Feb. 4, 1998
Friars Lose Fourth Straight at Miami, 64-54
Junior guard Kendrick Moore scores career-high 21 points
Game Statistics
MIAMI, Fla. - The Miami Arena has been a House of Horrors for Providence
College Head Coach Pete Gillen in his four seasons at Providence. For the
fourth straight season, the Friars have come to Miami, played a hard-fought
physical battle with the Hurricanes and left the arena with a loss.
This time, the Hurricanes prevailed, 64-54, in a game that saw the Friars
struggle to score once in the first half and again in the second half. Junior
guard Kendrick Moore scored a career high 21 points including 15 in the second
half and Jamel Thomas added 15, but it wasn't enough.
Miami put four players in double figures with sophomore center Mario Bland
leading the way with 15 points. Sixth-year senior Steve Frazier added 13 and
junior forward Tim James scored 10 with 10 rebounds. Freshman guard Mike
Byars-Dawson came off the bench to score 12 points in the win.
The loss, the Friars fourth in a row, dropped PC to 8-12 overall and 3-8 in BIG
EAST play. Miami, now undefeated at home, goes to 15-5 overall and 8-4 in
league play.
The Friars jumped out to a 16-10 lead on a Thomas three-pointer at 10:33. That
would be PC's last basket until Thomas scored on a layup with 5:13 left in the
half. In between (a total of five minutes and 20 seconds), Miami went on a
13-0 run to open up a 23-16 lead. The Friars found their shooting touch again
and rallied over the final five minutes to outscore the Hurricanes 15-7 to take
a 31-30 halftime lead on John Linehan's three-point shot.
Miami came out to start the second half with an 8-0 run that put them ahead
38-31 at the 17:47 mark. PC would stay in the game on the strength of Moore's
shooting as he scored the Friars' first 11 points of the half. The next Friar
to score would be Corey Wright as his driving layup with 7:56 left in the game
cut the lead to 50-44. Linehan followed with a 25-foot three-pointer to cut
Miami's lead to three at 50-47, but that was as close as the Friars would get.
Tim James had a pair of put backs to give Miami a 54-47 lead and Frazier's three
with 4:49 left gave Miami a ten-point lead.
Thomas (three-pointer) and Moore (two jumpers) would score PC's final seven
points while James added a short jumper and Miami made five of its last six free
throws for the final score of 64-54.
The tough, tenacious Miami defense held the Friars to 32.1% shooting (9-28) in
the second half and PC shot 38.9% in the game. Miami shot 42.6% (23-54) in the
game and outrebounded the Friars by a 41-31 margin.
Providence returns to action on Sunday, February 8th when they travel to Rutgers
for a 3:00 p.m. game. The Friars will face Miami again on February 18th in
Providence.
Notes:...PC has lost four in a row to the Hurricanes in Miami...The
Friars have lost the last three meetings in the series and five of the last six
games...The 54 points scored by the Friars is the fewest that PC has scored in a
game this season...Jamel Thomas has scored in double figures in a 20 of the
Friars' games this season...The Friars' four game losing streak is their longest
since a six-game losing streak back in January of 1992...
