Bulldogs travel to Dartmouth for a New Year's Eve contest, 2 p.m. from Leede Arena

GAME NOTES

SMITHFIELD, R.I. -- The Bryant University men's basketball team will play its first game since Dec. 23 and its final non-conference game of the season when it plays its fourth and final Ivy League opponent of the year, traveling to Dartmouth College for a New Year's Eve matinee, with tipoff on Thursday set for 2:00 p.m. from Leede Arena.  

 

THE SERIES

The Bulldogs and the Big Green have squared off in each of the last four seasons, with both sides claiming victory twice. After Bryant took home wins in the second and third matchups in 2012 and 2013, respectively, Dartmouth won the most recent contest, 76-59, last season in Smithfield.   

 

SCOUTING THE BIG GREEN

Dartmouth is led by freshman forward Evan Boudreaux, sophomore guard Miles Wright, and senior forward Connor Boehm. The trio rank first, second, and third on the team, respectively, in both points and rebounds. Boudreaux currently sits third among Ivy League freshman with 13.8 points per game on a .417 clip from the floor and ranks fourth overall in rebounds (8.1). Boehm (10.7 ppg) shoots 48.8 percent from the field which leads the Big Green and ranks him 10th in the conference. Wright's 39-point effort on Nov. 29 against LIU Brooklyn was the highest point total for any Ivy Leaguer in 2015-16 and it was the ninth-best offensive performance at the Division I level this year. As a unit, Dartmouth shoots 40.9 percent from the floor and 34.4 percent from three.       

BRYANT vs. DARTMOUTH

The Bulldogs are very familiar with the Big Green, as 10 current Black and Gold players have faced Dartmouth. Five players have battled Dartmouth multiple times with senior captains Shane McLaughlin and Curtis Oakley Jr. doing so on three occasions, while Dan Garvin, Andrew Scocca, and Bosko Kostur have done so twice. Averaging roughly 18 minutes in his three encounters with the Big Green, McLaughlin has totaled seven points with seven rebounds and six assists. In last season's 76-59 loss to the Big Green, Garvin finished with nine points to pair with five rebounds and three assists, while Gus Riley netted five points and grabbed four boards. Hunter Ware and Zach Chionuma tallied 10 and nine points, respectively, off the bench. Collectively, current Bulldogs are shooting 41.8 percent (18-43) from the floor and 30.7 percent (4-13) from beyond the arc against Dartmouth.  

BRYANT vs. THE IVY LEAGUE

Wednesday's matchup is the fourth and final contest against a member of the Ivy League in 2015-16, including the third in the month of December. After an 80-45 loss at Harvard on Nov. 25, a 79-40 loss at Yale on Dec. 2, and a 76-68 loss to Brown on Dec. 5, Bryant is 7-23 against Ivy League schools in its short Division I history, having matched up against Columbia (0-3), Brown (2-6), Cornell (0-2), Harvard (0-5), Yale (2-6) and Dartmouth (2-2) over the last eight seasons. In the alltime history of the program, the Bulldogs are just 6-31 against Ivy League opponents, most frequently matching up against intrastate rival Brown (2-13). 

LAST TIME OUT

Sophomore guard Hunter Ware scored a career-high and game-best 26 points while tying his career mark with six connections from long range, but the Bryant University men's basketball team fell to the University of Michigan, 96-60, last Wednesday in Ann Arbor. Ware finished the game going 9-for-19 from the floor while adding three rebounds with an assist and a steal. Freshman forward Marcel Pettway was the only other Bulldog in double-figures, as he tied his career-best with 15 points on a 6-for-7 effort from the field, also grabbing four boards, and senior captain Shane McLaughlin finished with a contest-best eight assists. Five players finished in double-figures for the Wolverines, who sunk a school record 17 treys. Caris LeVert finished with a team-high 19 points on a 8-for-14 performance from the floor while snaring five boards and also dishing out eight assists. Eight different Michigan players contributed to the barrage of triples, and as a unit, the Wolverines shot 48.6 percent from beyond the arc, also shooting just under 60 percent from the floor (37-63). The Bulldogs finished the game shooting 49 percent from the field (23-47) and over 35 percent from distance (8-22).

QUICK HITS     
» Blocked Out: The one blocked shot at Michigan last Wednesday is the fewest total the Bulldogs have accrued since recording one block on Feb. 28 of last season. The Black and Gold recorded fewer than two blocks 12 times in 2014-15.

» Block Party: Junior forward Dan Garvin is just one block shy of the 100th stuff of his career. He would become the fifth player in Bryant history to hit the mark and first at the Division I level.

» Photogenic: Against some stiff competition this season, in nationally televised games at No. 5/4 Duke, at No. 15/18 Providence, and at Michigan, Hunter Ware has performed at his best with the lights shining bright. The sophomore sharp-shooter averaged 21.3 points in those three contests shooting 52.3 percent from the field and 47.1 percent (16-34) from distance.   

» December to Forget: December has been anything but one to remember for the Bulldogs, who are now just 10-43 in the year's final month since the start of the Division I era (2008-09). Bryant has posted a winning record in the month just once, going 4-2 in 2012-13. The Bulldogs are winless so far in December 2015.

 

AULD LANG SYNE

The Bulldogs will be looking to break their New Year's Eve streak in 2015, as Bryant is 0-3 on the last day of the year at the Division I level. Bryant played Dartmouth on New Year's Eve last season, dropping the contest 76-59. The Bulldogs hadn't played on Dec. 31 since 2011 before last year, when they lost at home to Lehigh, 72-55. The Black and Gold also dropped a New Year's Eve contest at Brown the season prior, falling to the Bears, 84-71, on Dec. 31, 2010.

 

BOARDING PASS

Bryant hauled in less than 25 rebounds (22) at Michigan, marking the first time it has corralled 25 or fewer boards since Nov. 26, 2014 at Vermont. The Bulldogs have failed to exceed 25 rebounds 23 times in the program's Division I history, and the 22 caroms against the Wolverines ties the second-fewest total in Bryant's DI tenure (18r at Iowa, 12/05/08).

 

DOING THE HONORS

For the third time this season, bigman Marcel Pettway has been named the NEC Rookie of the Week, just a week after he tacked on the first ECAC Rookie of the Week accolade in the program's Division I history. Last week, the frosh forward earned his fifth collegiate start, tying his career-high with 15 points (6-for-7 from the floor) in the Bulldogs' 96-60 loss at Michigan. The North Providence, R.I., native is averaging 7.9 ppg to lead all NEC freshman and ranks 10th in the league with 6.1 rpg. He is also sixth in the conference with a .552 clip from the field and heads the Bulldogs with 1.3 spg. 

WARE, OH WARE

Sophomore guard Hunter Ware has emerged as an offensive weapon to be reckoned with in the 2015-16 season. The Georgia native averages a team-high 14.8 points per game, ranking him inside the top-10 in the NEC while shooting better than 43 percent from the field (63-147) and over 34 percent (25-72) from long range. Ware opened the season with two of the best offensive performances of his career, logging back-to-back 20-point outings that included a career-high 24 points in the Nov. 14 season opener at No. 5/4 Duke. He reset his season-best with 26 points at Michigan last Wednesday while matching a career-best six triples.

 

LINEUP DANCING

Just 12 games into the 2015-16 campaign, the Bulldogs have unveiled eight variations of their starting lineup. Head coach Tim O'Shea has repeated a starting lineup just twice this year, including keeping the opening five consistent in the last three outings. The cast of senior Shane McLaughlin, sophomore Hunter Ware, freshman Nisre Zouzoua, freshman Marcel Pettway and junior Dan Garvin have earned three-consecutive starting nods from Dec. 8 - Dec. 23. The Bulldogs have not seen eight or more editions of a starting lineup since the 2011-12 season.

 

ON THE REBOUND

The Bulldogs have yet to outrebound an opponent in 2015-16, posting a -7.8 rebounding margin on the young season. This is the first time in the program's Division I history the team has opened a campaign on the short side on the glass in 12-straight outings. The last time the Bulldogs were outboarded in more than seven-straight games at any point in a season was back in 2011-12, when the team lost the battle on the boards in nine-consecutive games from Nov. 27-Jan. 5. To find the last time the squad was outrebounded in 12 or more straight contests, you must look all the way back to the 2009-10 season, when the Bulldogs lost the board battle in 20 in a row from Dec. 3-Feb. 13. Bryant currently ranks 333rd in Division I in rebounding margin (-7.8) and 308th in rebounds per game (33.08).

 

FREE THROW WOES

The Bulldogs have struggled from the charity stripe throughout the 2015-16 season so far, finishing under 60 percent in seven of the team's 12 contests. Bryant's worst performance of the year came Nov. 28 against Georgetown, when the Black and Gold went just 5-for-15 from the line (.333), converting less than 40 percent of their free throw attempts for the first time since a 4-of-11 (.364) performance against Mount St. Mary's back on Jan. 14, 2012. Bryant has finished at 50 percent or less six times this season (.462 vs. Prairie View A&M, .462 at Yale, .500 at Michigan, .500 at Providence, .500 at Duke) and currently ranks third to last in Division I with a 58.0 percent clip on the year.

 

THE NAME IS ZOUZOUA

 Freshman Nisre Zouzoua made a name for himself in the first two games of his collegiate career and has gotten back on track as of late. He scored 16 points in his debut at No. 5 Duke, only to follow that up with a career-high 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting against Emerson. Zouzoua started 0-for-2 against the Lions but then made his next eight shots from the field on his way to his career day. And after six-consecutive single-digit outings, the Brockton, Mass., native has scored in double-digits in three of the four games, averaging 13.4 points per contest since Dec. 5. In a 76-68 loss to Brown, Zouzoua drained four treys en route to a team-high 18 points. He then led the team in scoring for the third time in his young collegiate career with 17 points in a 77-55 loss to Army on Dec. 8 and followed that up with 11 points and a trio of 3-pointers at No. 15/18 Providence on Dec. 12.  

 

HIGH MILEAGE FOR McLAUGHLIN

Senior point guard Shane McLaughlin is once again proving to be a workhorse for the Bulldogs on the court, playing 34 minutes or more in 11 of the season's first 12 contests. The Old Tappan, N.J., native was third in the NEC last year with an average of 36.68 minutes per game and currently sits second as a senior with an average of 36.66 minutes per outing (17th nationally). As a starter (57 games), McLaughlin has played 37 minutes or more 29 times. He has played the entire game seven times in the span, including all 50 minutes in a double-overtime win against Sacred Heart in last year's NEC Tournament.

THAT 70s SHOW

The Bulldogs have conceded 70 or more points in all 10 of their losses this season but have held opponents to less than 70 points in their only two wins. Last season, Bryant finished 4-9 when allowing more than 70 points, posting a 12-6 record when holding teams below the 70-point threshold. Conversely, the Black and Gold finished last season 11-2 when totalling 70+ points and have concluded with north of 70 points in both wins this year.

IN THE MARGINS

Bryant has played just three games in which the final margin has been within 10 points, coming at UNH (75-67 L), at home against Brown (78-68 L) and at No. 15/18 Providence (74-67 L). The Bulldogs' seven remaining defeats have come by 39 (Yale), 38 (Duke), 36 (Michigan), 35 (Harvard), 30 (Georgetown), 22 (Army) and 19 (Siena), while its two wins (Emerson, Prairie View A&M) each came by 13 points.

THRIFTY FIFTY

Bryant has scored less than 50 points in three of its last eight games (45 at Harvard, 47 at Georgetown, 40 at Yale), marking the second-straight season it has failed to reach the 50-point mark in at least three games. The last time the Bulldogs scored less than 50 in three losing efforts came in 2009-10, when it happened in 12 different outings. Bryant currently averages just 61.3 points per game, ranking in the bottom 15 in scoring offense in all of Division I (334 of 346).


IT'S NOT HOW YOU FINISH...

Sometimes, it's how you start. Bryant has gotten off to some slow starts to begin the season, trailing at the half in nine of its 12 contests. The Bulldogs are 0-9 when trailing at the intermission, currently being outscored, 408-284, in the opening frame. Bryant is 2-1 when leading at the half, outscoring the opposition, 115-83, in the opening stanza in the three contests. The Bulldogs went 10-4 last season when leading at the break.

UP NEXT

Bryant will return to Smithfield for the first time since Dec. 8 as it opens up the new year, as well as NEC play, hosting Central Connecticut State University on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. at the Chace Athletic Center.