Providence is starting to take pride in its defense as it heads into a meeting with St. Bonaventure on Saturday at the Hall of Fame Showcase in Uncasville, Conn.
The Friars (7-4) have held each of their past three opponents under 65 points, even DePaul, which took Providence to overtime on Tuesday but still fell 70-63. The Blue Demons scored just five points in the extra period and shot 32.8 percent from the field for the game.
Friars coach Kim English was pleased with the effort that his team turned in, but he doesn’t believe that it has reached its full potential just yet.
“I thought it was our most locked-in game defensively this season,” English said of the performance against DePaul. “We still have some things to work on and will keep making steps in the right direction going forward.”
Slowing down the Bonnies (9-1) poses quite the challenge for the Providence defense, though, as St. Bonaventure is riding a three-game winning streak in the immediate wake of its first loss of the season.
The Bonnies most recently topped visiting Buffalo 65-55 last Saturday behind 16 points from Chance Moore and 12 apiece from Melvin Council Jr. and Jonah Hinton. Moore (Missouri State transfer), Council (Wagner transfer) and Hinton (Panola College transfer) are three of St. Bonaventure’s 10 newcomers this season, and even with 10 games under its belt, the team still feels like it is learning about its personnel.
“We’re definitely coming together more,” Moore said after the win over Buffalo. “We’re realizing that we’re an elite defensive team, and we’re gonna keep working on the offensive end to have both components so that we can really be able to put teams away.
“But it’s a work in progress. We have a lot of new guys.”
Moore is hoping the Bonnies can improve their pace against a Providence team led by Bryce Hopkins (17.0 points, 7.7 rebounds per game), Jayden Pierre (12.7 points per game) and Bensley Joseph (12.1 points per game).
Joseph had a team-high 20 points against the Blue Demons, while Hopkins finished with 19 to go along with 10 boards.