Back From the Dunk: Stony Brook

[wtm97]

Back From the Dunk: Stony Brook

Slightly larger crowd than for Brown Stain game – 12 noon starts are weird to say the least…it was a ‘nice’ crowd in any event with the featured service member sitting right next to us which was great.

Most Interesting man showed up again – will try to post picture later…

Saw Forum poster “peeps” who reported they were out rebounding us by a large margin in the first half – then we came back strong in the second half and evened it out – we also had few TO’s and capitalized with 20 pts(?) off of their TO’s.

We forced it right down the middle at them with Dunn leading the way to his 15, getting to the foul line regularly – it is his game and a few flashes from him and his left hand were impressive.

OK so they stayed with us for the first half as that #10 for Stony, kid from New Jersey was unconscious 5- 8 from three – think they made 10 all game. But they really faded badly in second half and they could not keep up with our pace; their shots were front rimmed and/or off from tired legs.

Henton’s 19 were quiet but all in all more in control.

Harris struggled today – CD was Ok but it sure would be nice if he could finish a close in lay up.

Bentil looked good with 8(?) points and nice positioning overall he looked more on his game.

Joke is will Jalen Lindsey ever dribble more than twice? Didn’t see it today though he did hit two shots in a row.

Chukwu continued to impress in his limited minutes. He has good game instincts and per Coach Simon on post game he deserves more minutes, (20-25 revised back to 15 or so with him earning more over time), and I think we will see that coming. He is better than expected at this point in his game.

Star of the day is unquestionably young Mr. Cartwright with his double-double but more importantly is the “how” of his play and distributing the ball. He is better coming off the bench as John and Joe stated in the post-game. He has some nice on-court juking moves, he dribbles well with his right hand even as a lefty and he sure has quickness and can pass – even if he was yanked by Cooley after one Freshman-like pass that was not so good.

Solid W against a run-of-the-mill OOC opponent and we beat them like we should have beaten Brown…

[peeps]

nice to run into you wtm and dex. after i went back to my seat we surely turned things right around. this was the first game that cartwright and dunn on the floor together really worked well to torch the opponent.

stony brook runs a keno/phoenix suns offense if i ever saw one. they had countless possessions where the shot was jacked in the first 4-8 seconds of shot clock. warney was a MONSTER on the offensive glass in the first half, but man can he lay bricks.

harris's offensive game is just killing me as a fan of his. he can look so bad sometimes. i can't imagine that he is an nba player without some MAJOR improvement. guy refuses to take over. and the offense seems reluctant to run through him.

[dex]

Always nice to see the great peeps who we have been cavorting with since he was a student.

good stuff here by wtm, formerly a great Mod, and peeps is aces with Dex

anyway this Harris fellow is truly an enigma at least to me

when it's all said and done, we need Tyler to elevate his game to have the kind of serason we dream about

so funny when Cooley yanked Buckets and Tyler due to zero D-Boarding...as they walked past him it was like they didn't exist

I love the way Chukwu competes...and I must say that I get a chuckle at the posters who labelled him a "project" which in the vernacular means a stiff

You know who you are so, in the Xmas spirit, far be it from me to out you

[thefriarman]

Friars opened the lead in the second half with Henton and Harris on the bench.

Harris looked like he was playing sick with short air balls and not much hustle up and down the court at times.

As Dex says, he needs to get his game in gear for Friars to do anything in the league or even against UMASS and Miami in the last 2 OOCs.

The guard from SB was hitting 3's from deep and not always wide open.

Dunn was hitting the boards in the second half which helped get the Friars going on the rebounding side.

Chukuw is getting better game by game.

Second half was definitely played with more aggressiveness and enthusiasm.

Not sure I agree with the MOD on the crowd size being bigger than Monday. I'd be surprised if the 5K mark was reached. Not too many students for this one.

[77friar]

Attendance: 5132

[dex]

digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODE/ProJo/

PC 79, STONY BROOK 61

NEXT: Saturday vs. UMass, 1 p.m.


Friars’ depth finally comes to the surface

By KEVIN MCNAMARA JOURNAL SPORTS WRITER

PROVIDENCE — There are a few signposts to a basketball season and the Providence Friars thankfully came to one on Saturday afternoon after a 79-61 win over Stony Brook at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.

The game ended the first semester for the Friars. It also ended a six-games-in-16-days stretch that featured everything from a test at the top-ranked team in the country to a visit to old rival Boston College to home dates against instate rivals Brown and Rhode Island.
Add it all up and PC will carry an 8-3 record into the break as the players prepare for a week of exams and lighter practices before the season resumes next Saturday against Massachusetts.

Asked how he’d grade a team that starts a green redshirt sophomore, a freshman and has a bench filled with first-year players, coach Ed Cooley didn’t flinch.

“If I was to grade us right now, I’d give it around a B,” he said. “The next two games aren’t going to be easy. They’re important games, and I have to do a good job of getting our guys ready.” The Friars will play UMass on Saturday and then the 20th-ranked Miami Hurricanes two days later at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Win them both and the Friars will be thrilled to carry a 10-3 record into Big East play. Anything less will force more of a top showing in what is shaping up as a wide open but fiercely competitive conference.

“We’re close to where we want to be,” Cooley said. “Honestly, I hoped we could be 11-2, at worst 10-3. The good news is we have so much room for improvement, in particular our younger guys. Our older guys have to do a better job leading, and that starts with me.”
The Friars are clearly a work-in-progress. That was evident against a Stony Brook (5-5) team that is picked to push for a second straight America East regular-season championship. The Seawolves came into the game as a dominant rebounding team (plus 10.8), and Cooley circled rebounding atop his list of game keys.
After an opening half, plus five minutes, of a weak effort off the backboards, the Friars finally battened down the hatches and went to work. The result was a 21-6 second-half run that wiped out a 39-38 Stony Brook lead. The Friars played with a 20-point lead for much of the final seven minutes.
LaDontae Henton led the Friars with 19 points. Kris Dunn added 15 and seven rebounds, while freshman Kyron Cartwright provided a major spark with 10 points and 10 assists.
The Friars found themselves in trouble in the opening 25 minutes mainly due to a soft effort on the backboards. Stony Brook outrebounded the Friars in the opening half (26-23) with 12 of the boards coming off the offensive glass. PC led, 36-30, at the break and went up, 38-30, with the first bucket of the second half. But Stony Brook responded with nine straight points for its 39-38 lead.

At that point, a disgusted Cooley pulled starting forwards Henton and Tyler Harris (1 of 9, 4 points) in search of better board work from his bench. The move paid instant dividends as Cartwright sparked the offense and freshmen Ben Bentil and senior Carson Desrosiers closed off the lane and hit the boards. PC came into the game with a rebounding margin of only plus-2.8 and Cooley wasn’t happy with the first-half effort as missed block-outs and too many loose balls ended up in the visitors’ hands.

“Some of the words we can’t use,” Cooley said of his halftime corrections. “I kind of challenged our men. It was gross. They were beating us to every ball. I told them we have to go after it like it’s the last play of a game.”

PC went on an 11-2 run to pull ahead, 49-41. The run continued with Cartwright and Dunn pushing the pace and before long the Friars were up, 59-45.
PC played a zone defense the entire first half but after the rebounding woes and allowing five 3-pointers, Cooley switched to man-to-man for the majority of the second half. The move paid off as the Sea-wolves were held to 29-percent shooting over the final 20 minutes.

“Sometimes the zone can make you lazy because you stand around,” Cooley said. “We wanted to try to pick the pace up. We changed our defense and I thought that was the difference in the game.”

Cooley said he’s growing more comfortable with a group of newcomers who have shown great promise, all the while leaning heavily on his four veterans: Henton, Desrosiers, Harris and Dunn.

“Today was the first day that I felt comfortable with our depth,” Cooley said. [e-mail]  
On Twitter: @kevinmcnamara33