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Men's Basketball
at Pitt (Exhibition)
2:00 p.m.
Providence College Athletics
Sunday, November 8
Providence, RI
7:30 PM
Providence College
80
vs
83
Notre Dame
Men's Basketball Falls to Notre Dame
6/21/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
December 8, 1998
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The Providence College Friars saw their six-game winning streak snapped by the hot-shooting Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 83-80, at the Providence Civic Center Tuesday night. Notre Dame got 60 of their 83 points from three freshman who sparked the Irish midway through the first half.
Freshmen forward Troy Murphy scored 30 points and added 11 rebounds to lead the attack. Fellow freshman David Graves added 17 points and rookie Harold Swanagan came off the bench to score 13 in the win. Senior Antoni Wyche added 12 points from his guard spot.
PC was paced by its one-two punch of senior Jamel Thomas and freshman Sean Connolly as each scored 21 points in the game. The loss drops Providence to 6-3 on the year and 0-1 in league play. Notre Dame is now 4-5 overall and 1-0 in BIG EAST action.
The Friars roared out of the starting blocks early taking an 13-2 lead just over three minutes into the game. The lead would go as high as 19-7 (with 12:39 left in the first half) when the Friars went ice-cold. PC went just under eight minutes (7:59) without making a basket until Thomas scored on a layup with 4:40 left in the half. By that time, Notre Dame had run off 18 straight points. The run would go to 32-5 in Notre Dame's favor as ND led 39-24 with 1:57 left in the first half. PC showed signs of life at the end of the half reeling off seven straight points to go to intermission down by a 39-31 score.
The Friars went to their pressing and trapping game in the second half and while they scored their points, Notre Dame continued to get easy shots on the way to shooting 68.2% (15-22) in the second half. The Irish held the Friars at bay for most of the half with a 10-12 point lead, but PC would make one last run.
Connolly got it going with a three-pointer (one of six in the game) with 7:16 left to cut the lead to 66-59. A Corey Wright layup made it 66-61 when Notre Dame took a timeout.
Thomas scored on a layup to cut the lead to three at 66-63 with 6:33 left in the game. From there the teams traded baskets. The Friars got the score to two twice down the stretch at 68-66 (5:07 left) and 70-68 (4:25 left) but couldn't get the defensive stop or turnover to go ahead.
The Irish made nine of ten free throws down the stretch to keep the lead at five (81-76 with 15 seconds left) when Wright hit a bomb from downtown with ten seconds left to make it 81-79 with ten seconds left. Murphy made a pair of free throws to make it a four-point game. Wright would make one free throw and then tried to set up a three point play with two seconds left for three points, but Notre Dame came up with the rebound and PC had its first loss in six games.
FRIAR NOTES....This was just the second game this year that the Friars trailed at halftime of a game and the first time that they lost when trailing at the half...Jamel Thomas continues to climb in the school and national scoring ratings. His 21 points in the game moved him into eighth on PC's all-time scoring list with 1,534 points. He passed John Thompson (9th - 1,520) and Austin Croshere (8th - 1,523)....Going into the game, Thomas' 25.4 points per game average was the best in the BIG EAST and in the nation...Corey Wright had another strong game at point guard with nine points and seven assists. The seven assists equalled his career high which came against North Carolina State on November 24th...The Friars have now lost nine straight BIG EAST regular season opening games in a row...PC has not won a season opening league game since December of 1989 when the Friars won a home game against Boston College...PC is now 3-17 in league openers and 8-12 league home openers.
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