FLOYDS KNOBS — Providence used its patented smothering defense and a dominant rebounding performance to defeat Floyd Central 43-31 on Joe Hinton Court Saturday night.

The Class 2A No. 8 Pioneers held the home team to 32 percent shooting and won the boards 32-16 to knock off the Highlanders in back to back seasons for the first time since 2005 and 2006.

“They wanted to play an aggressive game to disrupt us and they sure did,” Providence head coach Lou Lefevre. “They made it the kind of game they wanted to. It was slow and phsyical and they did a great job disrupting us. If they would have a hit a few more shots they would have won the game.”

Early on it was Floyd’s defense stealing the show as the Pioneers didn’t score until a Dalton Duley bucket at 4:57 in the first period.

Duley, who scored a game-high 14, went on to score seven of his team’s nine first quarter points as the visitors led 9-5 at the end of one.

“Coming into the game, we didn’t want Duley to get off,” Highlanders coach Randy Gianfagna said, “and I thought Jackson (Logsdon) did a good job on him until late when we fouled him and that was the one guy we didn’t want to foul.”

The Pioneers opened the second frame with an 8-0 run capped by a Nano Grantz basket for a 17-5 lead with 5:03 remaining in the second stanza. Floyd regrouped to compile a first half ending 7-3 spurt and closed within 20-12 at intermission. Codie Hamsley, who led the Highlanders, with 11 and had six blocked shots on the night, scored seven

of his team’s 12 first half points.

“We went into halftime on a downer,” Lefevre said. “We were up 20-7 and turned it over on some kind of stupid play and they hit a few shots. But we just told the kids to relax that we’re up eight points and we just need to play tougher in the second half.”

Providence pushed its lead to 30-20 at heading to the fourth as four different Pioneers found the scoring column in the third. Floyd didn’t committ a turnover in the period but was unable to capitalize on its surehandedness, hitting just 4-of-11 third period shots.

Trailing by 11 midway through the final quarter, the Highlanders’ Allen Truong and Colton Kimm hit back to back 3s to bring the host within 34-29 with 3:41 left prompting a Providence timeout.

“At that point, I told them I wanted them to burn 30 seconds and then attack,” Lefevre said of the timeout discussion. “We got fouled and hit our free throws. We hadn’t been hitting our free throws this year, but we did better at that tonight.”

Providence outscored Floyd 9-2 the rest of the way to remain undefeated on the season. The Pioneers hit 12-of-17 free throws, including 9-of-13 in the fourth. Floyd shot just two free throws, making one.

“We showed some fight tonight. I just asked the guys, where has that been?” said Gianfagna, whose team is off to its worst start since 2008. “My big thing right now is this is three games in a row that we’re not getting to the free throw line. I think we only got four free throws at New Albany, only four last night [at Columbus East], and then only two tonight. So that means we’re just being aggressive enough to get to the line.”

Saturday night marked the second straight season in which Providence has won its first six games to start the year.

“Winning can sometimes be a terrible thing for a high school team’s progress,” Lefevre said. “As they’re winning the kids just don’t feel the need to do anything better than they did last time. We were 6-0 last year going into Christmas and the we got smacked in three of the next five games. We’ll see what happens this season.”

Floyd is back in action Saturday night at home versus Scottsburg. Providence next hits the court Dec. 28 in the Silver Creek Holiday Tournament. The Pioneers will face Charlestown in the first game of the opening round, following by the host Dragons against Class 2A No. 4 Clarksville.