"It was a little bit frustrating," said LoVett, Jr., who led all scorers with 38 points on 13 of 34 shooting from the field, as the entire team shot just 33% (22 of 65). "We didn't make some key shots that we should have made, but we have to just live with that now."
Despite losing both regular season meetings to Providence (25-5), the Armens (20-11) wouldn't be denied Saturday, continuously hitting big three-point shots (eight of 20), led by 30 points from Nshan Kenjejion.
Kenjejion's sixth three-pointer of the game gave Holy Martyrs a 57-53 lead with 2:00 left in overtime and, although LoVett, Jr. started his finishing kick on a floater the next trip down for the Pioneers' first points from the field since the 5:18 mark of the fourth quarter, the Armens would get two more consecutive stops and go a perfect eight for eight from the free-throw line down the stretch of overtime to protect the lead.
"This game hurt," said Pioneers senior guard Patrick Gonzalez, who finished with seven points, but was called for traveling as he tried to step behind the three-point line for a potential game-tying buzzer-beater after LoVett, Jr. saved his overtime steal to Gonzalez while falling out of bounds. "I feel like we should have won it and we just didn't play to our capabilities."
The Pioneers' regrettable trend of finishing quarters flat offensively began in the second, where neither team scored over a period of 5:03 until LoVett, Jr. sank a three-pointer with 12 seconds left to put Providence up, 25-23, at the half.
In the third quarter, the Pioneers scored just two points over the final 4:28 and this time paid for it by losing a seven-point lead and trailed by two going into the fourth.
