Bulldogs head down to the Mount for an ESPNU clash Thursday at 7:00 p.m.

GAME NOTES

SMITHFIELD, R.I. -- The Bryant University men's basketball team heads to Emmitsburg Md., to take on Mount St. Mary's Thursday at 7:00 p.m. on ESPNU (John Brickley and Mark Plansky).  

THE SERIES
Thursday's contest marks the 18th between the Bulldogs and Mountaineers and the 16th at the DI ranks. The Mount holds a 11-6 lead in the series and has owned Bryant in Emmitsburg with a 7-1 lead. But the Bulldogs won their first game in Knott Arena last year in a double overtime thriller, 82-79. Four of the last five matchups have been decided by less than eight points.  

SCOUTING THE MOUNTAINEERS
The Mount had won three-straight games prior to the Jan. 5 loss to the Bulldogs, 72-71. It has not lost since, currently sitting atop the NEC with a 9-1 mark in the league. Sophomore guard Elijah Long still leads the team with 14.0 points per game on a 42.6 3-point shooting percentage. He is second in the league with 4.3 assists per game and adds 5.3 boards per game. Junior guard Junior Robinson is second with 13.1 points per effort on clips above .400 from three and the field and sits 15th nationally with a 90.4 free-throw percentage. Freshman forward Miles Wilson nets 11.1 points per game and junior Greg Alexander tallies 8.3 points per contest. Junior forward Chris Wray and sophomore center Mawdo Sallah score 7.4 and 5.6 points per game, respectively, but have paced the Mount inside on the defensive end. Wray averages 1.39 and Sallah 1.30 blocks per game to sit second and third in the league, respectively. The Mountaineers sit last in the NEC with a -9.1 rebounding margin and 29.91 boards per game. 

CURRENT DAWGS vs. MOUNT ST. MARY'S
There are 11 current Bulldogs that have played the Mountaineers in their careers. Sophomore Nisre Zouzoua is netting 16.7 points per game on a .447 clip from the field and 4.7 rebounds in three meetings and he scored 15 in the first matchup of this year on Jan. 5. Classmate Marcel Pettway netted 13.0 points per contest and 7.0 rebounds against the Mount last year and tallied the same numbers on Jan. 5. Senior forward Dan Garvin is averaging 8.6 points in five six matchups with the Mount and tallied a pair of blocks in the 72-71 win this year, including a huge rejection of Junior Robinson in the final minute which resulted in the go-ahead free throws at the other end. Junior Bosko Kostur scorched the Mountaineers for a career-high 24 points in the Jan. 5 win. 

BRYANT vs. THE NORTHEAST CONFERENCE  The Bulldogs hold an overall record of 53-80 against current NEC members since joining the Division I ranks. Prior to the 2012-13 campaign, Bryant held a 9-44 record against conference opponents, but has recorded a 44-36 record over the last four seasons. The Black and Gold are 25-16 at home versus the NEC and 22-22 on the road since the start of 2012-13. All-time against current conference institutions, the Bulldog basketball program is 67-97.

LAST TIME OUT
The Bulldogs held a lead over Fairleigh Dickinson for over 80 percent of Saturday's home contest, but were unable to extend any advantage to greater than six points. The Knights tied the game late in regulation and a shot at the buzzer went wide, sending the game into overtime. Points were few and far between in the OT, as only eight were scored. After the Knights stole an inbounds with nine seconds to play and laid in an easy bucket to take a one-point lead, sophomore Nisre Zouzoua dribbled down the court and pulled up for the game-winning shot from 18 feet away.The jumper dropped through the cylinder with 2.4 ticks to go, handing Bryant a 73-72 win. Zouzoua finished with 25 points and freshman Adam Grant scored 19 in the win.  

OT, OT IT'S ALWAYS MUCH FUN WHEN WE GO TO OT 
Saturday's overtime win against the Knights marked the 13th game in Bryant's Division I history that went to extra time. The Bulldogs are 5-8 at the DI ranks when a contest is decided in OT.  

JUST ZOO IT
Sophomore Nisre Zouzoua is in the midst of a superb sophomore campaign with an impressive 20.3 points per game to lead the league and sit 35th nationally, while hitting 2.55 triples per game, second most in the NEC. He has scored 21 points or more in 13 outings, including a career-high 31 points at Brown on Nov. 28, his second 30-point game of the year.  

GRANTED PERMISSION
Freshman Adam Grant has played like a seasoned vet in his first collegiate campaign. He has netted double-digit points 15 times this season and is second on the team with 13.9 points per game to sit eighth in the NEC, first among league rookies. The 32 points he scored against the Pioneers on Jan. 14 were the second-most by a Bryant rookie at the DI level. Alex Francis ('14) scored 43 points on Feb. 24, 2011.   

TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT
The Bulldogs have played in some close games this year, as they are 3-7 in contests decided by five points or less and have narrowly lost games by one, two, three, four and five points. Saturday's 73-72 OT win over Fairleigh Dickinson was just the eighth game Bryant had played in that was decided by one point at the DI level (5-3).  

DEFEND THE BALL
Bryant is 5-0 this season when holding an opponent to fewer than 70 points. This success has become a trend over the past few years, as the Bulldogs are 43-14 since the start of the 2013-14 season when surrendering less than 70 points. The Black and Gold held consecutive opponents to less than 60 points from Jan. 21 - 25 (56 at Robert Morris, 54 at CCSU). Bryant is virtually unbeatable since the start of the 2010-11 season when surrendering fewer than 60 points, as it holds a 17-1 record. At the Division I level, the Bulldogs hold a 23-7 record when limiting the opposition to less than 60 points. 

TAYLOR MADE
The Bulldogs have found a spark off the bench and another floor general in the form of sophomore Taylor McHugh over the last nine games. McHugh is averaging over 26.5 minutes per game since Jan. 5, has scored in six of the last seven contests and has tallied at least two assists in all but one of the nine games, including seven helpers against Sacred Heart on Jan. 14 and six against CCSU on Jan. 25. He scored a career-best 12 points in the 65-54 win over the Blue Devils and knocked down a personal-best three trifectas to go along with his six helpers and four rebounds.  

BLOCK PARTY
After missing six-consecutive games from Nov. 28 - Dec. 22, senior forward Dan Garvin returned against St. Francis Brooklyn on Dec. 29 and provided Bryant with leadership along with a presence at the rim. The Bulldogs tallied a total of five rejections in Garvin's absence, but averaged three denials per contest over the next six games. Garvin had 13 of the team's 18 blocks during the six-game stretch. As fate would have it, the Bulldogs went blockless against Harvard on Jan. 16, marking just the fourth time that has happened in the last three seasons. The fourth-year rim protector is averaging 1.5 blocks per game during NEC play. 

BK ALL DAY
Junior forward Bosko Kostur has provided the Bulldogs with an additional threat of late and reemerged as a consistent contributor. After scoring no more than four points and playing no more than eight minutes over the first six games of the year, he has played 20+ minutes in nine-straight games, has started each of those contests and scored in double figures in six of the last nine. He averaged 17.6 points in five games from Jan. 5 - Jan. 16, scoring no fewer than 15 points.  

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. Townes has elevated his play offensively recently with 12.5 points per game on an impressive 66.6 percent from the field from Jan. 14 - Jan. 21. He netted 11 points in just 12 minutes off the bench against Sacred Heart on Jan. 14, a career-high 17 against Harvard on Jan. 16 and 14 off the bench against Saint Francis U. on Jan. 19 before tallying 11 against Robert Morris on Jan. 21. Townes averaged just over 1.5 points per minute during the four-game stretch. 

RESILIENT IS BRILLIANT
The Bulldogs have overcome four halftime deficits this season and come back to win. Bryant nearly erased a 22-point halftime deficit on Jan. 7 against FDU (87-84 loss) which would have been the largest halftime deficit overcome in program history. The Bulldogs then dwindled what was a 22-point second-half Harvard lead on Monday to just one point before ultimately falling by five. Along with vanquishing a seven-point halftime deficit against Robert Morris on Jan. 21, Bryant erased an eight-point deficit on Nov. 30 against Yale, a four-point deficit against Mount St. Mary's on Jan. 5 and a two-point deficit against Wagner on Jan. 12. The Bulldogs have won 25 games at the DI level when they have trailed at the intermission.   

MR. STEAL YOUR BALL 
The Bulldogs also set a new Division I record with 15 steals in the game against the Pioneers, nine off the program record. The team is averaging 6.6 steals per game this year and is on pace to break its previous high for a single season at the Division I level, which was 5.9. 

ON TAP
The Bulldogs will battle Sacred Heart for the first time since the Jan. 14th triple-overtime marathon Saturday at 3:30 in Fairfield.