PC Friars Win In Cancun / Brown Bears Off To Best Start In 10 Years

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Scott Cordischi, GoLocalProv Sports Editor

PROVIDENCE 84 WYOMING 77:

The Thanksgiving Day feast will taste a little better for the PC Friars. After losing to LaSalle on Tuesday, Providence wrapped up the Cancun Challenge in Mexico Wednesday with a 84-77 victory over the Wyoming Cowboys.

As they did the day before against LaSalle, the Friars fell behind early trailing 10-4, 14-8 and 16-10 early on. But PC settled down and fought back to take a 35-31 halftime lead thanks in part to Vincent Council, Gerard Coleman and Duke Mondy.

Council scored 10 of his career high 29 points in the first half for PC. Coleman netted 9 of his 15 in the first 20 minutes and Mondy hit two big three’s midway through the first half helping Providence take control of the game.

Council did a fantastic job getting to the free throw line draining all 16 of his attempts from the stripe.

After getting hammered on the glass by the Explorers on Tuesday, PC won the battle of the boards last night 27-25 over the Cowboys.

Head coach Keno Davis said after the game on WEEI-FM, “we’re a work in progress.” “We’re not a great team, we’re a good team, but we’re working at it.”

PC won 3 of the 4 games they played as part of the Cancun Challenge. The Friars return home to host Central Connecticut on November 29th at the Dunk.

BROWN 67 ST. FRANCIS (NY) 63:

With former Brown player and coach Mike Cingiser (’62) watching from the stands, the Brown men’s basketball team defeated St. Francis College 67-63. The victory improved the Bears record to (3-1) which is their best start to a season in 10 years.

It’s ironic that Cingiser was in attendance. The South Carolina resident was in town to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday with family. Along with being one of the greatest players in Brown basketball history, he also coached the program to its only Ivy League championship in 1986. That’s exactly what Jesse Agel is trying to accomplish and the third year coach certainly has the program heading in the right direction.

“This was a good win for us tonight,” Agel said. “That team took a Big East team (South Florida) down to the wire and lost by three so they’re a good team. We’re happy to get the win and start (3-1).”

It was a story of two halves for the Bears Wednesday afternoon. Brown built a 15-point halftime lead and looked as if it would cruise to an easy win. But the Terriers turned up the defensive pressure in the second half and pulled to within 1 at 59-58 with 1:16 to play.

Ivy League rookie of the week Sean McGonagill (11pts, 6 reb, 4 assists) hit 5 of 6 free throws down the stretch while sophomore Tucker Halpern (15pts, 3 reb, 2 assists) came up with a big steal and drained 3 of 4 from the line to seal the victory.

Senior Garrett Leffelman chipped in with 13 points while sophomore Andrew McCarthy had 8 points and 7 rebounds for the Bears.

Brown will travel to Durham, NH to battle the UNH Wildcats Saturday at 1pm. New Hampshire lost one of its best players to injury. Senior guard Alvin Abreu suffered a torn ACL against Dartmouth on November 16th and will be out for the season.