Men look to snap skid Thursday

The Bulldogs welcome Fairleigh Dickinson to the Chace Athletic Center for a Thursday night contest (7p)

FULL GAME NOTES
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SMITHFIELD, R.I. -- The Bryant University men's basketball team hosts Northeast Conference foe Fairleigh Dickinson University Thursday night at the Chace Athletic Center for the third contest of a four-game Bulldog homestand. This is the first meeting between these two teams in 2011-12, as Bryant looks to snap its current five-game losing skid and keep the Knights winless in conference play.

THE SERIES
The Knights and the Bulldogs have faced off five times in their history, with all five meetings having come since the 2008-09 season. FDU holds a 3-2 edge in the all-time series after the teams split a pair of games last season, with each side winning at home. Bryant earned its only other win over the Knights in the first-ever meeting between the two programs back on Jan. 17, 2009, when the Bulldogs took a 56-43 victory at home during Bryant's inaugural Division I season. Junior point guard Frankie Dobbs has seen extreme success in a pair of appearances against FDU, averaging 19.5 points per game with a 60 percent (12-20) shooting clip from the field to compliment 68.8 percent (11-16) accuracy from 3-point land. Dobbs scored a career-high 25 points the last time these teams met. Sophomore forward Alex Francis also averages double figures in two starts, putting up 12.5 points per outing with a 57.9 percent shooting mark. The Black and Gold are 2-1 against the Knights inside the Chace Athletic Center.

SCOUTING THE KNIGHTS
FDU enters Thursday night's game 0-8 in Northeast Conference action with its only victory of the 2011-12 campaign coming Nov. 18 against Saint Peter's College, 73-62. The Knights have lost their last 16 contests, but still boast three players averaging double figures, a trio led by junior guard Melquan Bolding's 13.9 points per game. Lonnie Hayes puts up 13 points of his own each time out and paces the team with 45 assists and 22 steals, while George Goode adds 12.1 points per contest and pulls down a team-leading 7.8 rebounds per game. Kinu Rochford shoots a side-best 56.2 percent (77-137) with 9.3 points and 6.8 rebounds per outing, while the team as a whole shoots 40.5 percent from the field with a 30.2 percent mark from downtown and a .638 clip from the free throw line. Only one of the 11 FDU players — leading blocker George Goode — has started all 19 games this season, with 10 different Knights earning at least two starts.

BRYANT vs. THE NORTHEAST CONFERENCE
The Bulldogs enter Thursday's matchup with a 15-43 record against current Northeast Conference members since joining the Division I ranks. Bryant will be halfway through its 2011-12 league slate at the conclusion of Thursday's contest, and the Bulldogs are still looking to top the seven-win mark against their home league, a record set by last season's squad. All-time against current conference members, the Bulldog basketball program is 43-97 (.307), having most frequently faced off against former Northeast-10 Conference (DII) member Quinnipiac (18-41). Bryant is 1-7 this season against the NEC, having earned its first league win January 7 against Saint Francis (PA), 59-56.

COMMON DENOMINATOR
Outside of common Northeast Conference foes, Bryant and FDU have faced off against two common competitors in 2011-12. Both teams suffered the same fates, as well, falling to BIG EAST foe Providence College before dropping decisions to a strong Lehigh University side soon after.

LAST TIME AGAINST FDU (Jan. 20, 2011)
Frankie Dobbs scored a career-high 25 points including the game-winning 3-point basket with 2.5 seconds left to send Bryant to a thrilling 74-71 Northeast Conference victory over Fairleigh Dickinson in the teams' last outing, Jan. 20, 2011 at the Chace Athletic Center.

Bryant, winners of four straight, shot a sizzling 54.9 percent from the floor, including 58 percent in the second half. It was the second-straight game in which the Bulldogs shot better than 50 percent and third time in the last four outings. Dobbs was 7-for-10 shooting from the floor in the game, including a 7-for-9 mark from 3-point range and a perfect 4-for-4 from the line, scoring 19 of his 25 points in the second stanza. Alex Francis was also productive from the floor in the game, as the then-freshman forward finished with 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting as well.

The game was a tight contest throughout, with the second half alone featuring 12 ties and nine lead changes as neither team held a lead larger than eight points all night. With the game tied, 56-56, with 7:30 left to play, the Bulldogs put together a nice 8-0 spurt, keyed by a long three from Dobbs on the left side and another trey from the corner. Bryant would go to Dobbs again, but this time his 3-pointer rimmed out for teammate Barry Latham to get the tip-in to give Bryant a 64-56 edge with just over four minutes to play.

But the visiting Knights would answer with a run of their own. Two treys from FDU's Mike Scott (team-high 20 points) quickly brought the Knights back to within a point, 65-64, with 2:20 left on the clock. Moments later, Scott would turn a Bryant giveaway into a basket at the other end, as the 6-foot guard weaved his way through the lane for a tough basket, giving the Knights a 66-65 lead.

Tied at 67-67 with a minute to go, Latham found a wide open Cecil Gresham (13 points) out on the wing to put the Bulldogs up by two. A free throw and three-pointer by Scott with 24 seconds left would knot the game up once again at 71-71.

But the Bulldogs would respond, as Dobbs came off a screen from the left side to connect on the game-winning basket, sending the Bulldogs to the 74-71 victory and the longest winning streak of the program's short Division I history.

UP NEXT
Bryant wraps up its current four-game home stretch Saturday when it welcomes Northeast Conference foe Monmouth University to Smithfield for a 4 p.m. matchup. The game will be the second half of an NEC men's/women's doubleheader and marks the end of January action. The Bulldogs will open February play on the road in Brooklyn, N.Y., for league contests against LIU Brooklyn and St. Francis (NY).