• 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 Long Island 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
  • Mon, 01/23 | Men's Basketball vs. Brown L, 67-60 (Final) BX | RC
  • Sat, 01/21 | Men's Basketball vs. Quinnipiac L, 78-71 (Final - OT) PR | BX | RC | LS | V | A | T
  • Thu, 01/19 | Men's Basketball at Central Connecticut L, 69-51 (Final) BX | RC
  • Sat, 01/14 | Men's Basketball at Mount St. Mary's L, 64-60 (Final) BX | RC
  • Thu, 01/12 | Men's Basketball at Wagner L, 78-61 (Final) BX
 

February 9, 2010

BRYANT LOOKS FOR FIRST WIN ON TELEVISED STAGE, TO HOST SAINT FRANCIS (PA) THURSDAY (7 P.M.)

February 9, 2010

BRYANT LOOKS FOR FIRST WIN ON TELEVISED STAGE, TO  HOST SAINT FRANCIS (PA) THURSDAY NIGHT AT CHACE ATHLETIC CENTER (7 P.M.) 

Game Notes / Live Stats / Listen Live / Watch Live

SMITHFIELD, R.I. -- The Bryant University men's basketball team hosts Northeast Conference opponent Saint Francis (PA) Thursday night at the Chace Athletic Center in the Bulldogs' only televised home game of the season (7:00 p.m.). This is the first meeting between the Bulldogs and the Red Flash of the 2009-10 campaign and will be aired live on Cox Sports in Rhode Island and Eastern Connecticut, FSN-Pittsburgh, ESPN Full Court, FCS Pacific and ESPN 360. The game can also be heard live on WOON 1240 AM and seen live at www.bryantbulldogs.tv.

THE SERIES
Bryant looks for its first win of the season against Saint Francis (PA) while the Red Flash go for their eighth overall victory and sixth in Northeast Conference play. The teams have faced off just once before in the history of the two programs, the only meeting coming last season in Loretto, Pa., when the Bulldogs took a 65-60 win over the home Saint Francis (PA) on January 31, 2009 at DeGol Arena.

The now-graduated Peter Lambert tied a game-high 22 points off 7-of-19 shooting to lead the Bulldogs in the contest while senior captains Adam Parzych and Cecil Gresham chipped in 17 and 10 points, respectively. The bulk of Parzych's points came from the free throw line, where the sharpshooter went 9-for-12. He also dished out three assists and had a pair of thefts while going 2-for-3 from 3-point land. Bryant overcame a 10-point halftime deficit in the contest, outscoring the Red Flash, 45-30, in the second frame after hitting just 5-of-19 shots in the opening 20 minutes. The visiting Bulldogs won the game on the boards as well, pulling down 31 rebounds, 15 of them offensive.

SCOUTING THE RED FLASH
Saint Francis (PA) looks to avoid its fourth losing streak of the season in Smithfield, and enter Thursday's game off back-to-back losses to league-topping Robert Morris in last week's Rivalry Week. Devin Sweetney paces the Red Flash with 16.6 points per game, good to rank fifth among all NEC scorers, and is fourth in the conference in rebounding avarage with a team-best 7.6 boards per outing. Also among the most accurate in the league from the free throw line, Sweetney shoots better than 80 percent from the stripe (106-131) and spends nearly 32 minutes per game on the floor. Cedric Latimer and Umar Shannon are the next-best scoring threats for a Saint Francis offense that averages 62.3 points per game, both chipping in 9.0 points per contest. Chris Johnson leads the way with 28 steals and 61 helpers despite an even spread among a number of players in the latter category, while Will Felder's 21 blocks are a team high. Felder and Latimer each shoot better than 45 percent from the floor (45.9 and 46.0, respectively) while Shannon excels from beyond the arc, converting 41.8 percent of 3-point attempts.

BRYANT vs. THE NORTHEAST CONFERENCE
Bryant is 0-12 against its home conference in 2009-10, having played its first official game against the NEC back on December 3, 2009 when the Bulldogs fell to LIU, 62-46. All-time against current Northeast Conference opponents, the Bulldog basketball program is 34-72, having most frequently played former Northeast-10 Conference (DII) members Quinnipiac (16-37). Bryant continues to play its full league slate in 2010 after going 6-8 against the NEC last season, taking wins over Quinnipiac (twice), LIU, Fairleigh Dickinson, Saint Francis (PA) and Monmouth.

LAST TIME OUT
Freshman leading scorer Vlad Kondratyev (Nikolayev, Ukraine) scored 14 points to pace the Bryant University men's basketball team, but Central Connecticut's Shemik Thompson dropped 24 to lead the Blue Devils to a 61-48 victory over the Bulldogs in Northeast Conference action Saturday afternoon at Detrick Gymnasium.

The Bulldogs took a 24-19 lead after 20 minutes of action, just the fourth Bryant halftime advantage of the season, and were led at the break by 10 points from freshman Raphael Jordan (Bel Air, Md.), who would finish the day with 12 points on 6-for-14 shooting.

Bryant opened the game on a high note, jumping out to a 12-4 lead over an inspired opening 8:32, thanks to four forced Central Connecticut turnovers and a trio of Bryant thefts, as Jordan and Kondratyev scored four points apiece over that span to give Bryant its largest lead of the half.

But the home side would pull within two over the next three minutes, knotting the score at 16-16 with 5:56 left to play in the frame. A 3-pointer from Joe Seymore would give the Blue Devils a slight 19-18 edge with 4:17 left on the clock, but it would be the final points of the half for CCSU, as Bryant went on a 6-0 run to end the frame, four of those points coming from Jordan.

Junior Barry Latham (Taunton, Mass.) earned himself a trio of steals in the frame, none more impressive than at the 2:56 mark, when he knocked the ball away from CCSU's Chris Baskerville at the top of the key, forcing a jump ball and consequent Bryant possession. He would follow with a big dish on the baseline to bigman Papa Lo (Thies, Senegal), who would make good on the now-easy layup.

The Bulldogs put up their best performances of the year on both sides of the court in the opening 20 minutes, shooting at a 63.2 percent clip while holding the Blue Devils to just 29.2 percent accuracy from the field and 25 percent from 3-point land after allowing CCSU to convert on over 72 percent of long balls in Thursday's loss at the Chace Athletic Center.

But Bryant would struggle to keep the momentum out of the intermission, allowing Central a 10-0 run to open the second session to take a 29-24 lead with 14:24 still to play in regulation. The Bulldogs countered with a 6-1 run of their own - all six points coming from Kondratyev - retying the score at 30-30 with 12:27 on the clock.

But the home side would open up a 10-point lead over the next five minutes, 45-35, as Thompson would score 13 of CCSU's first 25 second-half points. Thompson would break out for 16 points in the frame for a game-high 24 points on the day.

CCSU would miss the front end of a one-and-one opportunity three-straight times down the stretch, but the Bulldogs could convert on just one of those chances the other way, narrowing the Blue Devils' lead to 52-44 with 2:38 left to play.

But the home side would go 9-of-10 from the charity stripe in the final 2:30 to drive the score to its final, 61-48. Bryant's would score just four points in that span, the first two coming off a Kondratyev dunk, courtesy of an on-point pass from Jordan from just outside the 3-point line. Jordan would score the final points of the night with just 17 seconds remaining.

Bryant committed seven second-half turnovers for a total of 15 on the day while shooting 33.3 percent in the final 20 minutes. Central connected on 60.9 percent of shots from the floor in the second session, including a 50 percent mark from long range to make up 42 points after posting just 19 in the first half. The Bulldogs would outshoot the Blue Devils on the day, 46.5 percent to 44.7 percent but were outrebounded, 29-27.

Bryant converted on just one of 12 attempts from downtown, the single trey coming from senior Adam Parzych (Lindenhurst, N.Y.) with 8:43 to play in the contest. Central would get 5-of-16 on the day from long range.

UP NEXT
Bryant stays home at the Chace Athletic Center this Saturday (Feb. 13) to take on Robert Morris at 3:30 p.m. The game marks the first meeting between the Bulldogs and the Colonials in the 2009-10 season.

TV STARS
Thursday's game will be the third of a trio of television appearances for the Bryant men this season, two of them (including Thursday against Saint Francis) carried regionally. Cox Sports, FSN-Pittsburgh, ESPN Full Court and ESPN 360 will be on hand at the Chace Athletic Center Thursday when the Bulldogs host league opponent Saint Francis (PA), and the game will be replayed on FCS Atlantic on Friday (Feb. 12) at noon. Already this season, the Bulldogs have appeared on Fox College Sports, Madison Square Garden TV (MSG) and the BIG TEN Network, first appearing in living rooms when they traveled to Brooklyn, N.Y. on December 5 for a conference matchup against St. Francis (NY). After making its debut on the BIG TEN Network last season on the road against Iowa, Bryant appeared on the network for the second-straight year on Dec. 28 when the Bulldogs faced off against Indiana at Assembly Hall.

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