Providence men’s basketball suffers a shocking home collapse. Who beat the Friars?

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PROVIDENCE — Wednesday night certainly didn’t unfold in the fashion most might have expected while concluding this men’s basketball regular season at Amica Mutual Pavilion.

DePaul had lost six straight games and nine of its last 10. The Blue Demons counted just one road win in 11 tries to date in this 2024-25 campaign and only two victories overall since the calendar flipped to the new year.

Providence needed barely 12 minutes to build a 16-point lead and looked set to snap out of its own malaise. Certainly the Friars would push this Big East matchup over the finish line and lay the groundwork to avoid just the second 20-loss season since the program was founded.

Jayden Pierre, Providence vs. DePaul, 3/5/25

The stretch run had something else in store for the hosts, who suffered a shocking collapse. DePaul just about hung on thanks to some key free throws, an inadvertent whistle and the direction of the possession arrow. Providence suffered a bitter 80-77 defeat and now looks in real jeopardy of matching the wrong kind of school history.

The Blue Demons didn’t lead until an 11-0 run in the second half and followed with another 26-11 burst, one that started in a 54-48 hole and finished with a 74-65 advantage. The Friars had just 1:57 to save themselves and couldn’t do it despite one last opportunity. Bensley Joseph was fouled in the backcourt attempting the tying 3-pointer with 7.5 seconds left but missed his first two free throws before intentionally misfiring on the third.

“A ton of missed opportunities on our end,” Providence coach Kim English said. “Unfortunate happening at the end. I don’t know if we got the offensive rebound, but the inadvertent whistle – tough rule. That leads to a jump ball.

“But a ton of stuff.”

Joseph caught backboard and rim with his third attempt, and referee Tony Chiazza blew his whistle prematurely while anticipating a clean miss off the glass. DePaul had the possession arrow in its favor and CJ Gunn was fouled on the…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/providence-mens-basketball-suffers-shocking-101748697.html

Author : The Providence Journal

Publish date : 2025-03-06 10:17:00

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