PROVIDENCE, R.I. _ It's taken longer than any true, blue Providence College fan would've imagined but the Friars are officially on a roll.
Ed Cooley's team continued its late-season run through the Big East and nationally-ranked foes Saturday with one of its most complete efforts of the season. This time it was a dominating 84-72 win over 19th-ranked Marquette before an energized assembly of 12,805 at a packed Dunkin' Donuts Center.
The victory was PC's fourth straight over a top-25 team and gives the program its most wins over ranked foes since 2016. More importantly the victory added to the Friars' vastly improving postseason resume with yet another Quad 1 win on the NCAA's NET rankings. PC's seven wins over Quad 1 opponents are currently topped by only seven other teams nationally.
"We're all out there doing the best we can for each other," senior center Kalif Young said. "It's a collective understanding where it's five (seniors) and we all want to go out with a bang. We don't want to have an NIT finish, or anything like that. We want to go for the big tournament and fight until the end."
Providence won for a third straight game and fifth time in seven contests to improve to 16-12 overall and 9-6 in the Big East. The Friars have a week off before traveling to face yet another top-25 team, Villanova, before wrapping up the season at home against Xavier and DePaul.
Getting by Marquette is never easy, at least as long as Markus Howard is a Golden Eagle. Howard worked his way to 38 points but 26 came in a second half when the Golden Eagles never were within eight points of the lead. PC now has a sweep of MU (17-9, 7-7), which lost for the third straight game.
In what can only be praised as a positive development, Luwane Pipkins led the Friars early, and then late, on his way to a season-best 24 points. PC has struggled with inconsistent guard play all season but if it receives anything resembling this effort from its grad transfer little man, the rest of the Big East should be put on notice.
Pipkins scored his team's first seven points, taking the ball right at Howard. That early start continued unabated as the Friars led by 43-29 at the half and by as many as 21 points in the second. Six Friars reached double figures with the team shooting 51% from the field, totaling 16 assists and sinking all eight of their 3-pointers in a dizzying first half.
"They're playing like a desperate team," said Marquette coach Steve Wojciechowski. "Ed's done a great job rallying his team since the non-conference. They're playing incredibly physical and tough and together. They out-played us on both ends of the floor so give credit to Ed and his staff and his players for executing their game plan at a high level."
The Friars rolled up leads of 19-8 and 31-17 early with Pipkins, A.J. Reeves and Maliek White combining for the eight first half threes. Howard started very slowly (3-of-11 shooting) with White and David Duke leading the harassing defense but he did make an off-balance, difficult 3-pointer while getting fouled by White with just six seconds left. Howard missed the free throw but while PC entered the half with a commanding 14-point lead, Howard had sniffed some hope.
Marquette totaled more turnovers (10) than field goals (nine) in the opening half as PC's aggressive defense ruled the day. The Golden Eagles would end up with 18 turnovers, 20 field goals and a mere four assists, tying a season low.
"That tells us the ball was steady a lot," Cooley said. "If you steady the ball and it's not in rotation a ton, you're doing your job as a defensive team."
The Friars haven't put many full offensive games together this season and that trend continued. PC began the second half facing a sterner push from the Golden Eagles and made just two of the first 10 shots. Marquette cut its deficit to 46-36 and then 52-43 after a Greg Elliott three-point play with 11:21 left but that didn't last.
Providence began moving the ball swiftly on offense once again and the results were layups and dunks, several of the eye-popping variety. After a Koby McEwen 3-pointer kept MU close at 62-50, the Friars ripped off nine straight points as White dished to Young for a sweet layup and then lofted a alley-oop pass that Duke slammed. That put the Friars up 71-50 with 5:23 left.
Howard, however, would not go easily. He scored seven unanswered points to put the Friars back on red alert. He kept rolling and totaled 19 points in the final 5:13 PC did its job at the foul line to hold off the All-American and record another big victory.
"There just wasn't enough time on the clock, even with Superman on the other team," Cooley said. "I think David did a really good job on him, Maliek did a really good job on him. He leads the country in scoring for a reason."
