The Big East Player of the Year may not even be the best player on his team right now.
One day after Providence’s Kris Dunn earned the league’s top individual honor for the second straight year, teammate Ben Bentil stapled the Friars to his back and put on one of the best performance in Big East Tournament history, scoring 38 points in Thursday’s 74-60 quarterfinal win over Butler.
Bentil, named the conference’s Most Improved Player as a sophomore after raising his average nearly 15 points to lead the league in scoring, tied the second-highest scoring performance in tournament history and is averaging 29.4 points over his past five games.
The 6-foot-9 forward was unstoppable inside and out, hitting five 3-pointers, while adding eight rebounds and two blocks, dazzling the packed Madison Square Garden crowd with each touch, alternating force and finesse.
“Normally I’m not a fan, but literally I was a fan to see the ball going in the net like that,” Providence coach Ed Cooley said. “He scored it every imaginable way — drives, shots, step-backs — I’m like, ‘Man, I got to get him the ball any way I can. Kris came in the huddle and said, ‘Where do we get him the ball next? Can we throw him the ball here?’ I said, “Kris, I don’t know. Give him the ball. He’ll figure it out.
“That was a great offensive display. I haven’t seen that in a long, long time in our league.”
Dunn, a junior point guard and soon-to-be NBA lottery pick, hit 6-of-8 shots for 15 points, finding Bentil (16-of-24 from the field) for the majority of his seven assists.
“It was simple, don’t shy away from it, if you see somebody has a hot hand, try to get him the ball in the best spot that he can score in,” Dunn said. “He was shooting the ball lights-out.”
With the win, the No. 4 Friars (23-9) advanced to Friday’s semifinals for the third straight year, where they will meet top-seeded Villanova (28-4) for the second straight year.
Kellen Dunham scored 17 points to lead No. 5 Butler (21-10), but the offense struggled all afternoon, shooting 36 percent from the field, while Bentil repeatedly decimated a rotation of smaller or slower defenders.
“We had zero answer,” Butler coach Chris Holtmann said. “We threw the house at him a few times. We tried to play zone. We had no answer for him. He was outstanding.”
The Friars never trailed in the first half, but back-to-back 3-pointers from Dunham sparked a 10-0 run that put the Bulldogs down 32-30 at halftime, using that momentum to take a three-point lead early in the second half.
But then Bentil broke a tie with a 3-pointer and stretched the lead to six with another, hitting two more deep shots to crush Butler’s comeback bid, while scoring 23 points in the second half.
“From the beginning of the season, coach told me I’m going to be a matchup nightmare,” Bentil said. “I let that sink in.”
