Providence Quotes | Georgetown Quotes | Box Score
By SEAN BRENNAN
Special to BIGEAST.com
Last season was a nice one for Devin Carter. There were a few Player of the Week accolades, a handful of weekly Honorable Mentions and a growing reputation around the league as one of the stingiest defenders on the circuit. He even managed an All-BIG EAST Honorable Mention at season’s end last year.
Again. A nice year. But no one could have envisioned how Carter’s junior year was going to unfold this season. All he did was lead the BIG EAST in scoring in 20 league contests (21.4 ppg.), be one of 30 players to be named to the Naismith Player of the Year Midseason Team, be one of 15 players named to the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Watchlist, finish in the top 10 in seven different conference statistical categories and earn All-BIG EAST First Team honors. Oh wait, there’s something else. Oh year, he was also just crowned the BIG EAST Player of the Year off his explosive 2023-24 season.
He is just the second Friars’ player to earn the honor after former Providence star Kris Dunn earned the award in 2015-16 after sharing it with Villanova’s Ryan Arcidiacono the season prior.
So when the 7th-seeded Friars squared off with No. 10 Georgetown in a BIG EAST Tournament first-round game Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, it meant another opportunity for Carter and friends - teammate Josh Oduro earned Honorable Mention accolades while Rich Barron was named to the conference’s All-Freshman Team - to pad the stats a little bit against the rebuilding Hoyas and move a step closer in their pursuit of a BIG EAST Tournament title.
Mission accomplished for the Friars.
Providence got 20 points from Josh Oduro, Carter notched 19 points and nine rebounds and Ticket Gaines added 15 points and seven boards as the Friars advanced to Thursday’s quarterfinal round with a convincing 74-56 victory over the Hoyas. It was the first meeting between the two teams in the BIG EAST Tournament since 2002 and the Friars’ first victory over the Hoyas in the tourney since the 1994 championship game.
Providence (20-12) will now face No. 2 seed Creighton in Thursday’s 7 p.m. quarterfinal game.
It was quite a day for Carter, who found out he was named the conference’s top player early in the day before returning to the Garden Wednesday night to take care of business. But awards take a back seat at this time of year as both Carter and his coach, Kim English, are well aware.
“I got the award and then I took everything in here earlier at the Garden,” Carter said. “And then the moment I left, I locked in with my teammates. I pushed it to the side.”
It was exactly how English hoped his star player would handle his big day.
“Dev had such a career-defining moment earlier today, winning the Player of the Year award” English said. “And as I was sitting there I was like, usually the Player of the Year probably (isn’t) playing on Wednesday. But he was up since 9:30, shooting around, straight to the Garden for the press conference and I was just sitting in the back of our Uber and I had to tell him, I want him to enjoy these moments, but sorry, he’s going to have to relish that moment after the seasons done because we have business to attend to.”
Providence led 40-27 at the intermission and pretty much had their way with the Hoyas in the second half. The Friars built leads that swelled to 16 points (63-47) with 6:28 to play after a pair of free throws by Oduro. But Georgetown (9-23) did manage to make a mini-run to trim the Providence lead to 64-56 after a layup by Jayden Epps with 3:41 remaining in the second half.
But what killed the Hoyas chances of an epic upset was their brutal foul shooting. Providence finished just 4-of-19 (21.1%) from the line which more or less torpedoed any chance of moving on in the tournament. Epps, who has been one of the few bright spots for Georgetown this season, finished with a game-high 30 points but shot a paltry 3-for-11 at the free throw line. The Hoyas set a BIG EAST Tournament program low at the free throw line.
After Georgetown trimmed the Friars’ lead to those eight points, the Friars put things on lockdown, holding Georgetown scoreless over the final 3:41 while scoring the final 10 points of the game to close out the victory. The Friars, just like English wanted, had taken care of business.
A victory, some nice new shiny hardware and the adoration of Friars fans who made the trip south to New York, made for a very memorable day for Carter.
“It was great. We had a lot of fans, they come to every game, We have a lot of fans and a lot of road games,” Carter said. “But Madison Square Garden, they like to pop out for this one a lot. It was great having them here. They bring a lot of energy and we feed off it.”
The Friars will now turn their attention to Creighton. The two teams split their two regular-season games with each team winning on their home court.
“Very good opponent coming off a great win last Saturday at Nova where they got out to a huge lead, like 34-7,” English said. “It was a crazy lead. The, UConn, Marquette, maybe the smartest teams in our league. The players are like coaches. Just play the right way, never make mistakes, don’t beat themselves. We’re going to have to have a very mature and great effort tomorrow night.”