• Sat, 02/25 | Men's Basketball vs. Mount St. Mary's L, 71-62 (Final) BX | RC
  • Thu, 02/23 | Men's Basketball vs. Wagner L, 86-73 (Final) BX | RC
  • Sat, 02/18 | Men's Basketball at Saint Francis (PA) L, 76-61 (Final) BX | RC
  • Thu, 02/16 | Men's Basketball at Robert Morris L, 69-40 (Final) BX | RC
  • Sat, 02/11 | Men's Basketball vs. Sacred Heart L, 72-46 (Final) BX | RC
  • Wed, 02/08 | Men's Basketball at Sacred Heart L, 79-77 (Final) BX | RC
  • Sat, 02/04 | Men's Basketball at St. Francis (NY) L, 80-67 (Final) BX | RC
  • Thu, 02/02 | Men's Basketball at LIU Brooklyn L, 75-70 (Final) BX | RC
  • Sat, 01/28 | Men's Basketball vs. Monmouth L, 78-68 (Final) BX | RC
  • Thu, 01/26 | Men's Basketball vs. Fairleigh Dickinson L, 66-63 (Final) BX | RC
 
December 21, 2008

BULLDOGS FACE-OFF AGAINST FRIARS AT THE DUNKIN’ DONUTS CENTER MONDAY NIGHT

December 21, 2008 

Game Notes

BULLDOGS FACE-OFF AGAINST FRIARS AT THE DUNKIN' DONUTS CENTER MONDAY NIGHT

UPDATE
The Bryant University men's basketball team travels to Providence to take on the Friars this evening. Tipoff is at 7 pm ET. Bryant is coming off a 67-37 loss at Rutgers on Saturday. The Bulldogs will be looking to snap a six-game losing skid since earning a 59-50 win over Quinnipiac on Nov. 22. The squad next heads to Maryland for two games against University of Maryland and Mount St. Mary's. This is the third of five straight road games for the Bulldogs before returning home to play Yale on Jan. 2. Providence is coming off a hard-fought loss at Boston College on Saturday, 81-76. The squad has lost just one game at the Dunkin Donuts Center this season (70-66 vs. Northeastern on November 15), and had one three straight prior to losing to the Eagles on Saturday.

THE PROVIDENCE COLLEGE FRIARS
The Providence College Friars will host the Bulldogs tonight at the Dunkin' Donuts Center at 7:00 p.m. in this second meeting all-time between the two programs. The Friars are coming off a, 81-76, loss at Boston College on Saturday afternoon. Providence had three different players score double-figures, with Marshon Brooks and Weyinmi Efejuku scoring 13 each and Jeff Xavier scoring a team-high 16. BC took a 35-26 lead into the half, and led by as many as 13 with just 4:15 left in the game.The Friars fought back and got to within two with 36 seconds left, but the Eagles were able to knock down late free throws to hold off Providence in the end. Efejuku leads the team in scoring at 13.6 a game, with Brooks and Jonathan Kale also averaging double-figures. Geoff McDermott leads the team with 8.3 rebounds a game.

BULLDOGS FALL TO RUTGERS
The Bulldogs stayed right with the Scarlet Knights for the first 12 minutes of the contest, trailing by just two points with eight minutes left in the first half. But, the Scarlet Knights would hold Bryant to just five points over the rest of the half to expand the lead to 13 going into the break thanks to a game-high 13 points from freshman guard Mike Rosario. Rosario finished with 19 points on the afternoon as Rutgers took home a, 67-37, win.

SECOND MEETING WITH PROVIDENCE
This will be Bryant's second game against Providence all-time. The Bulldogs and Friars first played each other back during the 1994-95 season with Providence defeating coach Ed Reilly and the Bulldogs 85-60 at the Civic Center.

BRYANT - PC CONNECTIONS
There are several ties between Bryant and Providence College, including:
^Women's basketball coach Mary Burke was a standout player for the Friars and was inducted into the Providence College Hall of Fame last winter. A former prep standout at Tollman High School, she is in her 18th season at Bryant. 
^Men's soccer coach Seamus Purcell, a 1989 graduate, was a two-time all-American and also inducted into the PC Hall of Fame in 2008.
^ Men's tennis coach Ron Gendron is a 1990 graduate and member of the Friars' tennis team and later served as an assistant.
^ Women's tennis coach Barbara Cilli (pronounced chilly) and husband are 1987 graduates. 
^ Women's volleyball coach Theresa Garlacy is a 1988 graduate.
^ Track & Cross Country coach Stephanie Reilly is a 2001 graduate and former track captain. Her husband, Paul Reilly, is a 2001 graduate and former track standout at PC.
^ Men's assistant Kevin Kurbec was an assistant under Tim Welsh for 10 seasons.
^ And we have to give props as well to former PC Athletic Communications graduate students Mike Coyne (now with the Big East) and Ryan Emerson (Colby-Sawyer).  Both were recent Athletic Communications interns at Bryant.

 BRYANT AND DIVISION I SO FAR
While there has been much uncertainty for Bryant as it began its first year competing at the Division I level -albeit the first of four transition years before official Division I status in 2012 - this past fall.  But following the recent seasons, there were definitely several highlights already for the history books.  Perhaps the biggest was the football team's 7-4 record while competing in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA). Marty Fine's Bulldogs posted wins over Wagner, Duquesne, Saint Francis, PA, Robert Morris marking the second-most wins ever by a first-year Division I team (two others had eight).  

Men's golf placed first at several tournaments but the highlight was placing first at the New England Championships in October. The Bulldogs came out on top out of a field of 32 teams that included the University of Rhode Island, UConn, Providence, Holy Cross, Harvard, Yale and many more.

Combined, Bryant's fall teams earned 33 total victories including 16 by women's volleyball.

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