The charged-up Wichita State Shockers keep Providence moving in the wrong direction.

01:00 AM EST on Sunday, December 12, 2004

BY KEVIN McNAMARA
Journal Sports Writer

PROVIDENCE -- It may be only the second week of December, but the Providence College basketball season is slipping away before your eyes.

A season-long ailment of starting games slowly cost the Friars last night as the Wichita State Shockers pinned a 90-86 upset on PC at the Dunkin' Donuts Center. PC fell to 5-4 on the season. A poised, veteran WSU team improved to 5-0.

The Friars fell behind by 10 points in the opening 10 minutes, rallied late in the first half, but trailed by 7 at the break.

Wichita jumped out to a 12-point lead in the opening five minutes of the second half and survived a big PC rally in the final three minutes to grab the victory.

PC coach Tim Welsh says he's confident his young team can still find its groove and grow into a strong unit but it must solve its slow-starting ways first. PC has started slowly in virtually every game this year.

"We have to learn how to play in the first half with the energy we played with in the second," said Welsh. "That was good energy, good execution in the second half. We've now been bitten a couple times by that."

Tuukka Kotti was the only Friar who played a complete game. He scored a career-high 22 points and had 7 rebounds. Ryan Gomes typified PC's troubles. He had just one field goal, one rebound and three points at halftime. Then he roared back with 19 in the second half to also finish with 22 points. Dwight Brewington added 12 points but had 6 turnovers, several in crunch time. Herbert Hill and Gerald Brown added 10 points each.

Welsh said that point guard Donnie McGrath had a sore ankle all week and nearly didn't play. He struggled without a point in 18 minutes.

Randy Burns led Wichita with 24 points, 12 off 4 3-pointers. Jamar Howard added 16, including 2 big buckets late in the game.

Both teams began very slowly on offense with only two field goals in the opening 5:30, both by the Friars. Even so, PC's lead was just 5-3 as turnovers and sloppy play dominated.

Wichita State missed its first five shots but eventually began finding its offense thanks to two successive 3-pointers by Kyle Wilson. PC could not get untracked and fell behind, 20-10, after nine minutes. Welsh shuttled players in and out over the first 10 minutes in search of a strong combination and eventually found a group that brought the Friars back into the game.

Wichita led, 22-13, with 8:43 left when the Friars scored 8 straight points. Gerald Brown hit a corner 3-pointer while getting fouled and his free throw cut the Shocker lead to 22-21. The Friars had another spurt later in the half with two buckets coming from Herbert Hill. An end-to-end layup by Brown ended with another foul and free throw and the Friars led, 28-27.

PC held onto a 32-31 lead with 2:18 left but the visitors closed the half with a 10-2 run after 3-pointers by Rob Kampman and Matt Braeuer.

The Friar defense was sluggish to begin the second half and the Shockers took advantage and jumped to a 54-42 lead. PC's frustration boiled over when Herbert Hill was whistled for an illegal screen off the ball. Welsh slammed the ball to the floor, drawing his first technical foul of the season.

PC then switched its defense to a more aggressive, trapping man-to-man style, and extended the floor with some pressing. The quicker tempo played to the Friars' favor but the Shockers still led, 71-61, with 7:02 left. That's when the game began to turn. The pressure forced turnovers and led to a parade to the foul line where the Friars kept chipping away at the lead.

Gomes was just 2-for-11 from the field at that point but he finally got it going a bit. A layup off a steal and a sweet spinner off the glass sparked a 10-2 run that sliced the Shocker lead to just 73-71 and had the crowd howling at last

But the Friars didn't have enough offense to get over the top. Gomes hit a spinner inside to cut the lead to 79-77 with 1:25 left but Kyle Wilson rebounded a Howard miss and was fouled. His one free throw stretched the lead to three, but Brewington was called for a charging foul at the other end. Two more Wichita freebies stretched the lead to 82-77 and when Brewington missed a wild drive in the lane with 34 seconds left, the Friars' comeback was over.