Bulldogs open Brooklyn weekend with Thursday night game at LIU Brooklyn
BROOKLYN, N.Y. – The Bryant University men's basketball team opens a weekend trip to Brooklyn with a Thursday night game at LIU Brooklyn in the second of three straight games away from Smithfield.
THE PARTICULARS
Opponent: LIU Brooklyn
Game Time: Thursday, Jan. 18 – 7 p.m.
Watch Live: NEC Front Row
Live Stats: LIUAthletics.com
Game Notes: Bryant
SCOUTING THE BLACKBIRDS
LIU Brooklyn is 8-11 and 3-3 in the NEC after defeating Fairleigh Dickinson and Wagner by a combined seven points last weekend. Julian Batts' layup with two seconds remaining gave the Blackbirds a 69-67 win over the Seahawks Saturday.
Joel Hernandez (18.9 ppg) and Raiquan Clark (17.9) lead a Blackbird offense scoring 76.5 points per game. Zach Coleman has grabbed a team-high 7.6 rebounds per game, while Hernandez and Clark have added over six each per game.
THE SERIES
The Bulldogs are 6-10 against the Blackbirds in the Division I era but 5-3 in the last four seasons. LIU Brooklyn swept last year's season series despite a career-high 26 points from Bosko Kostur (Melbourne, Australia) in an 88-85 overtime defeat in Smithfield.
LAST TIME OUT: CENTRAL CONNECTICUT 80, BRYANT 76
Bryant trimmed a 14-point deficit to three in the closing minutes, but a career-high 26 points from sophomore Ikenna Ndugba (Boston, Mass.) were not enough in an 80-76 setback Saturday in New Britain.
MONTY PROVIDING A SPARK
Freshman Monty Urmilevicius (Kaunas, Lithuania) has given the Bulldogs a lift over his last four games, averaging 6.7 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. Urmilevicius recorded 10 points and eight rebounds in the game at Mount St. Mary's (1/4) and has started the last three games.
SOME GENERAL STATS ON GRANT
Sophomore Adam Grant (Franklin, Va.) has averaged 17.1 points per game on the year with seven 20-point games: Georgia (24, 11/10), NC State (24, 11/14), Yale (20, 11/29), Mount St. Mary's (29, 1/4), Sacred Heart (26, 1/6), Wagner (23, 1/11) and Central Connecticut (24, 1/13).
Grant hit nine three-pointers at Mount St. Mary's (1/4), tying his own Division I program record set last year against Sacred Heart. The 29-point performance came 10 years to the week after the first game of nine three-pointers by a Bulldog, as Peter Lambert drained nine threes against Merrimack Jan. 2, 2008, in Bryant's final Division II season.
The sophomore guard is the first NEC player with multiple games of nine or more three-pointers against conference competition since Mount St. Mary's Scott Murphy in 1991.
BOSKO GETS BUCKETS
Senior Bosko Kostur has been efficient from both inside and outside the arc this season. Kostur is shooting 47.8 percent on two-pointers and 42.4 percent from three in addition to 82.4 percent from the free-throw line.
Kostur has grabbed at least five rebounds in six of his last seven games including a career-high 10 against Saint Francis U (12/31). Kostur is averaging 5.7 rebounds per game in conference play.
WE LIKE IKE
Sophomore Ikenna Ndugba has raised his scoring average from 6.0 points per game as a freshman to 12.5 as a sophomore. Ndugba has two double-doubles on the year: a 16-point, 10-rebound outing at Hartford (11/24) and a 17-point, 11-assist performance at Memphis (12/9). Ndugba tallied 12 assists against Saint Francis U (12/31) - the most by a Bryant player since Shane McLaughlin's 12-assist night at LIU Brooklyn (2/27/16).
Ndugba passed Alex Francis for fourth in Bryant's Division I era in assists in the game at Albany (12/6) and now has 217 in his career.
NEXT UP: ST. FRANCIS BROOKLYN
Bryant closes out its weekend trip to Brooklyn with a Saturday afternoon game at St. Francis Brooklyn. The Bulldogs and Terriers will square off at 4 p.m. on NEC Front Row.
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