PC Tops USF; Tied for 8th

Perhaps the best yardstick for judging a college women’s basketball team is not how they win, but how they respond to a loss. That was the yardstick at play when the Friars took on South Florida in Tampa on Tuesday, Feb. 23, after losing to Connecticut just two days earlier. The Friars could not have responded better by registering a 72-62 win over the Bulls.

With the up-and-down week, Providence maintains its .500 mark in conference play at 7-7, which is good for joint possession of seventh place in the Big East with DePaul. And with a Saturday meeting against Rutgers (which owns sixth place by one game in the loss column) looming, Providence could move up one spot in the standings by the end of the week.

"I think this is a good place to be where we are right now," said Friars Head Coach Phil Seymore. "Beating Cincinnati, Marquette and DePaul, those were all big games for us because it gave us some separation, where we are placed in league play."

Separation is the key word in the Mullaney Gymnasium these days. Separation, that is, from the middle of the conference pack, which would give the Friars a good seed in the Big East Tournament which commences on Friday, March 5, at the XL Center in Hartford, Conn.

The key to the Friars’ win against South Florida was quality defense. Providence held the Bulls to just 36.2 percent shooting from the field and 25 percent from behind the three-point line. The stingy defense allowed just 22 first half points—a notable achievement for any team playing on the road.

"We’ve been working on [defense] a lot with our coaches, really emphasizing the closing out, the rebounding, and they’ve taken pride in it," said Coach Seymore. "We’ve shut some people down."

Brittany Dorsey ’10 led the charge off the board with a team-high six rebounds of the Friars’ 32 total. Providence allowed only three South Florida players to put up double figures, and those who did had solid free-throw shooting to thank for the good numbers.

And while the defense did its job, the offense stepped up, as well. Chelsea Marandola ’10 led the offense in her usual stellar fashion. She recorded 24 points in the game, 18 of which came in the second half (including two treys). Mi-Khida Hankins ’11 posted 17 points, five rebounds, and four assists.

Hankins has been a force to be reckoned with at both ends of the court as of late, which bodes well for the guard who suffered an injury that kept her out for five games earlier in the season.

"[Mi-Khida] is getting better, she’s getting healthier," said Coach Seymore. "She’s still not 100 percent. But more importantly, the [player] she was guarding [against Marquette last week] had 14 points in the first half and she didn’t score a point in the second half … Our guards did a really good job."

Neither the guards nor the forwards, however, could do much to halt the greatest show in women’s college basketball, the Connecticut Huskies. The Friars suffered an 85-53 loss on the road, as Connecticut extended its win streak to 66 consecutive games.

Two minutes into the contest, the Huskies took advantage of a 21-6 run that put the game out of reach for a Friar comeback. But the PC offense did everything it could to help the cause. Trinity Hull ’11 snapped the Husky run with a jump shot, and Emily Cournoyer ’10 hit consecutive jumpers to close out the first half. Marandola led the Friars with 12 points, and Lola Wells ’12 notched a career-high nine points in the contest.

Providence will play the last home game of the regular season on Saturday, Feb. 27, against Rutgers at 2:00 p.m. Friartown will honor PC’s four seniors—Marandola, Cournoyer, Dorsey, and Jessica Clark ’10—as part of Senior Day festivities before tip-off.

The Friars will look to end a month in which they fared well at 4-2 and made huge strides in the standings.

"It’s always about going out competing and giving your very best," said Coach Seymore. "They probably thought about winning the past couple of games, but we haven’t really talked about winning. We just try to focus on doing the things that are going to help us to be successful on the court, and everything else will take care of itself."