Bulldogs and Bobcats clash for first time in Athens, Saturday at 3:30 on ESPN3

GAME NOTES

SMITHFIELD, R.I. -- The Bryant University men's basketball team returns to the road for five days when it takes on Ohio University Saturday at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN3. 

THE SERIES
Saturday's meeting marks the first between the Bulldogs and the Bobcats.

SCOUTING THE BOBCATS
Ohio is off to a strong start with its 4-1 record. Though they are coming off their first loss of the season, the Bobcats are powered by four double-digit scorers led by senior forward Antonio Campbell's 19.2 points per game on a .493 clip from the field. He secures 10.8 boards per game to sit 15th in the country and leads the team with 1.8 blocks per contest. Sophomore guard Jordan Dartis sits second with 14.8 points per effort along with senior forward Kenny Kaminski, who sits second and fourth nationally with 4.25 made triples per game and a .607 clip from distance, respectively. Junior point guard Jaaron Simmons nets 11.4 points and dishes out 7.4 assists per game to sit sixth in the country. Collectively, the Bobcats rank 15th in the nation with 10.4 triples per contest and 11th with a .419 mark from long range. They also hold onto the ball, turning it over the 16th fewest times at the Division I level. 

YOU NEVERFORGET YOUR FIRST
The Bulldogs have played an opponent for the first time 72 times since becoming a Division I program in 2008-09. In those initial matchups, Bryant is 16-46 against first-time opponents.

BRYANT vs. THE MID AMERICAN CONFERENCE
Saturday's contest will mark the third against a current member of the Mid American Conference and the first since 2013. The Bulldogs played Kent State in 2010 and earned a convincing 90-49 road victory. The most recent match with the league came at Akron in 2014, as Bryant dropped a highly competetive contest, 72-66. 

LAST TIME OUT
The Bulldogs had difficulty stoping Yale for much of the contest on Wednesday night, trailing by as many as 16 in the first half and 15 with just over 12 minutes to go in the second frame. But Bryant began to feed off the crowd's energy in its first home game since Nov. 15 and suddenly began to shutdown the two-time defending Ivy League champs. The Black and Gold outscored the Elis. 34-10, over the final 12:08 and earned one of the best victories since the program joined the Division I ranks, 79-70. Sophomore Marcel Pettway had his best game of the season with 25 points and seven boards, while classmate Nisre Zouzoua scored 22 points and also grabbed seven rebounds. Freshman Adam Grant tallied 13 points and junior Bosko Kostur netted 10 points and corralled seven caroms off the bench. 

QUICK HITS

» 2:00 Minute Swarming: Wednesday's victory over Yale was the first in the series since 2013 and the first at home since 2009. The Bulldogs trailed with under 2:00 to play and still won by nine, 79-70, marking just the fifth time Bryant has won a game in which it trailed with 2:00 to play at the Division I level. 

» Nail Biter: The 91-90 loss at Brown Monday night marked the sixth game determined by one point since the program joined the Division I ranks in 2008. Bryant led by just 46 seconds in the game and is now 3-3 in games decided by one point at the DI level. 

» Mr. Steal Your Ball: The 11 steals against Brown on Monday are the most for the Bulldogs since the start of the 2014-15 season (69 games). Bryant also theft the Bears 10 times in last season's meeting on Dec. 5, 2015. 

» 90's Kids: The 90 points against Brown are the most points scored for the Bulldogs since they scored 91 on March 4, 2015 against Sacred Heart. It marked just the sixth time Bryant scored 90 or more points in a game at the Division I level.   

» Wrong Side of Thirty: Eastern Washington's Bogdan Bliznyuk netted 32 points against the Bulldogs on Monday, marking the first time since Feb. 26, 2015 that an opponent scored 30 points or more against Bryant. 

» Just Let It Go: The 23 turnovers against No. 14/14 Gonzaga on Nov. 18 tied for the second most in a game in Bryant's Division I history. The most was 25 at Robert Morris on Feb. 6, 2012, and the Bulldogs have been forced in more than 20 turnovers in a game just 11 times at the DI level. 

OH HI YO
Saturday might mark the first matchup between the Bulldogs and Bobcats, but Bryant has three members of its coaching staff that are no strangers to Athens, Ohio. 

Head coach Tim O'Shea held the same position at Ohio University for seven seasons prior to joining Bryant nine years ago. In his seven seasons at the helm in Athens, O'Shea was the architect of a Bobcat program that rose to greatness not just within the MAC but on the national stage. In his last four seasons alone, O'Shea's Bobcats earned 79 wins, captured a MAC title while being named college basketball's "It" team by ESPN.com. O'Shea was 120-95 during his tenure, including taking wins over a number of notable college basketball household names such as North Carolina, Virginia and the University of Maryland. In 2007-08, O'Shea's last year with the Bobcats, the team posted a 20-13 record and reached the second round of the College Basketball Invitational.

Director of Basketball Operations, Mike Allen, spent two his junior and senior seasons as the starting point guard for the Bobcats, earning All-MAC Honorable Mention accolades in 2008-09. Allen started all but three games in his two-year Ohio career, graduating with 280 assists, good for the fifth-best two-season total in program history. As a senior, he became just the third Ohio U. player to lead the MAC in assists per game (4.31), also leading the league in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.26).

Lastly, assistant coach and former Bryant standout guard Frankie Dobbes hails from Berea, Ohio, was recruited by O'Shea and began his collegiate career in Athens prior to transferring to his alma mater for the start of his sophomore year.   

JUST ZOO IT
After lighting up the Northeast Conference for over 19.0 points per game to finish out the final month of last season, sophomore Nisre Zouzoua was expected to have a better second campaign. But he has exceeded expecations with an impressive 22.9 points per game over the first eight contests to lead the league and sit 13th nationally, while hitting a conference-best 3.3 triples per game. He has scored 22 points or more in six-straight outings, including a new career high of 31 points at Brown on Monday, his second 30-point game since Nov. 22. His 30 points at La.-Monroe on the Nov. 22 made him the first Bulldog to tally 30 or more since Dyami Starks ('15) did so on Feb. 12, 2015. In doing so, Zouzoua eclipsed 500 career points to become the second fasted Bulldog to reach the milestone in the program's Division I history (36 games). Alex Francis ('14) did it in 34 games.

Zouzoua is just the second Bulldog to score 30 or more points in at least two-of-three games and the second player to average over 22.0 points over the first eight games of any season in the program's DI history (Starks did it in 2013-14).   

WHOSE LAUGHING NOW
Freshman Ikenna Ndugba may have become an internet sensation and the source of a lot of entertainment surrounding the sports world following his mistake at the end of Monday night's 91-90 loss at Brown. After a layup gave Brown the lead with less than four seconds remaining, Ndugba received the inbounds pass thinking his team was winning. He dribbled to midcourt, ran out the clock and threw the ball in the air, only to realize Bryant was trailing and needed to attempt a potential game winner. 

Though we'll never know if there would have been a buzzer beater to stun the Bears, what we do know is Ndugba has done a very good job as a true freshman point guard through his first seven games. The Boston product leads the NEC with 4.9 assists per game and sits in the top-60 in the country with 38 total helpers. Ndugba has scored in double-figures twice this season and grabbed nine rebounds in a 64-57 victory over La.-Monroe on Nov. 22.   

PROTECT THE PERIMETER 
The Bulldogs have done a very good job of closing in on shooters and defending against the three, as they currently rank 86th in the country with a .310 three-point field-goal defense. The ability to limit the success of teams beyond the arc is no anomaly, as Bryant has finished in the top-100 nationally in each of the last two years and ended the year ranked 47th in 2014-15 (.315 3-PT FG defense). They have held their first eight opponents this season to under 40.0 percent from distance, and limited Notre Dame and Salve Regina to clips of .180 (3-16) and .210 (4-19), respectively.   

GRANTED PERMISSION
Following in the footsteps of reigning NEC Rookie of the Year Marcel Pettway and fellow NEC All-Rookie Team selection Nisre Zouzoua, freshman Adam Grant has stepped right in and played like a season vet through his first eight collegiate games. He has netted double-digit points in seven of the last eight games with at least 13 points, has scored no fewer than nine and has made at least three treys in five of the eight games this year. Grant is second on the team with 15.9 points per game to sit sixth in the NEC, first among league rookies, and he has a .530 field-goal clip to sit eighth in the conference and a 43.5 three-point field-goal percentage.   

WARE DID HE GO
Junior wing Hunter Ware was feeling it when the lights shined at their brightest in 2015-16. Of his four 20-point outings last season, two came in TV games. Ware began the season scoring 24 points against then No. 5/4 Duke on an ESPN3 broadcast, then netted a career-high 26 points at Michigan on Dec. 23 as part of a BIG 10 Network telecast. Ware played at Harvard on ESPN3, at then No. 15/18 Providence on Fox Sports 1, at Wagner on CBS Sports Network, against Robert Morris on ESPN3 and against Fairleigh Dickinson on MSG+, scoring 10, 14, 11, 15 and 14 points, respectively. Strangely enough, his zero points at RV/RV Notre Dame on Nov. 12 in an ACC Network/ESPN3 telecast marked the first time in his career that he was held scoreless in a game in which he either played more than 14 minutes or attempted more than four shots (was 0-for-6 in 23 minutes). He was also held scoreless at No. 14/14 Gonzaga on Nov. 18 (0-for-4 in 21 minutes) in a ROOT Sports and ESPN3 game, marking his first three-game stretch playing double-digit minutes in which he has failed to total at least 10 points. He has yet to score more than six points this season and has yet to make a three pointer after leading the team with 61 last year.    

SHOTS FOR CHARITY
The Bulldogs were not blessed by the whistle gods in the Nov. 18 loss at No. 14/14 Gonzaga. The Zags went to the line 45 times, marking the first time in Bryant's Division I history that it allowed an opponent to shoot more than 40 free throws. Bryant was then whistled for 28 fouls against Eastern Washington on Nov. 21 and surrendered 34 attempts from the line. In those two games, the Bulldogs allowed 64 points from the free-throw line. 

Because of this, the Bulldogs played more zone on against Louisiana-Monroe on Nov. 22 and only allowed three free throws. The three attempts from the line were tied for the fewest that Bryant had surrendered at the Division I level, and the two makes from the Warhawks were the second fewest (Army went 1-3 on Dec. 8, 2015). 

DOUBLE THE DIGITS DOUBLE THE FUN
After not having five double-digit scorers in a game since Dec. 9, 2014 against Army, the Bulldogs produced five double-figure scorers three times last season, including three of four games with the last coming at Mount St. Mary's on Jan. 9. Five Bulldogs scored in double-figures against Salve Regina on Nov. 15, marking the 20th time that has happened in the program's Division I history, as Bryant is 18-2 in such games.

HULK BASH
Sabastian Townes was stellar off the bench in his collegiate debut on Nov. 12 against the Fighting Irish. The rookie had 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting and a 6-for-11 effort at the line. He scored 10 points in the second half and tied sophomore Nisre Zouzoua and Alex Francis ('14) for the most points scored by a Bryant freshman in his debut in the program's Division I history. 

ON TAP
The Bulldogs wrap up the roadtrip in Annapolis, Md., when they battle Navy on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.