Thirty-eight points from Ben Bentil lifted Providence to a 74-60 win over Butler in the quarterfinals of the BIG EAST Tournament at Madison Square Garden Thursday afternoon. The Bulldogs now stand at 21-10 on the season. Providence improves to 23-9 and will play top-seeded Villanova in Friday's semifinals.
Providence used a 10-2 run early in the second half to stretch a 46-43 lead to 11 points with 10:21 to play. Butler would close the gap to seven before PC extended the lead to 19 late in the half.
Twenty-three of Bentil's points came in the second half.