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On an afternoon that Providence was without two key players in Kris Dunn and Jalen Lindsey Ed Cooley's bunch had to battle against the Yale Bulldogs. Graduate student Ted Bancroft was the first man off the Friar bench today which is the role Lindsey had been playing. Dunn did not dress for this game while Lindsey was dressed and went through pregame warmups but did not see game action.
Bancroft continued the role he had been playing by knocking down a three pointer and getting the crowd into it early on. He also had a block at the rim on defense that led to a crowd frenzy. Bancroft finished the game with 9 points and 6 rebounds in a season high 27 minutes. The crowd of 8,045 seemed to have a bit of a Thanksgiving hangover as Cooley had to wave his arms asking for noise on more than one occasion.
LaDontae Henton knocked down a number of difficult shots on his way to 29 points. Henton has scored 20 or more points in all but 1 of Providence's 6 games this season. Tyler Harris was the second leading scorer for Providence with 14 points and added 7 rebounds.
Every time Providence seemed like they were going to open the game up early in the second half Yale had an answer. Many of those answers were made shots with the shot clock running down which had to frustrate the Friar defense. The game sported 10 lead changes but Providence held the lead the entire second stanza.
The game never quite felt in danger until the last 30 seconds when a Yale three pointer cut the lead to three with 20 seconds remaining. Henton made 1-2 free throws to extend the lead to four and a stop and more free throws closed the door on Yale.
Javier Duren led Yale with 21 points as Providence was able to keep Yale's leading scorer Justin Sears to just five points before he fouled out with less than a minute left in the game. Sears scored 31 points against the Friars last season in Yale's 2-point loss at the Dunk. Kyron Cartwright carried the load at point guard this afternoon playing 39 minutes. He finished with eight points, seven assists, six rebounds and four turnovers.
Providence shot a lot of free throws this afternoon but didn't shoot a great percentage, 63 percent, on 25/40. The 6-0 Friars will travel to Lexington, KY immediately following the game to take on No. 1 ranked Kentucky on Sunday afternoon. Ed Cooley indicated Kris Dunn and Jalen Lindsey are both questionable for Sunday.