by AARON BEARD, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Providence rose four spots to No. 11 in the Associated Press men’s college basketball poll, its highest perch since the 2015-16 season when the Friars spent 12 weeks in the AP Top 25, peaking at No. 8 in January. Ed Cooley’s program has won seven straight games for its first 20-2 start since the 1972-73 season and its first-ever 10-1 start in Big East play.
Jared Bynum scored a career-high 32 points and Providence won its seventh in a row, beating Georgetown 71-52 Sunday and sending the Hoyas to their school-record 11th straight loss.
The Friars (20-2, 10-1 Big East) completed a season sweep of the sputtering Hoyas and have won 12 of 15 against their longtime conference rival since 2015.
Bynum had only five points at halftime, but personally outscored Georgetown 27-22 in the second half.
“Jared put on a cape and it was as good of a performance as I’ve seen since I’ve been the head coach here,” Providence’s Ed Cooley said.
Aminu Mohammed had 18 points for the Hoyas (6-15, 0-10). Georgetown is nine games under .500 for the first time since going 3-23 in 1971-72, the season before Hall of Fame coach John Thompson Jr. began his Hoyas career.
“We’re only going to win when everybody in that room decides that whatever we’re doing right now is not working,” Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing said. “They have to decide if they’re going to listen to what we want them to do and get it done.”
It seemed the Hoyas might end their slide against an unlikely opponent when they held a lead early in the second half. But Georgetown’s sloppiness and Bynum’s slick shooting ended any chance of that.
Providence already led by five when Bynum made a pair of free throws. It proved to be the start of a 13-0 personal run for Bynum, who hit three consecutive 3s to make it 59-41, then added another 3 after a basket by Mohammed to become responsible for 16 consecutive points by the Friars.
Bynum’s previous career high was 23 against Temple in 2018 when he played for Saint Joseph’s. A native of nearby Largo, Maryland, who played high school ball at Georgetown Prep, Bynum shot 11 of 15 from the field and 7 of 8 from 3-point range.
“It felt like an ocean,” Bynum said of the basket. “It felt like everything I was putting up was going down. That was pretty fun to see those shots fall. And being back at home with a lot of family and friends here, being able to play in front of them, I was really excited.”
Georgetown committed 19 turnovers, leading to 18 Providence points. The Hoyas were just 5 of 25 from the floor in the second half and made just two field goals in the first 12:26 of the half as Providence pulled away.
The Friars entered the day averaging 11.8 turnovers, but had 10 giveaways in the first half alone. Georgetown had nine of its own, but still took a 30-27 edge into the break. It was only the second time this season the Hoyas have led a Big East opponent at halftime, but advantage didn’t last long.
“I’m proud of our resilience once again, and I’ve used that word a lot this year,” Cooley said. “Sometimes in the past, we would have folded in those situations. We didn’t let our frustration carry over to the second half.”
BIG PICTURE
Providence: The Friars had won their last five games by single-digit margins, but they didn’t require another nerve-wracking finish to complete their sixth regular-season sweep of Georgetown in the last eight seasons.
Georgetown: The Hoyas haven’t won a game since Dec. 15, and just lost three home games in the span of six days. The question facing Georgetown isn’t if it can turn things around this season, but rather whether it can win even one Big East game.
The Friars play Saturday night vs DePaul at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence. Catch the game at 6:10pm on WPRO.
