A.J. Reeves finished with 22 points. (Providence Friars)
PROVIDENCE, R.I.- - Local product David Duke came up clutch in double overtime and led the Friars in scoring with 24 points as Providence defeated DePaul 95-90 in double overtime on Sunday.
Duke made a go-ahead free throw with 2:46 remaining in the second overtime which gave the Friars an 89-88 lead. A.J. Reeves later made two free throws and finally Nate Watson scored on a dunk that gave Providence a comfortable 93-88 advantage with less than a minute remaining.
Earlier in regulation, A.J. Reeves knocked down a huge game-tying three-pointer with five seconds remaining to send the game to overtime.
The first overtime was a close with back-and-forth action. David Duke scored with 1:03 remaining to put Providence up 83-81. However, DePaul answered back when Pauly Paulicap scored a layup with 40 seconds remaining which knotted the game up at 83 to force double overtime.
A.J. Reeves played spectacularly as he finished the game with 22 points for Providence and Nate Watson also added 18 points and 14 rebounds to the stat sheet. Noah Horchler had 10 points and seven rebounds.
Romeo Weems scored a career high 21 points and collected seven rebounds for DePaul. Charlie Moore added 19 points and eight assists while Javon Freeman-Liberty finished with 13 points.
This was only the Blue Demons’ second game of the season and their first conference game after having multiple postponements and cancelations due to COVID-19. After the game, Friars head Coach Ed Cooley talked about how difficult it was to prepare for the Blue Demons when there was not that much film on DePaul to watch “It was very difficult to prepare for them. We had to go back and see what they did last year against us. When you are playing somebody that hasn’t played a lot of games you have to look more towards their personnel than their system.”
The Friars will be back in action on Wednesday when they host Butler at 5pm on Fox Sports 1. As for the Blue Demons, their next game is Wednesday as they continue with their road trip when they face UConn at 9pm on CBS Sports Network.