Bryant University Bulldogs Bryant Men's Basketball To Host Southern Connecticut Saturday at 3:30 pm

February 15,2 008

BRYANT MEN'S BASKETBALL HOSTS SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT SATURDAY AT 3:30 PM

UPDATE
Winners of three straight and six of their last seven games, the Bryant University men's basketball team plays host to the visiting Owls from Southern Connecticut State University in a Northeast-10 Conference basketball game Saturday afternoon. Tipoff is set for 3:30 p.m. at Bryant's Chace Athletic Center. The game will be broadcast live online on www.bryantbulldogs.com and will be broadcast on COX Sports in Rhode Island with an air time of Sunday, Feb. 17 at 7 p.m . Saturday is also senior day as the Bulldogs will honor seniors Jon Ezeokoli (RIGHT) of South Orange, New Jersey and Smithfield, RI native John Fogarty prior to the tip.

BULLDOG UPDATE
As in year's past, Bryant is starting to hits its groove just as postseason play looms on the horizon. Following Saturday's game, Bryant will travel to Stonehill Tuesday night and wrap up the regular season the following Tuesday at Merrimack. The NE-10 tourney begins Saturday, Mar. 1 with first round action. Bryant is currently fifth, a game behind Stonehill in the loss column, in the conference standings. The top four teams earn a first round bye.

WEDNESDAY RECAP
Cecil Gresham scored 23 points and the Bulldogs made 13 three's in cruising past Saint Michael's, 78-56 at home Wednesday night. Jon Ezeokoli and Peter Lambert each had 12 while reserve guard Ray Witkos added a career-best 8 points and 6 assists off the bench. Bryant shot 50 percent for the game and had 21 assists on 29 field goals made.

LOOKING AT SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT
Southern Connecticut brings an eight-game losing streak into Saturday's game with the Bulldogs. The Owls dropped a tough 81-73 overtime decision to Pace at home in New Haven, CT Wednesday night despite 25 points from Derrick Corbett. Ktrice McNeill leads the team with 12.7 ppg while Justin Gardenhire is next at 10.1 ppg. The Owls ranked 10th in the league in scoring with 70.7 ppg and 12th defensively (76.4 ppg allowed). Despite ranking high at fourth in the league in field goal shooting, Southern Connecticut is second to last with a team free throw percentage of .641, missing 170 free throws (303 for 473).

FIRST AND ONLY MEETING BETWEEN BRYANT AND SOUTHERN CONN.
Saturday's game with Southern Connecticut is the first and only meeting this year between Bryant and Southern Connecticut. The Bulldogs defeated the Owls 78-72 in New Haven, CT last year (Feb. 17, 2007) behind 36 points from Chris Burns.

SOUTHERN - BRYANT SERIES NOTABLE
Bryant has won seven-straight meetings with Southern Connecticut. Max Good is 7-2 all-time coaching against SCSU, falling to the Owls twice in Good's first season at Bryant in 2001-02.

BULLDOGS CLAMP DOWN DEFENSIVELY
Bryant's man to man defense did the trick Wednesday night in holding Saint Michael's forward Brian Monanahan, the leading scorer in the Northeast-10, to just one field goal and one free throw (3 pts on 1 of 15 shooting). The Purple Knight's second leading scorer, James Sorrentine of Pawtucket, RI had 13 points but was just 3 for 12 from the floor.

MAX NEARING 500TH CAREER COLLEGIATE GAME COACHED
Seventh-year coach Max Good heads into Saturday's game vs.Southern Connecticut with 129 coaching victories at Bryant, good for second all-time. Tom Foliard is the all-time winningest coach with 174 victories from 1968 to 1978. Saturday's game will be his 212th coaching at Bryant and his 459th game coached - not including his time at Maine Central Institute prep - a career that has seen him head up programs at Eastern Kentucky and UNLV along with Bryant.

CECIL HITS HIS STRIDE
Sophomore Cecil Gresham (Bloomfield, CT) is averaging 16.5 points per game in the last 10 games. He poured in a career-best 36 points in the team's win over Saint Anselm on Jan. 30, going 13 for 17 from the floor and making 8 of 12 three-point attempts - one shy of the school record for three's made in a game of 9 held by Peter Lambert. Against Bentley on Feb. 2, Gresham had 14 points and hit a big three with 7 seconds left to put the Bulldogs up a point only to see the Falcons win at the buzzer.

IT'S WINNING TIME
Jon Ezeokoli and Chris Birrell have been the key go-to guys down the stretch. Birrell is averaging 2.6 ppg and is shooting 85 percent (29-34) from the free throw line in the final five minutes of games this season. Ezeokoli is averaging 2.0 ppg and shooting 77 percent from the line with the game on the line, making 31 of 41 free throws in the final five minutes.

BULLDOGS RANKED NO. 5 IN REGION
The Bulldogs enter the week ranked No. 5 in the NCAA Northeast Region according to the most recent poll released last week. The new poll is expected to be released Wednesday afternoon. A total of eight teams from each of the eight regions across the country will be selected to participate for the NCAA Division II tournament. The conference tournament champions from the three Northeast Regional conferences: NE-10, East Coast Conference (ECC), and Central Atlantic College Conference (CACC) will receive an automatic bid with the remaining five spots selected as at-large participants for the 2008 Northeast Regional. Bryant advanced to the regional final last year before falling to Bentley in the title game.

1. Bentley (NE-10)
2. Assumption (NE-10)
3. CW Post (ECC)
4. Saint Rose (NE-10)
5. BRYANT (NE-10)
6. Philadelphia (CACC)
7. Holy Family (CACC)
8. Stonehill (NE-10)
9. Merrimack (NE-10)
10. NYIT (ECC)

BRYANT TO JOIN NORTHEAST CONFERENCE
In October, Bryant officially accepted an invitation to join the Division I Northeast Conference. The school will begin a four-year transition to Division I and become a full member of the Northeast Conference in the fall of 2012. This will be Bryant's final season as a member of the Division II ranks and will begin a Division I schedule in 2008-09. Bryant will not be eligible for conference or NCAA postseason play during the four-year transition period. The Northeast Conference includes members: Central Connecticut, Fairleigh Dickinson, Long Island, Monmouth, Mount St. Mary's, Quinnipiac, Robert Morris, Sacred Heart, St. Francis NY, St. Francis PA, and Wagner.

BULLDOGS ON TV
For the second year in a row, Bryant men's basketball will capture a state-wide television audience. Cox Sports Channel 3 of Rhode Island will broadcast the Bulldogs' Northeast-10 Conference showdown with Southern Connecticut State University on Saturday, February 16 at the Chace Athletic Center as part of "Cox On Campus." The game will be taped and aired on Cox Channel 3 on Sunday, February 17 at 7 p.m. The game against Southern Connecticut will also be Bryant "Senior Day" as the Bulldogs will honor seniors Jon Ezeokoli (South Orange, NJ) and John Fogarty (Smithfield, RI) prior to the start of the game.