Get your Providence box score here! (Lions 71 Dowling 69)

Oh, and there’s some commentary below. These are my unofficial stats. I don’t doubt that I missed a couple. But they’re close.

Providence 71

Dowling Catholic 69

For the 2nd straight day, Dowling shot out the lights out of the gate, making 7 of their 1st 11 shots to take a 19-9 lead over the Providence Lions. Their biggest lead was 44-27 at about the one minute mark. But, it never felt like Providence was out of the game, and in fact they closed to 46-35 at the half.

In fact, I had seen Dowling take an early lead over Benilde the previous day, only to shrink when the Red Knights upped the defensive pressure, forcing 27 Dowling turnovers. And, I knew of course that Providence could bring heavier ball pressure than they had in the 1st half. And, indeed, the game turned around at 14 minutes of the 2nd half. Now, I should add that Dowling is playing without its best player, 5-10 senior point guard Ava Zedliker, who is rated #2 in Iowa and is going to Creighton. And, so, of course, their ball-handling against elite defenses is a little bit shaky, and Benilde and Providence are of course elite defenses.

So, anyway, at 14:11 Dowling’s back-up point guard Macy Harnden, who is also college-ball-bound, drove in for a 2-pointer. But, wait, the basket was waved off and Harnden assessed a charging foul. It was her 4th foul. And, not only was she the primary ballhandler, she was also defending Maddyn Greenway and doing a very good job of that. So the score remained at 51-41 and it suddenly felt like Providence had the momentum, despite Ellie Muller’s 3-pointer 40 seconds later that made it 54-41. Well, sure enough, Dowling turned it over on their next 2 possessions as their now-primary ballhandlers didn’t come looking for the ball and help each other out. To Dowling’s credit, there wasn’t another turnover for 5 minutes, but during those 5 minutes their offensive continuity was not good and they shot just 1-of-12. So, from 54-41 Providence cut the lead to just one possession at 57-54 at 9 minutes, tied it up at 57 at 8 minutes, and went ahead 59-57 at a little over 7 minutes.

Dowling fought back to lead 64-61  when 2 more turnovers led to 2 Providence baskets at a 67-64 lead. Still Dowling tied it at 67 and again at 69, but Hope Counts scored on a put-back in the waning seconds for the win. Maddyn Greenway blocked a Dowling 3 at the buzzer.

So it was a great game. Dowling–mostly Macy Harnden–did as good a job defending Maddyn Greenway as I’ve seen in a long time. And, like I said, Dowling is a great shooting team when they’re in rhythm. But, as the Providence pressure mounted, the Dowling ball movement stagnated and they were forced to take very tough shots. Even then they made 4-of-10 down the stretch after Providence tied the game. The Muller sisters–6-3 junior Ellie and 6-1 sophomore Katie–scored more than half of Dowling’s points. Ellie is rated #4 in Iowa in her class, Katie #3. They shot 7-of-16 between them in the first half but just 6-of-18 in the 2nd, thanks to the Providence defense.

For Providence, Hope Counts more than made up for Maddyn Greenway’s relatively ordinary night, statistically, and despite a slow start. She missed her 1st 5 shots–several of them the dreaded scoop-type layup. She clearly thought she was fouled and expressed some frustration as a couple of her scoops were blocked, but the officials wisely refrained from bailing her out. I saw a lot of scoop shots this weekend, not only from Providence of course, and so for this game I charted the scoop shots. The result was 1-of-12 shooting–that’s right, only one scoop shot went in the basket, and that was by Hope Counts–while 4 of them were blocked, and not a single one of them resulted in a foul call. In any event, Hope scored 7 points on 3-of-12 with 5 boards in the 1st half, then scored 16 in the 2nd half on 6-of-10 shooting with 7 boards. She also blocked 3 Dowling shots. She is the Player of the Game.

So that’s the story. Providence comes from well behind to beat an elite opponent 71-69.