Cotton's go-ahead 3-pointer with 2.2 seconds left lifts Providence past Villanova 55-52
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Bryce Cotton hit the winning 3-pointer with 2.2 seconds left and scored 18 points to lead Providence to a 55-52 win over Villanova on Sunday.
The Friars (11-11, 3-7 Big East) swept the Wildcats after beating them 69-66 last month. Vincent Council missed a jumper with 12 seconds left, but Josh Fortune grabbed the offensive rebound. Cotton buried the second-chance 3-pointer from the top of the arc with 2.2 left for a 55-52 lead.
The Friars nearly blew a nine-point lead with 4:34 remaining down the stretch.
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JayVaughn Pinkston's driving bucket down the lane sliced Villanova's deficit to 52-50 with 46.8 seconds left. James Bell then intercepted a pass off a full-court press and was fouled. Bell hit both to make it 52-all with 42 seconds left.
Darrun Hilliard led the Wildcats (13-9, 4-5) with 17 points.
The Wildcats followed a week of wins against top-10 teams Louisville and Syracuse with losses this week at Notre Dame and to the Friars.
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They seemed to take control early in the second half. Hilliard connected with Bell on a high-flying alley-oop. Bell then forced a turnover at midcourt that led to Hilliard's layup for a 34-31 lead and brought the usual crowd of 6,500 to their feet for the first time. Ryan Arcidiacono converted a steal into a layup for a 38-35 lead.
Then the Wildcats went south, missing 10 straight shots over a 10-minute span until Bell scored a layup with 2:11 left.
With a rare road win in sight and the Wildcats slumping, Providence pounced. Fortune's fifth 3-pointer on five attempts pulled the Friars within one. Council's 3-pointer gave Providence a 43-41 lead and Cotton connected for another 3 that gave Providence a five-point lead and pushed the junior guard over the 1,000 career point mark. He's the 45th Friar to reach the milestone.
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From there, the Friars had the game in control and held off a sloppy Wildcats team that could not find the basket. Providence's 6-foot-10 forward Kadeem Batts came out of nowhere for a huge rejection in the final minutes to keep the Wildcats without a basket.
Fortune scored 15 points on five 3s. Providence was 9 of 15 from the free-throw line after a 29-of-48 effort against the Wildcats last month. Providence made 10 of 15 3-pointers.
Mouphtaou Yarou had 10 points and 10 rebounds for Villanova. The Wildcats had 18 turnovers.
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The Friars shook off a 2-of-11 start with six turnovers to take a 29-23 lead into halftime.
Fortune hit a pair of 3s during a 12-0 run that put the Friars up 18-16. Daniel Ochefu missed an open dunk that led Fortune to hit a 3 off the break for the lead. Fortune hit two more 3s the rest of the half, each time putting Providence up three. Cotton hit the Friars' sixth 3-pointer of the half (on eight attempts) to help them close on a whopping 23-7 run and hold a six-point lead.
Fortune was pretty much left open by the Wildcats, with good reason. Not only was Fortune scoreless the last time the two teams played, he hadn't scored a point in four of Providence's last five games. He was a 29 percent 3-point shooter on the season before his flawless first half.
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Yarou was the only Wildcat to score more than one basket in the first half.
Providence announced before the game sophomore forward Sidiki Johnson has taken a voluntarily leave of absence from the program. He averaged 3.9 points and 5.1 rebounds in 11 games.