Stella Blue Coffee Fall Flash Sale | Save 25% on Fall Flavors & Assorted MerchSHOP NOW

Advertisement

Providence Comes Back from 17 Down to Advance to Big East Finals in Crazy Game

633481178

That was one of the more crazy games of this week so far. Xavier looked to be in control the entire first half and to start the second half. Xavier was up 17 despite not getting anything from Trevon Bluiett when Cooley made the switch to start Ashton-Langford at halftime and go with a smaller look.

Ultimately, Kyron Cartwright started to take over the game on the offensive side of the ball. Cartwright finished with 15 points, but he started to get in a rhythm by getting in an ISO after a flex cut and then pulling up from free throw line extended. He took advantage of this in overtime late in the shotclock when Scruggs had his hand down. It was an absolute great display of knowledge of clock and getting to your spot.

Now, that’s not going to be the storyline from this game. It will be Xavier blowing this game, even at the end of regulation. After a stop and a chance to seal the game is when craziness really broke out. Macura had the ball at halfcourt, made a pass as he was getting fouled. With an advantage of sorts, the refs let it go and Bluiett missed a layup that would have sealed the game. Ultimately Providence was able to tie it up and then in overtime get enough big shots to win.

Now, this moves Providence up to the 8/9 lines for me and takes them off the 10 seed line. Xavier is still a 1 seed at the moment, but that is going to be dependent on what Duke does the rest of the weekend. If you’re a Xavier fan you want Duke to lose in the title game to avoid falling. UNC may have an outside shot, but it would be historic as we’ve never seen a 9-loss team be a 1 seed.

If you’re a Providence fan you should petition to build a statue of Ed Cooley outside the Dunk. That man can coach and if he continues to stay at Providence you will be just fine. All in all this was an awesome second half/overtime. Providence now plays the winner of Villanova/Butler in the Big East title game tomorrow.