It’ll be the play that gets talked about around the Big East and the country for the rest of the weekend, Duncan Powell’s clothesline of Bryce Hopkins in the second half of the St. John’s basketball victory over Providence, and there was very little remorse from the Friars.
The foul, which was deemed a Flagrant 2 from the beginning, started an ugly fight between the two teams that totaled six ejections, but Providence head coach didn’t strongly condemn Powell’s actions.
“I think there’s absolutely a time to have hard fouls,” English said after the 79-69 win for St. John’s when asked about the incident. “You never want to hit a guy in the head, intentionally, obviously….He actually hit the ball clean, but then came through his face.”
Powell was ejected because of the foul as also received a technical for fighting, which will likely result in a suspension. His teammate, Jaylin Sellers, was also issued a dead ball flagrant technical which resulted in an ejection.
English added that he thought Powell could have been in good, legal guarding position if he ran harder back on defense and got in front of Bryce Hopkins.
St. John’s saw Sadiku Ibine Ayo, Ruben Prey, and Kelvin Odih ejected for leaving the bench during the fight while Dillon Mitchell also received a dead ball flagrant technical that led to his ejection.
Kim English said he “hated” that Dillon Mitchell got ejected because having him on the floor would help Providence’s defensive spacing considering he’s not a threat to shoot the ball from outside the paint.
“Without him, they got to put more shooters out there which opened up the court a bit,” he explained.
At the time of the fight, Providence had all the momentum in the game, leading 40-39, after trailing by as many as 13 points in the first half. The Friars were outscoring the Johnnies by six points and could have been on the cusp of a massive upset before the selfish play.
During the game, Kim English was much more disturbed at the Flagrant 2 foul issued to Jamier Jones, who was ejected following a push in the back on Zuby Ejiofor with 5:00 left in the second half.
“Jamier’s been pushing people all year, on offense, on defense. He’s been using two hands to push, just keep coaching it and let him know it’s not a basketball play.”
St. John’s outscored Providence 40-29 after the incident to win its 11th straight game.