PROVIDENCE, RI–The Friars continued play in their early season home tournament at the Dunkin Donuts center tonight, taking on the Bucknell Bison of the Patriot League. They pulled out a 76-65 win with their second half surge.

PC game out flat, as Bucknell quickly opened  their lead to 8-4 and held off their opponents by approximately the same margin throughout the first half.

“They weren’t necessarily great shots,” said Coach Keno Davis of his players’ shot selection. The first half was full of quick threes, with barely 10 seconds expiring from the shot clock. By the end of the half, the Friars had only made four of 16 three-pointers, a 25% conversion rate, but their monstrous effort on the offensive glass kept them close, as they pulled to within two points before halftime, 36-34.

Bucknell Coach, Dave Paulsen, had emphasized keeping Providence off the glass, but it was to no avail. “We were just going against bigger, longer, more athletic guys,” he said. “I was really proud of the guys effort tonight though.”

In the second half, Providence took their first lead since the opening minutes when Sharaud Curry hit a three, with 18:55 left in the game. That made the score 37-36. For the first 10 minutes of the second half, the Bison battled back, often opening up a lead. But at 13:43, Freshman Duke Mondy hit a second straight three-pointer to put the Friars ahead 48-45, and give the home crowd responded with a surge of energy that had been lacking all night. They never gave the lead back.

Junior Marshon Brooks,  who ended up with 15 points, called the warm-ups “lackadaisical,” which had an effect on the slow first half. “I knew they were going to come out strong,” he said. “The competitive spirt came out towards the end of the game,” he added, as PC took control down the stretch.

Bucknell came out strong and showed that despite losing last night to Mercer, they should be a strong Patriot League opponent this year. They held Providence under 40% shooting, and 30% from three point land, but unfortunately for them, the stronger Friars wiped the glass clean, pulling down 46 rebounds, 24 of which were on the offensive side. The Bison had only 31 total.

One reason the Friars were able to take control of the game towards the end was finding the free throw stripe. They went to the line only twice in the first half, compared to Bucknell’s 12 attempts, but by the end of the game, PC had taken 21, compared to 16 for the Bison.

The numbers and smarts were not in favor of the Friars tonight. They needed all arm strength they could muster, until they finally bullied the Bison off the court.