Post an Excruciating Injury to Bryce Hopkins, How Seton Hall Upset the No. 23 Ranked Providence Friars

The Seton Hall upset the No. 23 ranked Providence Friars by a 61-57 margin on Wednesday night at the Amica Mutual Pavilion. The game was quite thrilling for basketball fans since it had a neck-to-neck competition between the two teams. The Pirates edged past the Friars in the first half by a 29-24 margin while the latter made some recovery in the second half but failed to end their trail. The Providence had a competitive 33-32 margin in the second half. Thus, the game eventually ended in Seton Hall’s favor.

The Friars had entered the game with an 11-2 tally and were the favorites to win the game albeit a resilient show put on by the Pirates led to victory. The Seton Hall had an 8-5 record and it was their spirit that won them the competition. However, there was another reason for the Friars’ defeat.

A core reason for defeat

As per the Providence Journal, with 14:59 minutes left in the second half, the Friars’ notably second-best player Bryce Hopkins injured his left knee and was in visible pain. He had thrown a pass to their guard Devin Carter and lay on the mid-court in unmanageable pain holding his left knee.

Friars’ head coach Kim English and athletic trainer Chris Hagemann helped the Illinois-born who was later carried off from the court to the locker room.

Hopkins will undergo tests on Thursday to get an accurate idea of the injury. English wished him luck and “Hoping for good news” while sending him his “prayers.” Meanwhile, his teammate Carter pointed out that he could understand the severity of the injury by “how loud he was on the court.”

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At the point of this unfortunate event, the Friars had potted 31 in response to the Seton Hall’s 37. Their opponent guard Dylan Addae-Wusu took free throws that propelled his team to triumph. This hindered Hopkins from giving his best.

The performances

Hopkins could only score 5 points with 8 rebounds. For the Friars, the outstanding performances were delivered by their forwards Josh Oduro and Carter who besotted a game-high 23 points and 10 points respectively. Carter even proved his mettle with his defensive skills, nabbing 10 rebounds and 6 assists. Thus, he smashed a double-double in a losing cause.

On the other hand for the Pirates, their four players supported each other, scoring in double digits. Their forward Dre Devis smoked the highest points for his team with 17 points and was helped in his gameplay by their forward Kadary Richmond who thrashed 18 points with 8 rebounds and 6 assists.

Meanwhile, Hopkins’ loss is a big one for the Friars since he had the second-highest points average with 16.3 points per game. Other than that, he also formed an impenetrable defensive wall seizing 8.7 rebounds per match.

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It will be interesting to see how the Friars will fill up that role if perchance Hopkins takes a long time to return to the hardwood. It is surely one of the most horrendous losses for the Friars and will affect their performance in this season’s NCAA tournament.