Providence falls to 4-4 after deflating performance against Charleston

The Providence Friars have not had a lot of fun out west, nor have they won any ball games yet.

The Friars dropped one 63-55 to the College of Charleston Cougars on Friday. The loss was their third in a row dating back to last Saturday, in which the Friars lost to the Penn Quakers. Sandwiched between there of course was their loss a night ago to Long Beach State, so to say it’s been a woeful few days is probably putting it mildly.

David Duke led all Friars with 22 points, and shot a robust 7-for-8 from the field and 5-for-6 from the free throw line. Unfortunately, Duke’s performance didn’t come with a W attached to it. Alpha Diallo and Emmitt Holt got into double figures with 13 and 11 points respectively. Nate Watson led all bench players with seven.

Here’s all that we learned.

POOR SHOOTING DOOMED THE FRIARS

While Charleston shot an even 20-for-40 on the day, Providence could not get so lucky. The Friars made just 19 buckets in 40 minutes, and shot a miserable 33.9 percent from the floor. Charleston also pasted them at the line, going 18-for-19 versus the Friars’ 13-for-18 mark from the stripe. Neither team lit up the scoreboard, but PC’s inability to make shots absolutely killed them.

PROVIDENCE NEEDS REEVES AT FULL CAPACITY

A.J. Reeves has only been able to play 29 minutes in the last two games, and his absence has seemingly plagued them quite a bit. After a stirring freshman season, Reeves has gotten off to a very slow and injury-riddled start to the year. He’s only chipped in seven points in the last two games and 12 in total during this three-game losing streak. The hope has to be that he heals up eventually and gives Providence a much-needed scoring punch.

IT ONLY GETS GRITTIER FROM HERE

The Friars will face a tough Pepperdine Waves team who gave the Arizona Wildcats fits Thanksgiving night in their Wooden Legacy finale on Sunday. That begins a rigorous month that has them facing the Rhode Island Rams, Stony Brook Seawolves, Florida Gators and Texas Longhorns before conference play kicks up. It will only get grittier from here, so the Friars are going to have to try and scrape together wins here, somehow someway.