NEWARK, N.J. _ Well now the Providence College Friars have something to measure the rest of the Big East by.
The Friars fought hard and stayed in the game for 40 minutes but never seriously threatened the streaking Seton Hall Pirates Wednesday night in a 73-64 loss. The win is the ninth in a row for the No. 10 Pirates who improved to 15-4 overall, 7-0 in the Big East and hasn't lost since Dec. 14.
PC fell to 11-9 and 4-3 in the Big East. The Friars shot 36% for the game with only Alpha Diallo (13 points) and Nate Watson (10) reaching double figures.
While the Friars harassed All-American Myles Powell to a three-field-goal night and 14 points, center Romaro Gill dominated with 17 points, six rebounds and eight blocks. Jared Rhoden added 15 points.
After averaging just 2.3 points in limited minutes last year, the 7-foot-2 Gill has grown into a force. This was his sixth game in a row scoring in double figures and he also set up shop in the lane and blocked eight shots.
The game began ominously for the Friars as the Pirates continually torched PC's defense on the pick-and-roll and found Gill for dunks. He scored his team's first two buckets on dunks and would roll on to sink 6 of 7 shots with five coming on dunks. Seton Hall made 10 of its first 16 shots against PC's defense to grab early control, 26-19.
A switch to a zone defense and some impressive rebound and hustle work reversed PC's fortunes. The result was an impressive 13-4 run that gave the Friars a 32-20 lead with 2:27 left in the half. Diallo shook off a slow start by hitting a shot in the lane and then draining a 3-pointer. A David Duke steal and feed to Maliek White for a layup capped the run.
But the final two minutes weren't pretty for the Friars. The Pirates again found Gill on an easy slip inside for a dunk, giving the home team 24 of its 28 points from the field at the rim. After a missed jumper by Duke, Shavar Reynolds wrapped up the scoring in the half with the Hall's second 3-point shot to end a 6-0 run and make it 36-32 Pirates at the break.
After a slow start the Friars shot 42% for the half, including four 3-pointers, and also enjoyed a 19-16 rebounding edge.
Powell poured in 23 of his 29 points in the second half of a win over St. John's last weekend and owned a different look after the break in this one. After making just 1 of 4 shots in the first half, he took Duke off the bounce for the Hall's first bucket of the second. A 3-pointer by Quincy McKnight gave the Hall its largest lead, 41-32.
The Friars fought back and cut it to 53-50 with a little over 10 minutes left but they couldn't get closer than three the rest of the way. The Hall went up 67-56 with four minutes left after yet another monster jam by Gill and two Powell free throws.
PC was on a stretch of nearly four minutes without a field goal at that point and the blue-and-white fans had plenty of reason to head for the exits. But when Nate Watson scored two quick buckets the Friars had some hope, trailing by just 67-62 with 2:09 left.
The Friars needed flawless execution in crunch time but didn't get it. After a defensive stop, Kalif Young missed a hook shot and Rhoden snuck free inside for a back-breaking layup with 50 seconds left and the Pirates were home free.
