A win is a win, but the brothers know they have to get to work

Bensley Joseph stepped up late to save the Friars on opening night (Photos: Louriann Mardo-Zayat)

By KEVIN McNAMARA

PROVIDENCE – So this clearly won’t be easy.

That’s the immediate takeaway from Providence Friar’s hard-fought, narrow 59-55 win over Central Connecticut to open this college basketball season. That is Central Connecticut, not Connecticut if you’re keeping score at home.

Instead of engaging in the “what happened” response, it’s important to clarify who the brothers are at the moment. Kim English is trying to bring together a unit that has a few different parts, but doesn’t look like a TEAM at all. A group reliant on a wave of transfers has struggled with a series of injuries and absences over the last month, and top returner Bryce Hopkins is still not ready for his return from knee surgery. Therefore, it is currently impossible to imagine what the best version of the Friars could look like.

English made it clear that he was very, very impressed with CCSU, but also acknowledged that his team was way behind in its preparations.

“We really couldn’t play much 5-on-5,” English said. “Today I think that was it. I think there was a lot of nerves, a lot of unfamiliar situations because we couldn’t train. I think you’re expecting some of these growing pains, however numbing or head-scratching they may be. When we talk to the boys after the game, we have to make sure they get time back in the gym and get back to the speed at which they can easily execute their plays.”

Early impressions in this opener against a Blue Devil team picked to win the Northeast Conference show that the Friars have a wave of experienced college players with successful track records who are still figuring each other out. That leads to 11 turnovers (16 for the game) in the first half while shooting 34 percent, 3 of 14 from beyond the 3-point line. That’s what creates confusion on defense when a shifty, skilled defender like fifth-year senior Jordan Jones (21 points) overcomes ball screens for long stretches of the game and gets where he wants to go.

But when the Friars had to dig deep and play a game on defense, they found some answers, which speaks to England’s roots. CCSU shot just 7 of 26 (27%) and did not make a 3-point shot in the second half.

As further evidence of the value of the practice, English was proud that senior transfer guard Bensley Joseph (21 points, five 3-pointers) emerged as the clear star of the game. Joseph never missed any practice time and was the Friars’ leader in their exhibition win over Massachusetts. In this case, he cleaned up his teammates’ mistakes when there were few other opportunities to win.

After Wesley Cardet (3 FGs, 3 turnovers) fouled 3-point shooter Devin Haid, who made three shots for a 53-49 lead with 3:21 left, Joseph turned the tide. First he made a three-point shot after a kickout from Corey Floyd. After Haid missed a jumper, Friars big man Christ Essandoko (7 points, 7 boards, 5 turnovers) found Joseph in the left corner and drained another 3-pointer, and the Friars never trailed again .

“I am blessed that Christ found me in the corner. I called his name,” Joseph said.

For much of this game it was an adventure trying to create an offense, but the consistent defense the Friars found in the second half proved crucial. Fifteen of CCSU’s second-half points came from the foul stripe.

“The focus is just on coming together and getting stops defensively,” Joseph said. “We were able to fight with our toughness and just defensively and get the stops we needed.”

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The brothers formed Joseph with Floyd, Cardet, Jayden Pierre and Oswin Erhunmwunse. But from the first media timeout, English was juggling the lineups. Essandoko (27 minutes, 7 rebounds) and Erhunmwunse (12 minutes, 5 rebounds) split time at center while Anton Bonke did not play. The tightness of the game undoubtedly dictated those minutes, as English rightly relied on the one big man with college experience.

As for other time allocation decisions, English used all nine of his players within the first six minutes. The coach said Pierre hasn’t practiced much in the last three weeks and probably played more minutes (28) than planned. He was clearly out of sync, making just one of five shots, three turnovers and no assists. Rich Barron had “played only four times since the Big East tournament” as Jabri Abdur-Rahim missed much of the last three weeks due to labrum surgery and a transfer due to injury and the death of his uncle in Tampa.

“It was a tough game for us, it was a fight, an ugly game, a sloppy game,” English said. “But ultimately the mission is to find a path to victory. Our guys found a way to win with some key stops, some key rebounds and some great shots (from Joseph). I’m glad we got the win, but we still have a lot of work to do.”

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