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Men's Basketball
at Pitt (Exhibition)
2:00 p.m.
Providence College Athletics
Saturday, February 17
Chestnut Hill, Mass.
7:00 PM ET
Providence College
73
at
81
Boston College
Friars Fall On The Road To BC, 81-73
2/17/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 17, 2001
By JIMMY GOLEN
AP Sports Writer
BOSTON - Providence can boast of a spectacular turnaround this season, but it won't impress Boston College.
The worst team in the Big East last season, No. 9 Boston College took the undisputed conference lead Saturday night with an 81-73 victory over Providence. The Friars, who were 12th in the 13-team league last year, fell 1 1/2 games behind BC in the conference's East Division.
"The importance of the game was obviously there," BC coach Al Skinner said after the Eagles blew a 14-point second-half lead before coming back to win. "Both teams were fighting for first place."
Troy Bell scored nine of his 26 points in the last six minutes, adding a key steal and blocked shot. Ryan Sidney had seven of his 17 points in the final minute for the Eagles (19-3, 10-2 Big East), who have one more win than No. 14 Notre Dame, the West Division leader and BC's next opponent.
John Linehan scored 22 points and Abdul Mills had 18 for Providence (18-7, 9-4), which - like BC - is off to its best start ever in Big East play.
"They've made a big turnaround, and I think Linehan was a big part of it," Bell said of his fellow point guard. "We both came from the gutter and made our way up."
Providence cut the lead to 72-70 on Maris Laksa's 3-pointer with 41.6 seconds left. But after Sidney hit two free throws, Bell blocked Linehan's 3-point attempt and BC hit 10 of 12 free throws in the final minutes to preserve the lead.
"You've got to execute your offense in crunch time, and we didn't do that," Providence coach Tim Welsh said. "They imposed their will on us tonight a little bit more than we imposed our will on them."
Unranked Providence, which beat then-No. 15 Georgetown 103-79 last Saturday, had hoped for a second consecutive victory over a ranked team would impress the poll voters. Even with the loss, the Friars have a good chance at making the NCAA tournament, no Big East team with at least 18 wins has been left out.
BC sank the first basket of the second half to take a 46-32 lead. But Providence answered with a 20-3 run, taking a 50-49 lead when Mills converted a steal into a breakaway layup with 13:27 left. Karim Shabazz dunked to give Providence a three-point lead.
BC answered with Jonathan Beerbohm's dunk, but he was called for a technical foul for hanging on the rim. Linehan's free throw made it 53-51. Uka Agbai tied it at the other end with a third chance tip-in.
The game see-sawed from there, with five ties until Kenny Harley hit a 12-footer from the right side, and Sidney tipped a pass off Christopher Anrin and out of bounds. Harley sank two free throws with 1:41 left to make it 69-65.
Bell then sank two free throws to make it 71-65.
BC trailed 13-4 early before scoring 11 consecutive points, and 19 of the next 21 to go ahead 23-15. BC led 44-32 at the half after forcing 12 turnovers and committing only six.
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