By going on the road to Philadelphia and knocking off the No. 4 Villanova on Sunday, No. 16 Providence kept pace in the race for a conference title, clogging up the Big East standings in the process.
Ben Bentil scored 31 points and pulled down 13 rebounds as the Friars (17-3, 5-2) outlasted the Wildcats (17-3, 7-1) 82-76 in overtime. Villanova senior Ryan Arcidiacono led the way with 19 points.
For the Friars, this was as close to a must-win as possible this early in league play, as they’d already dropped two of their past three games, at home against Marquette and Seton Hall. While St. John’s provided the meat filling to their disappointing three game stretch, Sunday’s test proved to be the kind of measuring stick PU needed. After all, even with the brilliance of point guard Kris Dunn, the Friars had looked quite pedestrian ever since their win at Butler to open Big East play.
Things don’t get any easier from here though, as Providence hosts Xavier next before traveling to Georgetown. Just two games later, they welcome Villanova to their house, where the Wildcats will no doubt be intent on delivering their own road defeat the Friars’ way.
As things stand, Villanova still sits on top of the conference table at 7-1, but there’s a log jam behind them. Four teams (Providence, Xavier, Creighton, Georgetown) all sit at 5-2, with several match-ups between the group coming in the next week or two. While it looks like we should have a clearer picture of the Big East standings in short order, there’s no telling–from here at least–what they will look like when it’s all said and done.
