Free Throw Shooting and Turnovers the Difference in Providence's Regular Season Finale at Xavier
Plus, a look at the effectiveness of PC's zone against Xavier and if they could turn to it in MSG this week.
Providence played with far more grit in Saturday’s regular season finale at Xavier, but ultimately it was their inefficiencies at the free throw line and in taking care of the ball that proved too much to overcome.
The Friars shot 4-11 at the free throw line and turned the ball over 17 times in their 76-68 loss to a Xavier group playing for its NCAA Tournament lives on Senior Day in Cincinnati.
“Thought our guys played hard for the most part, (but) 17 turnovers is too much,” PC head coach Kim English said following the loss. “Our struggles from the free throw line — just not a recipe to win on the road and we got what we deserved.”
“The story starts and ends there.”
Providence got a terrific effort from Bensley Joseph. The senior guard scored 27 points on 9-14 from the floor 7-10 from beyond the arc. Yes, he had five turnovers, but on a team that lacked fight in recent games, Joseph came out swinging in the regular season finale.
English decided to forego playing center Christ Essandoko and guard Wesley Cardet in this one, running with an eight-man rotation that included redshirt freshman Eli DeLaurier seeing nine minutes off the bench as the backup big.
Fellow freshman Ryan Mela finished some difficult drives (12 points) and rebounded in traffic (seven boards), but he’s seemingly gotten into his own head at the free throw line of late and missed all five of his attempts from the stripe.
The Friars would have benefitted from better shooting nights out of Jayden Pierre (3-9), Corey Floyd Jr. (2-9), and Rich Barron (1-4).
Asked about Pierre’s struggles of late, English shared a little bit about what the message has been to his junior point guard.
“Just keep trying to play the right way,” he said. “He’s very cautious as a player, and a lot of times his turnovers come from not getting rid of it — he’s trying not to turn it over. Sometimes you just want to take what the game gives you.”
Xavier’s veterans proved to be the difference in this one, as sixth-year center Zach Freemantle took advantage of a green Friar frontcourt with 25 points on 11-16 shooting, while Ryan Conwell knocked down four 3-pointers en route to 21 of his own.
Down 36-32 at the break, English would have signed up for a second half that saw his team shoot 53% from the floor and 54% (6-11) beyond the arc, but the Friars didn’t make a free throw in the second half (0-3) and their defense broke down in the final 20 minutes (57% shooting for X) — as it had done earlier in the week against DePaul.
Providence also turned the ball over nine times in the second half.
“I think our guys played hard, which is a good starting point, but you’ve got to play hard, and you’ve got to be tough, and you’ve got to be smart, and you’ve got to execute,” English said.
The Friars will open Big East Tournament play with an 8/9 matchup against Butler on Wednesday afternoon. The two teams split the regular season matchup and both finished 6-14 in league play.
Providence turns to a zone — could we see it more next week?
The Friars played 13 possessions of zone defense on Saturday against Xavier. English was asked for his thoughts on its effectiveness, and if it is something PC could break out more in New York.
“It’s something we’ve been doing progressively more and more as the season winds down,” English said.
“We thought it would be a good way to keep them out of the paint. They are really good when they get in the paint. We thought it could slow them up a little bit. It definitely didn’t in the second half. I’ll have to look and see what our zone point per possession was.”
Providence’s points per possession figure in the zone against Xavier was .923. Xavier scored 1.104 points per possession against a man-to-man defense.
For additional perspective, PC’s defense allowed .930 points per possession in the halfcourt this season — .926 in man and 1.038 in zone.
The Friars have played fewer than 100 possessions of zone defense this year, and in Big East play much of that came in two games against Xavier and on the road versus a below average jump shooting team in St. John’s.
But with Providence struggling on the defensive end over the past month, and the zone working in spurts on Saturday, perhaps we see it for 8-10 possessions in the Big East Tournament.
Here’s how the zone looked on Saturday:
As for PC’s next opponent, it’s been a mixed bag for Butler over the past month. They won four of five games beginning in late January, with victories over Seton Hall, Georgetown, Providence, and DePaul. Thad Matta’s crew closed the season with four straight losses to St. John’s, Villanova, Xavier, and Creighton.
PC won the first matchup, 84-65, at the AMP, while Butler got their revenge (82-81) one month later.
