play “We need more time to get better,” English added.
“It’s a tough spot to be in. We didn’t have that luxury. We need more production out of the “5” spot.
Oswin is a baby, he’s learning and Christ (Essandoko) is getting better in some areas. Our two-point offense, we were 1-for-15 in the first half against Davidson, we didn’t finish well. “We’ve been in a process since our first practice of who are we, as a team,?” English added.
“And who we are without Bryce (Hopkins) is a bit different. Even without him, we’re still trying to find that rotation.” The Friars return to Providence reeling on a three-game losing skid, one which could be extended next week in games against Brigham Young (Tuesday at the AMP) and against unbeaten intra-state rival URI, in Kingston.
“We came here and the talent level was higher than our first five games,” English said. “We crumbled.”.
