Bryant University Bulldogs WOMEN'S HOOPS STAYS HOME TO HOST NJIT WEDNESDAY NIGHT AT 7 P.M.

BULLDOGS HOST NJIT WEDNESDAY NIGHT AT 7 P.M.; PLAY FIRST-EVER CONTEST AGAINST FELLOW DIVISION I RECLASSIFIER

THE MATCHUP - Bryant vs. NJIT
Date: January 28, 2009
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Smithfield, R.I.
Arena: Chace Athletic Center (2,600)
Series: Bryant leads 1-0

BRYANT BULLDOGS UPDATE
The Bulldogs host their first game against a fellow tranisitioning team tonight at the Chace Athletic Center in NJIT. Bryant enters the game off a loss to Dartmouth College, 71-56, despite leading at the half. Junior Kelsey O'Keefe registered her third-consecutive double-double and sixth of the season, scoring 16 points and pulling down a season and game-high 14 rebounds.

On the year, Bryant is led by 14.3 points per game from O'Keefe, who joined the 1,000-point club with her first basket in Dec. 1's home-opening win. The co-captain also paces the Bulldogs on the glass, collecting 8.1 boards per contest. Sophomore Siamone Bennett's 24 blocks lead the team, while junior Kristin Mraz has taken over duties at the point while dishing out a team-best 44 helpers and shooting 73.9 percent from the line. Shooting guard Courtney Schermerhorn is also helping to lead the way with her 38 assists and 28.1 minutes per outing, bested only by O'Keefe's 30.8 minutes of playing time.

THE GAME
Today's 7 p.m. matchup is the second meeting between the Bulldogs and the Highlanders. The two last squared off in 2004-05 when both teams were at the Division II level. That contest was also at the Chace Athletic Center, and the Bulldogs won, 70-59.

SCOUTING NJIT (5-13)
The Highlanders enter the Chace Athletic Center off a 69-54 win over Texas Pan-American on Saturday afternoon, posting three players in double-figure scoring. Guard Jill Dickinson led the way with a season- and game-high 22 points, with Kehinde Oyelola and Taiwo Oyelola earning 15 and 12 points, respectively. NJIT outscored UTPA by 10 in the second half after taking a 30-25 lead into the half.

Jessica Gerald leads the Highlanders on the year, posting 17 points per game, with Kehinde and Taiwo Oyelola scoring 8.9 and 8.8 points per outing, respectively. Taiwo Oyelola paces NJIT on the glass, pulling down 5.6 rebounds per game, while Jackie McCaffrey has dished out a team-best 38 assists on the year. Dickinson has proved herself dangerous from beyond the arc, hitting at a .458 clip (33-of-72) while making 44 percent of all shots from the floor.

NJIT VS. THE NORTHEAST CONFERENCE
The Highlanders have squared off against members of the NEC twice this season. And while Bryant can't call itself a Northeast Conference member quite yet, here is how NJIT fared against the Bulldogs' future conference opponents:
12/18 at Wagner Loss, 82-73
1/15 at FDU Win, 79-69

NJIT has also faced off against four common Bulldog opponents outside the NEC in the 2008-09 season, both teams suffering the same fate each time. NJIT, like the Bulldogs, fell to Fordham, Lafayette, Lehigh and Yale.

LAST TIME OUT
Junior Kelsey O'Keefe (Warren, Mass.) recorded her third-straight and sixth double-double of the season Saturday afternoon against Dartmouth College, but it wouldn't be enough to get the Bulldogs back on the side of winning as the Bryant University women's basketball team fell to the Big Green, 71-56, at the Chace Athletic Center.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED? BRYANT vs. DARTMOUTH (1/24/09)
The Bulldogs (5-12) led at the half, 31-26, after taking their first secure lead of the ballgame 10:27 into the opening frame and building it to as many as eight points with 26 seconds to go before the break.

Bryant took 37.9 percent shooting into the intermission to the 32.3 percent shooting of visiting Dartmouth (6-9), thanks in part to a strong showing from sophomore sharpshooter Lindsey Hudspeth (Mount Laurel, N.J.) (10 points) and 16 points off the bench.

But the Bulldogs floundered to start the second half, failing to register a point until a pair of free throws from Hudspeth more than six minutes into the session. Meanwhile, the Big Green were building a comeback and a lead that would result in a 15-point swing from halftime to the 7:12 mark of the second frame when Dartmouth took a 41-38 advantage.

The Big Green wouldn't release the lead for the remainder of the game, building a double-digit lead with 3:40 showing on the clock before completing the comeback with a 71-56 final tally.

Bryant was outscored, 45-25 in the second half, with the Big Green completing 46.9 percent of shots from the floor in the frame. The Bulldogs were outrebounded, 42-35 on the day.

Brittney Smith scored 24 points to lead all scorers with 15 of them coming in the second frame to spark Dartmouth's strong second-half showing. The Big Green would finish with all five starters in double-digit scoring tallies.

Hudspeth paced the Bulldogs with a career-high 18 points in a career-best 29 minutes of action while O'Keefe earned her third double-double in a row, finishing the game with 16 points and a season- and game-high 14 rebounds. Hudspeth went 8-of-10 from the line with a pair of three-pointers.

THE HIGHLIGHTS
Sophomore sharpshooter Lindsey Hudspeth broke through "potential" and finally discovered success and confidence as a shooter, recording a team-best and career-high 18 points in Saturday's loss. Coach Mary Burke gave her the nod of approval as well, leaving Hudspeth on the floor for a career-high 29 minutes.

PATTERN BREAKER
Through the season's first 15 contests, the Bulldogs played into a win-loss-loss pattern without exception. Losses at Yale and against Dartmouth bucked Bryant's previous pattern.

FEELING HOT HOT HOT
Despite a 1-5 record in January, the Bulldogs can thank juniors Kristin Mraz and Kelsey O'Keefe for keeping the games close as of late. Mraz, a junior guard, has caught fire, averaging a second-best 9.8 points per game before the Dartmouth loss after getting just 5.7 points per outing before the new year. Mraz was shooting 43.2 percent from the floor (16-of-37), including hitting a team-best 46.7 percent (7-of-15) from long distance, 90.9 percent from the line (10-of-11) and averaging 29.2 minutes a game, but her numbers suffered against the Big Green. But she has dished out a team-high 20 assists with seven steals and collected 20 rebounds in January.

O'Keefe has recorded four double-doubles so far in 2009, averaging 16.3 points per game over the last 28 days. The junior forward and co-captain is shooting a team-best 56.7 percent (38-for-67) from the floor, including 44.0 percent from downtown. She is pulling down 9.7 per game off the glass with a squad-high eight steals, and recorded back-to-back 26-point outings.

ALL-TOURNAMENT HONORS
Junior co-captain Kelsey O'Keefe and sophomore forward Siamone Bennett were named to the Fordham Holiday Tournament all-tournament team for their performances over the two-day classic Dec. 28 and 29. O'Keefe, who led the team in points both games, averaged 15.5 points per contest, while Bennett averaged 13.5 points per outing.

BURKE EARNS 250TH CAREER VICTORY
With a first-round win over Colgate University at the Fordham Holiday Classic on Dec. 28, 18-year head coach Mary Burke earned her 250th career victory. In her 18th season as head coach of the Bryant University women's basketball program, Burke has a career record of 251-246 and has enjoyed two 20-win seasons over her coaching days. She entered 2008-09 with a 246-234 career record. The Bulldogs' have earned five wins so far this season to get Burke to the landmark victory.

BABY GRAND
With a layup 43 seconds into Dec. 1's 53-50 win over St. Francis (NY), junior Kelsey O'Keefe became the 19th player in Bryant women's basketball history to pass the 1000-point plateau. The 6-1 forward enters tonight's game with 1,162 points after being the team's top points scorer in each of the past two seasons. O'Keefe is the first player to achieve such a feat since Joanna Skiba ('07) reached the 1000-point plateau against Assumption College on November 30, 2006, and O'Keefe is one of the fastest to reach the landmark.

BURKE NAMED TO INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE HALL OF FAME
Rhode Island hoops pioneer and Bryant head coach Mary Burke has been named among the 12 headed for the RI Interscholastic League Hall of Fame.

A Rhode Island native, Burke was a great multi-sport athlete in the early days of the league's girls sports programs and is one of the best athletic success stories of any of the league's female graduates. She will be inducted on May 6 at the league's annual Hall of Fame induction dinner at the Crowne Plaza in Warwick.

BRYANT JOINS THE DIVISION I NORTHEAST CONFERENCE
In October of 2007, Bryant University officially accepted an invitation to join the Division I Northeast Conference. The school began a four-year transition in the fall of 2008-09 and become a full member of the Northeast Conference in the fall of 2012-13. Bryant will not be eligible for conference or NCAA postseason play during the four-year transition period. Other members of the Northeast Conference include: Central Connecticut, Fairleigh Dickinson, Lond Island University, Monmouth, Mount St. Mary's, Quinnipiac, Robert Morris, Sacred Heart, St. Francis (NY), St. Francis (PA) and Wagner.

HOME SWEET HOME
The Chace Athletic Center has been kind to the Bulldog women in the past, but it will have less chances to be lucky this season in Division I. The women host just eight home contests and are 2-2 in the safe confines of the Chace Athletic Center. The Bulldogs hosted St. Francis (NY) on Dec. 1, getting their first Division I home win, and returned home in January 2009 where they fell to St. Bonaventure in the first game of back-to-back home contests to open the new year. But Bryant got back to winning with a 63-53 topping of Colgate at home.

The Bulldogs are also shooting better in Smithfield, connecting on 40.2 percent of shots from the floor at home as compared to 36.7 percent away from the Chace Athletic Center. Bryant also converts over 35 percent of 3-pointers at home, connecting on just 26.0 percent on the road.

CROSSING ENEMY LINES
Including members from Bryant's future home in the Northeast Conference as well as Independents, the Bulldogs will compete against seven different Division I conferences in 2008-09. Here is how they've fared so far.
Bryant vs. Division I conferences:
  America East: 1-1
  Atlantic 10: 0-3
  Independent: 0-0
  Ivy League: 0-4
  MEAC: 0-0
  Northeast Conference: 2-1
  Patriot League: 2-3

NO TIME TO WAIT
On November 14, the 2008-09 women's basketball team joined the women's soccer team and women's volleyball team as the only Bulldog programs to get their-ever first Division I win in their first DI contest with a 69-66 win over UNH. Kelsey O'Keefe scored a season-high 17 points in the contest on four three-pointers and 6-for-15 total shooting from the floor while Siamone Bennett and Kristin Mraz also scored in the double digits with 15 and 13 points, respectively. O'Keefe and senior Cara Johnson paced the team on the boards, each collecting seven.

OH CAPTAINS, MY CAPTAINS
Senior Cara Johnson and junior Kelsey O'Keefe have been named the 2008-09 team captains.

UP NEXT
The Bulldogs make the trek to the Pittsburgh area for a pair of contests versus future Northeast Conference opponents Saint Francis (PA) and Robert Morris University on Saturday, Jan. 31 (4 p.m.) and Monday, Feb. 2 (7 p.m.), respectively.

MAPPING IT OUT
Despite its home in Smithfield, R.I., Bryant boasts no homegrown talent on its 2008-09 roster. Instead, the Bulldogs hail from five different states, with six players coming to Douglas Pike from Massachusetts and six from the tri-state area. The Bay Staters make up much of the junior class (Schermerhorn, O'Keefe, Campbell, Mayshar) and add senior Fontaine and frosh Cowen, while five (Bennett, Mraz, Johnson, Dessingue, Stahura) call New York home. The remainder of the Bryant roster come from New Jersey (Hudspeth) and Maine (Wood).

BULLDOGS ON THE AIR
Fans can catch all of the action this year by logging onto www.bryantbulldogs.com to watch all Bryant home games live online, courtesy of Penn Atlantic. Also this year, track each game live online for free with LIVE STATS by visiting www.bryantbulldogs.com and clicking the Live Stats link.