Pittsburgh erased an early deficit and led throughout the second half at Petersen Events Center.
Providence opened with an exhibition defeat in its unofficial start to this 2025-26 men’s basketball season.
Pittsburgh erased an early deficit and led throughout the second half at Petersen Events Center on Oct. 19. The Panthers held on for an 81-74 triumph, denying the Friars twice after they made it a two-point game inside the final 5:41.
Damarco Minor’s three-point play in the lane triggered a 13-2 run, and Pittsburgh opened up what was a 64-62 advantage into double digits. Providence went without a field goal between Duncan Powell 3-pointers with 6:22 to play and 1:02 left.
Powell, Jason Edwards, Jaylin Sellers, Corey Floyd Jr. and Oswin Erhunmwunse started for the Friars and staked them to an early 18-6 lead. Edwards sandwiched 3-pointers around another from Powell and Jamier Jones threw down a dunk on the fast break with 14:02 left. Cole Hargrove was first off the bench followed by Ryan Mela. Jones, Daquan Davis and Stefan Vaaks all checked in together at the 14:47 mark and Nilavan Daniels earned some playing time inside the final two minutes of the first half.
Providence cooled as the opening 20 minutes unfolded, with a 4-for-5 start from beyond the arc followed by a 4-for-21 finish. Nojus Indrusaitis nailed a 3-pointer to give the Panthers a 26-23 lead, their first since starting the game 2-0. That swelled to 41-31 by halftime on a pair of late free throws by Brandin Cummings.
Pittsburgh blitzed the Friars out of the locker room, using a 7-2 burst to build a 48-34 advantage. Providence eventually found its footing and made it 62-60 on a lone free throw by Erhunmwunse. Two more makes at the line by Mela made it 64-62, but that was it for the Friars in their attempt to rally.
Providence coach Kim English conducted a pair of postgame press conferences – one inside the venue media room, another on Zoom with local media. Here’s what he had to say.
Kim English's opening statement
Great opportunity to hook it up with someone else. I feel like it was for both squads. Give Pitt a bunch of credit. They played well. They responded to a really good start from us. They played great. They played with great physicality. They executed. It was a great game.
I’m really excited to get on the bus and the plane back to watch it and to correct some things. We’ve got Harvard in less than a week and then Holy Cross on Nov. 3.
On Pittsburgh
I feel like they adjusted to our pace quickly. Damarco Minor, I thought his command of the game was really, really good. He had a really good feel for what was going on consistently.
They executed their stuff. You never know the first game exactly what they’re running – if they’re running same stuff from last year. We went into this thinking it was going to be more about us, testing our principles – our shell principles – defensively. We didn’t go over any of their sets. It’s going to be really good film for us to go watch and improve from and get better from.
On the start of the game
It was good to start. I thought there was a little letdown when we went to the second group. I even felt it was still a little sticky at the start. That’s going to be some good film to watch – the start. We’ll try to sustain that a little longer.
On the Pittsburgh offense
I’ve got to watch it. They ran a lot of sets. They were set-heavy tonight. That’s both your own defensive principles and scouting when we know what’s coming and how we’re going to guard it. There’s a lot of stuff we’ve seen and we’re going to work on.
We need to clean a lot of stuff up. We cut it to 2 and they got an offensive rebound and extended it back to 9.
On Providence’s rebounding
We want to rebound the ball. I thought we could have been even better with our offensive rebounding to give us a much better opportunity in transition. We kind of were going in there aimlessly. And they got key rebounds – they got free throw rebounds. It should have been better. And again, they shot 47 percent – there weren’t a lot of misses. They were making them.
On an exhibition versus a closed scrimmage
I like the closed ones better because we can kind of control if we want to do periods, if we want to get different lineups in, play a game at the end. For some of the guys who are out of the rotation maybe you get to see them. We’re not the NBA yet where we can really go into the preseason and not think too much.
When you have fans you’re playing to win. We played to win. Pitt played to win. They played well. I like the closed ones better. But in this era of revenue generation I think you’re going to start seeing more and more of these. Next season in Providence we’re going to have a lot of fans at this game.
On Providence’s players and their performance
As I look through our roster here on the box score, everyone had moments. I also see opportunities where we could have been better. That’s my focus. I was disappointed in our group from a lack of – I think there were a ton of opportunities for us to dive on the floor for loose balls. Daquan Davis did it three times, which you love to see. Everyone had good moments, but a ton of opportunity for growth. That’s the most exciting thing, I think.
On possibly shortening the rotation with an early lead
I would have. I had a rotation sheet that I really wanted to stick to. We had the minutes allocated to what we wanted and we got away from it a little bit – Duncan a little bit more, Oswin a couple less, Jason a little bit more. We wanted to stick to it as much as we could. I stuck to that.
I definitely would have rode that wave. We had 16 points in four minutes, and then I looked back at the score a few timeouts later – it was like 18. I think Jamier’s dunk was the only bucket for a while. So yes, that was a trial run.
On player injuries
Rich (Barron) had a little – he took a shot and a fall yesterday in practice. Cole, I haven’t spoken to Chris (Hagemann, assistant athletic trainer) yet – it was something with his leg. I think he said he was okay at the end. I just wanted Oswin to finish.
Jaylen Harrell is going through some knee struggles. P (Peteris Pinnis) just didn’t get in. Rich is dealing with some pain.
On continuity at both ends
Your offense and your defense are married. They’re married. Our inability to create some good advantages on offense led to some less than desired shots, which leads to poor offensive rebounding balance, which leads to poor transition defense. They did a good job getting to the rim and we didn’t do a good job protecting our rim.
I think at halftime they had attempted 16 layups, and they were 14-for-16 on something good happening from it. I haven’t watched it again. I’ve watched it once. I’m excited to really dive into it and watch it on the flight home.
On Stefan Vaaks
He’s getting better and better and better. He’s had great days. This was a great first opportunity for him – just like all the guys. We talk about rising to the occasion, and you fall to the level of your preparation. These games under the lights, fans, popcorn – it does jack you up. It does jack you up really, really high. The real challenge is we’ve just got to get to that level every single day in practice, so when you do get under the lights it actually slows down.
Again, I’m excited. I think it was a great opportunity. I thought Pitt did a great job. Excited to watch it and have a week to get ready for Harvard.
On the coaching staff working together
It was good. Our staff is good. (Ryan) Gomes is new. Bryan (Tibaldi) is new. Shaun Brown is new. I’ve known Bryan forever. But the game flow was good. It was good operationally, which is practice for that as well – how we operate with timeouts, communicating and substitutions and lineups. I think it was a smooth game.
We probably would not have yanked our starters after such a hot start. I wanted to stick to the minute allocation we had going into the game. I wanted to give everyone a shot to see what it looked like with what a rotation would look like if it was a more neutral game.
On his team’s shot quality
It was great at the start. Truthfully, I don’t know – I hate talking too positively before really watching it. I felt like we turned down a lot of shots. I just believe as a philosophy turned down threes from good shooters turn into turnovers – bad shots and turnovers. And then you end up with a clock shot you don’t want. I thought it was popping really good early and we got great shots. I feel we didn’t come in and sustain that level.
On Daquan Davis
His defense was good. He rebounded the ball. We want to see his assists – he does a great job getting to the paint. He’s so competitive. He’s such a fighter. He’s just such a dog. Sometimes if you find yourself down he can take that same competitive drive and try to get it all back. Just want to keep helping him get better at running it for us.
On Duncan Powell
With Duncan it’s all about him getting acclimated to the pace we want to play. He’s gotten in shape. Shaun Brown has done a great job getting his weight to a level that’s optimal for him. He's had about eight straight really good days.
On result in open scrimmages/exhibitions
That was my message to the group in the locker room. They were all down. They’re competitors. These guys have been great thus far. They were really down in the locker room like it was a regular season loss. I liken it to a heck of an opportunity to really get to hone in on exactly what we need to work on and get better, but with some evidence.
Coach (Dennis) Felton can talk about jumping to the ball or being a good low man to take away layups as much as he can – until he’s blue in the face. Bryan can talk about our cutting principles and our transition attack as much as he can – hit the open man. But then they actually see it and feel it. When we as coaches call fouls in practice because your hand is one someone’s waist, you roll your eyes. But in a game, you feel it. With Big East officials it kind of gives a new level of credibility to it. That’s natural.
I’m excited for everyone in the program to watch this, get back, get better and get ready for Harvard in six days.
PROVIDENCE (74): Jason Edwards 4-11 9-12 19, Jaylin Sellers 4-11 2-2 11, Corey Floyd Jr. 2-6 0-0 5, Duncan Powell 6-13 1-2 17, Oswin Erhunmwunse 0-1 1-2 1, Daquan Davis 2-4 0-0 4, Jamier Jones 2-3 0-0 4, Stefan Vaaks 3-9 1-1 7, Ryan Mela 1-4 2-3 4, Cole Hargrove 1-2 0-0 2, Nilavan Daniels 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 25-65 16-22 74.
PITTSBURGH (81): Cameron Corhen 3-9 4-5 10, Brandin Cummings 3-7 6-7 12, Damarco Minor 4-8 6-7 15, Roman Siulepa 2-4 2-4 6, Barry Dunning Jr., 2-4 0-0 4, Papa Amadou Kante 2-2 3-4 7, Omari Witherspoon 5-7 0-0 10, Macari Moore 2-4 1-2 6, Nojus Indrusaitis 4-12 2-4 11. Totals 27-57 24-33 81.
Halftime – Pi., 41-31. 3-point FG – Pr. 8-26 (Edwards 2-6, Sellers 1-3, Floyd 1-3, Powell 4-8, Vaaks 0-5, Daniels 0-1), Pi. 3-15 (Corhen 0-1, Cummings 0-1, Minor 1-3, Siulepa 0-2, Dunning 0-2, Moore 1-2, Indrusaitis 1-4). Rebounds – Pr. 43 (Powell 10, Erhunmwunse 8, Mela 7), Pi. 38 (Indrusaitis 7, Corhen 5). Assists – Pr. 12 (Vaaks 3), Pi. 11 (Minor 3). Steals – Pr. 5 (Powell 3), Pi. 9 (Corhen 2, Witherspoon 2). Turnovers – Pr. 11 (Erhunmwunse 3), Pi. 10 (Corhen 3).
On X: @BillKoch25
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Providence basketball loses to Pittsburgh 81-74 in preseason opener
Category: General Sports
