The Providence College Friars used a game-opening 18-2 run to cruise past the University of Maine men’s basketball team 79-59 in a non-conference matchup Tuesday night at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island.
The win was the sixth straight for Providence, now 10-2 overall and 9-0 at home. Coach Ed Cooley’s club, picked to finish ninth in the Big East Conference, will play its final non-conference game of the season at Boston College on Friday.
UMaine (4-8) will remain in Providence to play at Brown University (7-5) on Thursday. Game time is 3:30 p.m.
Emmitt Holt, a 6-foot-7 junior forward, led Providence against the Black Bears with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Junior guard Jalen Lindsey had 12 points and nine rebounds, sophomore guard Ryan Fazekas scored 12 points on four 3-pointers and junior point guard Kyron Cartwright added nine points, six rebounds and six assists for the Friars..
PC junior forward Rodney Bullock, who came into the game averaging 20.7 points per game, finished with just eight points.
Junior guard Wes Myers paced Maine with 13 points, while freshman forward Andrew Fleming of South Paris contributed 12 points and a career-high 11 rebounds and sophomore guard Jaquan McKennon scored nine points.
The Black Bears were playing without junior guard Ilker Er, sidelined with a knee injury.
The game was a homecoming for third-year UMaine coach Bob Walsh, who was an assistant at Providence from 1998 to 2005 before becoming head coach at Rhode Island College.
But the Friars were unwelcoming hosts, opening the game with an 18-2 run as Cartwright — who was ranked fourth nationally with 8.0 assists per game — contributed four assists and a jumper from the key to produce the Friars’ first five baskets.
A hook from the lane by Fleming pulled UMaine within 3-2 90 seconds into the game before Providence scored 15 unanswered points over the next five minutes en route to a 41-25 halftime lead.
Freshman guard Danny Evans finally answered for the Black Bears with a fadeaway 3-pointer from the right wing with 13:02 left in the first half to end the PC run and pull UMaine within 18-5.
Providence built its early lead to as much as 31-12 on a 3-pointer by Ryan Fazekas before UMaine had its best flurry of the half, an 11-2 run including five points by Myers and 3-pointers by Dennis Ashley and Ilija Stojiljkovic that pulled the Black Bears within 33-23 after a Myers drive with 5:22 left.
But that was UMaine’s final field goal of the half as Providence outscored the Bears 8-2 for the rest of the half.
Myers came off the bench to pace Maine over the game’s first 20 minutes with 11 points on 4-for-8 shooting in 16 minutes.
Holt led Providence with eight points and six rebounds while Cartwright had seven points, five assists and just one turnover in 17 minutes.
Providence, which began the night ranked 10th in NCAA Division I allowing just 58.9 points per game, limited UMaine to 32.1 percent (9 of 28) shooting from the field before intermission.
Fleming made back-to-back jumpers from the left baseline to open the second half and draw UMaine within 43-29 before Providence used its superior height and strength to crash the offensive backboards and extend its advantage.
A follow-up basket by Cartwright and a three-point play by Holt after another offensive rebound helped the Friars build its lead to 49-31, and that inside work opened up the perimeter for Providence, which took its largest lead of the night at 65-38 with 11 minutes left after back-to-back 3-pointers by Fazekas and Maliek White.
