Bulldogs and Pioneers square off in Fairfield Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

GAME NOTES

SMITHFIELD, R.I. -- The Bryant University men's basketball team plays the rematch of the January 14th triple overtime loss when it heads to Sacred Heart for a 3:30 tip Saturday on NECFrontRow.com.   

THE SERIES
Saturday's meeting between the Bulldogs and Pioneers marks the 35th overall and the 19th at the Division I level. Sacred Heart owns a 21-13 lead in the series, 13-5 at the DI ranks. Saturday's hosts hold a 10-3 lead in Faifield and have won three-straight mathcups.  

SCOUTING THE PIONEERS
Fresh off a 74-70 road victory at defending NEC champ Fairleigh Dickinson, Sacred Heart enters this weekend's contest led by sophomore guard and the league's second-best scorer Quincy McKnight (18.9 ppg), who netted 44 points in the 112-110 triple OT win over Bryant on Jan. 14. Junior forward Joseph Lopez is averaging 12.7 points per game on an NEC-leading 57.8 percent from the floor to go along with a team-high 8.5 caroms per game. He also has eight double-doubles this season which are third-most in the conference. McKnight and Lopez are the only two players averaging double figures, as senior forward Matej Buovac nets 9.2, sophomore guard Sean Hoehn scores 8.0 and junior forward De'veon Barnett tallies 6.9 points per effort. As a unit, the Pioneers lead the NEC with 14.5 assists per game. But they struggle holding onto the ball, committing the most turnovers in the league at 16.0 per game.

CURRENT DAWGS vs. SACRED HEART
There are 12 current Bulldogs that have faced the Pioneers in their careers. The rookies were given 55 minutes of action to get acquainted with the Pioneers on Jan. 14 thanks to three overtimes, as freshman Adam Grant netted nine triples en route to 32 points. Classmate Ikenna Ndugba had a career-best 22 points in that game to go along with seven assists. Senior forward Dan Garvin had owned Sacred Heart in his first five meetings, averaging 15.2 points on a .536 clip from the floor, 10.6 boards and just under two blocks. Junior Bosko Kostur scored 16 points in the Jan. 14 loss to SHU and is averaging 11.8 points and 5.2 rebounds over five career games. Sophomore forward Marcel Pettway is averaging 9.3 points and 7.3 caroms in three meetings and freshman Sabastian Townes netted 11 points of the bench of Jan. 14. 

BRYANT vs. THE NORTHEAST CONFERENCE
The Bulldogs hold an overall record of 53-81 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 44-37 record over the last four seasons. The Black and Gold are 25-16 at home versus the NEC and 22-23 on the road since the start of 2012-13. All-time against current conference institutions, the Bulldog basketball program is 67-98.

LAST TIME OUT
The Bulldogs and Mountaineers traded blows in the first half in Thursday's ESPNU showcase. Bryant went into the locker with a one-point lead, but the Mount caught fire to start the second half, connecting on their first five shots to take a 10-point lead just three minutes in. The Bulldogs got no closer than three the rest of the way and lost, 77-70. Sophomore Nisre Zouzoua scored a game-high 25 points on six triples to go along with six boards. Freshman Adam Grant netted 15 points and pulled down six boards and junior Bosko Kostur tallied 11 points.   

JUST ZOO IT
Sophomore Nisre Zouzoua is in the midst of a superb sophomore campaign with an impressive 20.5 points per game to lead the league and sit 28th nationally, while hitting 2.70 triples per game, most in the NEC. He has scored 21 points or more in 14 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 16 times this season and is second on the team with 13.9 points per game to sit ninth 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).  

BRYANT FIVE ZERO
The 59-56 win over Robert Morris on Jan. 21 was just the eighth victory for the Bulldogs when scoring in the 50's (8-47) at the Division I level. Bryant won more than one game when scoring 50-59 points in just one season at the DI ranks, coming in the program's inaugural season as a DI school in 2008-09.

OT, OT IT'S ALWAYS MUCH FUN WHEN WE GO TO OT 
The Jan. 28 overtime win against the Fairleigh Dickinson 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.  

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 10 games. McHugh is averaging over 23.2 minutes per game since Jan. 5, has scored in seven of the last eight contests and has tallied at least two assists in all but one of the 10 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 1.3 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 10-straight games, has started each of those contests and scored in double figures in seven of the last 10. 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.   

ONE FOR THE AGES
The Bulldogs may have dropped the Jan. 14 battle against Sacred Heart, 112-110, in triple overtime, but they will forever be a part of one of the greatest games in program and Northeast Conference history. It not only marked the first triple OT game that Bryant has played in at the Division I level, but it was the first in the league since Feb. 6, 2010. The 222 combined points are the most for an NEC contest since Feb. 22, 2003 and the second-most all time. It was also the first time since Feb. 21, 2005 that two NEC teams scored at least 100 points in the same game and just the second time that Bryant had been involved in a game where both teams tallied triple-digit points.  

GOT THE SHOTS GOING IN ON A SATURDAY
Freshman Adam Grant was in can't miss mode from beyond the arc on Saturday, Jan. 14, and his counterpart from Sacred Heart, Quincy McKnight, was lights out from the floor. Grant drilled a Bryant single-game record nine threes, including three straight in the final minute to send the game into overtime. The nine makes are the most for an NEC rookie in the league's history and tied for the sixth-most all-time. The last time two players scored at least 30 points in the same NEC game was Feb. 5, 2015.

FOR THE FIRST TIME
The Bulldogs' 110 points against Sacred Heart on Jan. 14 are the most in the program's Division I history. It was just the third time Bryant scored at least 100 points in a game at the DI ranks and it was the most points for the program since 2005-06. Bryant also connected on 40 field goals, the first time it has done so at the DI level, and the 85 attempts from the floor were the most as a DI program.

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 6.7 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 begin the final three weeks of the regular season with a four-game homestand beginning with LIU Brooklyn on Thursday at 7:00 p.m.