Providence basketball's Bryce Hopkins finds his stroke against in-state rival Rhode Island
PROVIDENCE — Here is some bad news for the remainder of Providence’s nonconference schedule and its Big East foes.
Bryce Hopkins has officially found his game around the same time of the year that he emerged as a star with the Friars last season.
His breakout in a rivalry win at the University of Rhode Island turned some heads. The third-year frontcourt dominator repeated the script Saturday night at Amica Mutual Pavilion, putting Providence on his back in the second half.
Hopkins netted 19 of his 24 points and teamed with Devin Carter to form a potent 1-2 punch. Sprinkle in the return of Jayden Pierre after a three-game absence due to a groin injury and the Friars had all they needed to hold off the Rams, 84-69, in the renewal of their in-state rivalry grudge match.
“Great win,” Providence coach Kim English said. “Great day in the city of Providence and in the state of Rhode Island. I think these games are great.”
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Hopkins collected 14 points and 15 rebounds — a season high in boards to that point — while Providence dismissed URI at the Ryan Center a year ago. That was a hint of things to come — 29 points and 23 rebounds, the first 20-20 game for the Friars in more than a decade, felled Marquette in a double-overtime classic at home. Hopkins went on to earn first-team all-conference honors and helped Providence reach a seventh NCAA Tournament under former coach Ed Cooley.
That form was largely absent in the early stages of this season. Hopkins bottomed out in the lone Friars loss thus far — 3-for-16 from the field in a 73-70 overtime defeat against Kansas State at Baha Mar. He’s rallied to shoot 28-for-46 from 2-point range in his last four games, averaging an even 21 points per outing.
“Bryce is great,” Pierre said. “Once he gets to his spots and gets to where he wants to go and plays under control, it’s hard to stop him and contain him.”
Providence won its 10th straight against the Rams in this building and its 14th in the last 20 meetings in the series by pulling away in the second half. Hopkins and Pierre did most of the damage, as a 57-52 game quickly spread out. Hopkins fired down a right-hand slam off a pass from Pierre on the break and URI called timeout with 7:11 left in a sudden 69-56 hole.
“With eight minutes to go in the game, they started to really wear us down,” URI coach Archie Miller said. “I thought for the most part I was proud of our guys. They battled and competed in a real, real physical game.”
That dunk from Hopkins was part of a 17-0 shutout the Friars posted on the fast break. They also enjoyed a 15-8 advantage in points off turnovers — those two categories tend to dovetail. Providence was plus-nine from the 3-point line in the second half and responded with a 7-0 run after Zek Montgomery forced a 38-38 tie with a turnaround jumper in the right post.
“Our transition attack was great,” English said. “We want to go early. We want to play fast. We could have had more if we got more stops.”
The Rams (5-3) enjoyed just a brief lead in the opening half, but they were well within striking distance in front of a largely hostile sellout road crowd of 12,513 fans. Josaphat Bilau scored off the glass in the right post and Luis Kortright slipped down the left side to beat the horn with a layup. URI faced just a 35-32 deficit thanks to 4-for-8 shooting from deep and only five turnovers.
“As I told our team after the game, if you can bottle up about 30 minutes of the effort and some of the physicality plays that we had, we look much different than we did two weeks ago,” Miller said. “So there’s progress there.”
The Friars (7-1) put all five starters in double figures, with Carter adding 17 points and 11 rebounds for his second double-double in three games and the fifth of his career. Pierre chipped in 12 points and shared the assist lead with Josh Oduro, who matched Ticket Gaines with 10 points. Providence closed 18-for-31 from the field in the final 20 minutes to register 49.2% for the game.
“We did not play well in the first half by any stretch,” English said. “It was our worst half of basketball this season by a mile. We didn’t meet any of our metrics. We were bad on defense. We were bad on offense. Missing layups. We weren’t focused.
“We were much better in the second half.”
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RHODE ISLAND (5-3): Brown 2-3 0-1 4, Fuchs 5-10 1-4 11, House 6-13 3-5 18, Kortright 5-9 0-1 11, Montgomery 4-11 0-0 10, Foumena 2-4 0-0 4, Weston 1-4 2-2 4, Bilau 3-6 1-2 7, Estevez 0-2 0-0 0, Wright 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 28-62 7-15 69.
PROVIDENCE (7-1): Oduro 3-9 4-5 10, Hopkins 10-19 3-5 24, Carter 7-12 0-1 17, Gaines 4-7 0-0 10, Pierre 3-7 5-5 12, Floyd 1-2 0-0 2, Dual 3-7 0-0 6, Barron 1-1 0-0 3, Castro 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 32-65 12-16 84.
Halftime — Providence 35-32. 3-point goals — Rhode Island 6-12 (House 3-5, Montgomery 2-3, Kortright 1-2, Fuchs 0-1, Weston 0-1), Providence 8-20 (Carter 3-5, Gaines 2-5, Barron 1-1, Hopkins 1-3, Pierre 1-3, Dual 0-1, Floyd 0-1, Oduro 0-1). Rebounds — Rhode Island 31 (Bilau 9), Providence 40 (Carter 11). Assists — Rhode Island 8 (Kortright 4), Providence 12 (Oduro, Pierre 3). Total fouls — Rhode Island 19, Providence 14. A — 12,513 (12,410).
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Providence basketball's Bryce Hopkins leads Friars past rival URI
