After a blazing start, the Friars fall at Pitt in their exhibition opener, 81-74
Jason Edwards (19 points) and Duncan Powell (17 points, 10 boards) led the way for Providence.
In the opening four minutes of the exhibition season, the vision of what the 2025-26 Providence College Friars could look like was right there for everyone to see.
Providence raced out to a 16-6 lead in the game’s first four minutes — and the way they got those points looked to signify a potentially overwhelming uptempo style.
After Pittsburgh scored on its first possession of the game, the Friars countered quickly — very quickly. Corey Floyd Jr. found newcomer Jaylin Sellers on a long lead pass for a layup (a goaltend was called on the Panthers) — and PC had scored three seconds into the shot clock following an opponent’s make.
Kim English’s group raced out to its 16-6 start on the back of 4-5 shooting from three (two from Duncan Powell and two from Jason Edwards) and a cut from Floyd on a delivery from center Oswin Erhunmwunse.
Floyd’s bucket may have been the only one during the sequence that didn’t come in the first six seconds of the shot clock.
It was a powerful statement out of the jump for a new-look Friar team featuring a talented trio of transfer starters in Edwards, Sellers, and Powell.
But this is the exhibition season, and English was open about his October plans. Sunday’s trip to Pittsburgh would be used to tinker with rotations, while next week’s finale against Harvard will look more like the regular season lineup.
Out of the under-16-minute timeout, English rolled with a new five-some off the bench in point guard Daquan Davis, sophomore Ryan Mela, a pair of freshmen in Jamier Jones and Stefan Vaaks, and transfer center Cole Hargrove.
A breakaway dunk by Jones (the first of many to come in his career, and one of two on the night) pushed the advantage to 18-6, but Pittsburgh chipped away as the Friar offense stalled.
When asked if he would have put his foot on the gas in a regular season matchup and stuck with his starters, English was clear: “I would have, 100%. I had a rotation sheet that I really wanted to stick to — we had the minutes allocated,” he said.
“I definitely would have rode that wave. We had 16 points in four minutes.”
There was some bad luck mixed in over the next eight minutes — a defensive rebound fumbled away that led to an and-1 opportunity for Pitt that made it 18-10, and then Sellers coming down hard (and quite awkwardly) following a vicious dunk in transition.
Sellers remain on the ground a while, and was helped off, but later returned.
Following the 4-5 start from beyond the arc, PC missed its next nine attempts from deep.
Sellers picked up a technical after a made bucket (he finished through harm at the rim), and Pitt found late separation in the first half from there.
The Panthers made a pair of free throws to push their lead to 31-27, then closed on a 10-4 spurt to head to the locker room up, 41-31.
Providence shot 35% from the field, after opening 6-9, and saw Pitt make 48% of their attempts. The possession game was relatively even (PC had an 8-4 advantage in offensive rebounds, while both teams had six turnovers), but Pittsburgh enjoyed a 16-5 advantage in free throw attempts.
The hosts led by 13 early in the second half. Notably, English replaced both Sellers and Edwards three minutes and thirty seconds into the second half (see the quote above about the rotations), while Erhunmwunse picked up his third foul at the 18:35 mark.
Still, Providence had two big opportunities over the final ten minutes.
They cut the 13-point lead to five (56-51) and had a potential 3-on-1 opportunity with momentum on their side, but opted for a transition three that missed.
Later, Powell buried a three-pointer to cut Pitt’s lead to 62-59, and Vaaks had a great look from deep to tie it, but his shot rimmed out.
Down 64-62 after free throws from Erhunmwunse and Mela, the Friars suffered through a pair of game-changing plays.
Pitt knocked down a 17 footer, while getting fouled, then Providence threw a pick-six that the Panthers converted for a layup to go ahead, 69-62 late.
There was no recovering from that sequence.
Pitt walked away with an 81-74 victory, despite shooting just 3-15 from beyond the arc. They took 33 free throw attempts and scored 40 points in the paint. Five different Panthers scored in double figures. Pitt was the more physical team in this one.
Providence shot 8-26 from three and 38% from the field in the loss.
Key Takeaways from the Petersen Center:
English seemed genuinely upbeat following the game. He said his team was understandably down following a loss, but he said it was a “great game” and he is excited to get on the plane and learn from it.
Providence toyed with rotations throughout, which played a role in some of the disjointed offense at times. English rolled with a lineup of Floyd, Vaaks, Sellers, Mela, and Powell at center late in the first half — and with 6:54 left in the game and his team down six, English didn’t lean on Edwards or Sellers, but went with a group of Floyd, Mela, Vaaks, Powell, and Erhunmwunse.
English shared his disappointment in his team not hitting the floor more, noting that Davis did so on three occasions and he wanted to see others doing it more often.
There is all sorts of intrigue about freshman Stefan Vaaks and Sunday was a mixed bag. He struggled in the first half, going scoreless and picking up two fouls while trying to contain dribblers. The second half saw him come alive a bit offensively, as Vaaks first scored on a tough drive, finished a layup while being fouled in transition (a bit of a silly foul by Pitt), and knocked down an 18-footer off the bounce. He had some great looks from three, but just couldn’t connect (0-5).
Powell (17 points, 10 rebounds, 4-8 from 3) and Edwards (19 points, 9-12 FTs) shined offensively. Powell finished a pair of drives from the top of the key, while Edwards simply provides constant pressure — even in a 4-11 shooting game from the field.
Sellers also shot 4-11 (1-3 from 3, 2-2 at the free throw line), but he forced the action a bit early in the second half, leading to a turnover and a bad shot attempt. From the outside looking in, it seemed like he was trying to put the team on his back a bit and get them back into the game. He fouled out in 24 minutes.
Floyd’s stat line was quiet (5 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists), but he generally did a solid job quarterbacking the offense — specifically when playing with the “1s” early. Floyd didn’t have a turnover in 25 minutes and hit a 3-pointer late. One of his two misses from beyond the arc came when he was forced to launch at the end of the shot clock. It’ll be interesting to see if the Friars can get him a few more field goal attempts once the calendar turns to November.
“They ran a lot of sets. They were set heavy tonight,” English said of Pittsburgh’s offensive approach.
Hargrove had an encouraging effort, while Erhunmwunse seemed to be battling uphill all night. Oswin played through foul trouble and wasn’t a factor at the rim defensively, as Pitt got a lot done on the interior. Hargrove had four offensive rebounds in 14 minutes, and was in the midst of his best minutes of the day before going down with a leg injury in the second half. Providence was a +5 in Hargrove’s minutes — tops on the team.
English shared that Rich Barron took a spill in practice and was not available. It also sounded like Hargrove would have been okay to return to the game after leaving in the second.
Ryan Mela had seven boards in 18 minutes and attempted four shots from the field. Mela, Powell, Erhunmwunse, and Hargrove all had 3+ offensive boards. English thought PC could have been even stronger on the glass.
Expect to see lineups this season with Powell at the five.
Providence really struggled to contain point guard Damarco Minor, who had 15 points in his Pitt debut. Minor seemed to make key plays when Pitt needed them most.
The Friars wrap up exhibition play at home against Harvard next weekend (Oct. 25) before kicking off the regular season against Holy Cross on Nov. 3.
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On D: Pitt was 14-16 at the rim is concerning. On offense : Are we playing like the Celtics, take the first open 3 ?
14-1