Rutgers University
Providence
Echenique Excels in 73-66 Home Loss to Providence
Mar 01 | Men's Basketball
Piscataway, N.J. - Freshman forward Gregory Echenique (Guatire, Venezuela) had a monster game, scoring 14 points and registering career-highs in rebounds (16), blocks (seven) and steals (five), but it was not enough, as Rutgers (10-19, 1-15) dropped a 73-66 decision to Providence (18-11, 10-7) Sunday afternoon at the RAC.
| Senior Jaron Griffin came off the bench to score 12 points, all in the second half. (Tom Ciszek/NJSportsPhoto) |
Jaron Griffin (Manchester, N.J.) scored 12 points and Mike Coburn (Mount Vernon, N.Y.) and Mike Rosario (Jersey City, N.J.) each contributed 10 in a game that featured five ties and four lead changes.
With junior center Hamady Ndiaye (Dakar Senegal) hampered by foul trouble and playing just five minutes, Echenique received the Lion's share down low and responded. He shot five-of-eight from the field and was a perfect four-of-four from the free throw line in 37 minutes. RU established a 38-32 advantage in points in the paint.
Once again, the Scarlet Knights displayed a lot of fight. Trailing by 19 (62-43) with 8:35 remaining, the home squad went on a 16-0 run, capped by an Echenique dunk, that resulted in just a three-point deficit with three minutes to play. A long three-pointer by the Friars, however, answered the run and RU would get no closer.
Rutgers shot 40.9 percent, making 27 of a season-high 66 field goal attempts. After missing on all nine of its three pointers in the opening 20 minutes, the home squad made four of nine after the break to finish at 22.2 percent. Providence made 47.1 percent (24-51) of its shots and 33.3 percent (5-15) from behind the arc. The Scarlet Knights out-rebounded the Friars by a 37-32 margin.
The game was a back-and-forth affair at the onset. An Earl Pettis (Philadelphia, Pa.) layup provided Rutgers an 8-7 lead with 13:52 on the first half clock. After a pair of ties after the third media timeout of the opening half, RU took a 22-20 advantage on an Anthony Farmer (Millville, N.J.) layup at 4:32. Thirteen of the final 17 points of the first half were scored by the Friars, who took a 33-26 lead into the locker room at the midpoint.
Weyinmi Efejuku posted 28 points to lead three Friars in double figures.
Rutgers returns to the hardwood Tuesday evening at Syracuse. The game will tip-off at 9:00 p.m. and will be televised live nationally on ESPNU.
POSTGAME NOTES
- Providence defeated Rutgers 73-66 Sunday afternoon at the Louis Brown Athletic Center. PC leads the all-time series 12-7 and is 5-5 all-time at Rutgers.
- Rutgers used a 16-0 run in the second half to erase a 62-43 deficit and pull to within three at 62-59.
- The Rutgers bench outscored Providence 28-7. Senior Jaron Griffin (Manchester, N.J.) led the reserves with 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting, including 2-of-4 from three-point range.
- Rutgers was a perfect 8-for-8 from the foul line. It was the best free throw shooting percentage of the season for the Scarlet Knights.
- Rutgers owned a 37-32 advantage on the boards, including a 15-8 advantage on the offensive glass.
- Freshman Gregory Echenique (Guatire, Venezuela) recorded his fifth double-double of the season with 14 points and a game and career-high 16 rebounds. It marked the first time in Echenique's career he recorded a double-double in a BIG EAST game.
- Echenique finished with career-highs in blocks (7) and steals (5). He is the second player in the BIG EAST this season to have seven or more blocks in a BIG EAST game, joining Connecticut's Hasheem Thabeet.
- Echenique's 16 rebounds were the most by a Scarlet Knight since Adrian Hill pulled down 18 rebounds vs. Notre Dame on March 3, 2007.
- Echenique leads Rutgers with 13 games with three or more blocks this season. He is first on the squad with five double-doubles.
- Four Scarlet Knights finished in double-figures. Along with Echenique and Griffin, sophomore Mike Coburn (Mt. Vernon, N.Y.) finished with 12 points and freshman Mike Rosario (Jersey City, N.J.) scored 10 points.
- Rosario finished in double-figures for the 26th time this season, which leads the squad. He has scored 10 or more points in 26 of 29 games this season.
POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH FRED HILL
On Jeff Xavier's long three-point field goal to stop the RU run in the second half:
"That was a 31-foot three with a hand up. You make a big shot. Our zone had been so effective there. Percentages are they may be able to knock down a three, but we're going to ride with it. The five minutes previous to that, it got us a chance to get out. It got deflections and they missed shots. We rebounded the basketball and it got us out running. I thought offensively, this is where we're at. We have to learn how to win. We know how to compete. And I've always talked about in the building process, you have to learn how to compete first and I don't think that there is anyone that has watched us play that doesn't see the competitive nature of these guys and that they compete in every situation. But then you have to learn how to win. Learning how to win is when you're down three. On the offensive end we had two opportunities to cut it to one or tie it. We stopped them on the defensive end. Maybe get another stop and get a basket and go up one, it changes the game. We couldn't make the play on the offensive end to get us over the top. That's what you talk about, learning how to win. And then they make a big shot, nothing to the detriment of what we did defensively. That's a big shot. That's a kid stepping up in a big situation and the shot goes down. That's learning how to win. That's a veteran guard and the shot goes in. Sometimes you miss them but more often than not when you're a veteran you have confidence and you go up and make that shot. It goes in and that changes the complexity of the game."
On digging out of large second half deficits:
"You never want to put yourself in a situation where you have to dig back, but we did and again we compete. So we understand how to do that and we do that very well. There's no quit in these guys and they play hard. We just couldn't buy a shot in the first half. We were 0-of-9 from three and I talked about that at halftime. It's 33-26 and we're 0-of-9 from three with seven really good looks, maybe two that weren't very good, but seven good ones. If you knock down two of those, it's 2-of-7. That's not a high percentage you know but it's a one point game at half. That's six points. In the second half we started to shoot the ball better, we knew that we would. I hope that whenever we get down we can have a rally and cut it as quickly as we possibly can and then take the lead. We talk about getting the lead and then stretching the game out. We've only been able to do that one time this year. I thought against DePaul that's what we did. It was a game where we were finally able to get a lead and stretch it out. We've been battling back from too much deficit to be able do that right now."
On Gregory Echenique's performance:
"I thought it was outstanding and we talked. We've been talking about him being active. That's the word we use for him, that he has to be really active. I think, and he can correct me if I'm wrong but, I think it was a great confidence builder in the way that both he and Hamady battled (Luke) Harangody out at Notre Dame the other day. We talked to him about the difference between Harangody and Gregory, besides one being a junior and player of the year, is that Harangody is very, very active. He really on every play is active and that's what we've been talking to Gregory about, being active on every play. I think today was his most complete game in doing that. I thought he was active for the majority of the 37 minutes that he played."
On the unit that made the second half run:
"I thought we found five guys that were really competing and playing well together and that's why I stayed with them. It has nothing to do with the other guys. When you find a combination that's really playing well together and playing hard (you stay with them). I thought they were really doing a great job on the defensive end. I thought they got out and ran. I think the bench was outstanding and we stayed with them because they were giving us good minutes."
Providence head coach Keno Davis
Game thoughts:
"I would first like to say a little bit about Rutgers and them playing so hard, especially when it looked liked the game was in hand. They played at a very high level and I think their future is very bright here at Rutgers because of the quality of some of their young players.
"With our team coming off of an upset over Pittsburgh, you never know how your team is going to react. We really came out of the games well and realized that there was an opportunity for us to finish in the top half of the division. We didn't execute the way that I would have liked later on in the second half, but fortunately we had enough of a cushion that we were able to hold on at the end."
When Rutgers cut the Providence lead to three points:
"I credit Rutgers during that stretch to be able to go to the zone and try something different; that was not something that we would have suspected the zone late in the game when you're down. The zone really changed the momentum of the game. Our players started to take early jump shots because they were able to get them off. I would have preferred to have executed better in the second half, we turned it over and they were able to get easy baskets."
On the deep three-point shot by Jeff Xavier (#1):
"We kept "jacking" up shots so one of them just had to fall at some point. It was a play coming out for our guys to look for the jump shot coming out. I think that when it's a three-point game that shot is a little better then when it's a 10 point game with 12 minutes left. I credit our guys in having the confidence to finish a game off."
