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. He and fellow BIG EAST first-team selection Kris Dunn combined for 53 of the Friars' 74 points.

Butler got down 15-6 in the early minutes of the game, but used 7-of-10 three-point shooting in the first half to pull within 32-30 at the half. Kelan Martin scored the first five points of the second half to give Butler a 35-32 lead. Those were the only two minutes that Butler led in the contest.

"We have certainly been playing really well here, finishing 7-2," said Butler coach Chris Holtmann. "We did not play well today. Providence certainly had something to do with that. I think we contributed to that. We played out of character at times. But give Providence credit for the win."

Kellen Dunham led Butler with 17 points, with all five of his field goals coming from behind the arc. Martin added 13 points and 10 rebounds for his eighth double-double of the season.

The Bulldogs ended 10-of-21 from three-point range and out-rebounded PC, 34-31. Providence shot 55 percent from the field, compared to just 36 percent for Butler.

The Bulldogs will learn their postseason destination and opponent Sunday.