We know that LaDontae Henton is the star on this Providence Friars team, but it was Kris Dunn’s night in Brooklyn as he put an impressive passing display in the win over the Hurricanes.
Dunn finished his night with a double-double, 15 points, 13 assists and five rebounds. Many of those passes were extremely impressive and brought the Barclays Center crowd to their feet.
The Friars (10-3) did receive another solid performance from Henton, who had only seven points in the first half, but sprung to life in the second as he finished with 25 points on 10-19 shooting from the field.
Miami struggled shooting in the first half as they went into halftime shooting just 36.4 percent, but a 13-4 run tied the game at 33 as the teams went into the half.
The halftime speech that Providence Head Coach Ed Cooley gave to his team stressed rebounding, and his team finished the game out rebounding the Canes 29-20 on the defensive glass.
It also helped that the Friars went on a 13-5 run to open the second half led by hot shooting from Henton. Dunn was feeding Henton and all of the hot shooters for the Friars like Tyler Harris, who finished with 13 points.
Another important player to this Friars’ team is Carson Desrosiers. He had 12 points, seven boards and five blocks. The senior big man rounded out the four Friars who finished with double figures.
The Friars shot a scorching 54.7 percent from the field and did not commit a single turnover for the first 16 minutes of the second half. With that formula, Providence built their lead up to 68-52 with about six minutes to play and essentially put this one out of reach.
For the third time this season, the Friars defeated a team from the loaded ACC Conference, as they look to build a resume for March.
The Canes were led by Angel Rodriguez, who finished with 19 points, and Sheldon McClellan, who added 17, as they kept their team around in this one, but poor overall shooting hindered Miami. They finished shooting just 37.3 percent from the field and just 18.5 percent from three point land. It was a surprise that the Canes were able to keep the game as close as they did towards the end.
The next time you see Providence will be on New Year’s Eve when they host Creighton in the fourth game of the quintuple header on FOX Sports 1. Until then, the Friars will enjoy their holiday after a solid resume building win.