BULLDOGS LOOK FOR REVENGE TUESDAY NIGHT; HOST NJIT AT THE CHACE CENTER
February 16, 2009
BULLDOGS LOOK FOR REVENGE TUESDAY NIGHT; HOST NJIT AT THE CHACE CENTER
UPDATE
Bryant looks to get back in the win column Tuesday
evening as the Bulldogs host New Jersey Institute of Technology at
the Chace Athletic Center. Tip is at 7 p.m. The Bulldogs will be
looking to avenge a 61-51 loss to the Highlanders back on Jan. 21
in Newark, NJ. This will be the fourth meeting between both
schools. Bryant won the first two meetings, 85-47 and 78-39 in
2004. Bryant is coming off a pair of losses last week to
future NEC foes Wagner (60-72) and Central Connecticut (65-61) to
fall to 3-6 at home. The last time they met, Sophomore guard Jheryl
Wilson scored a career-high 26 points - 20 of which came in the
first half, to lead NJIT to a 61-51 win over the Bulldogs in
Newark, NJ last month. Peter Lambert paced Bryant with 21
points on 6-of-10 shooting from three-point range as the Bulldogs
shot just 34 percent from the floor in the game. Since the loss,
Bryant won four of the next seven contests. Last time out, Jerrann
Wright had a big game scoring 11 points and grabbing eight
rebounds, six on the offensive end, as he eclipsed the 800-point
mark for his career in a loss to Central Connecticut. Leading
scorer Cecil Gresham paced Bryant with 15 points, 14 in the first
half, while Chris Birrell added 14 points and 4 steals.
NEW JERSEY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY HIGHLANDERS
NJIT comes into Tuesday night's game riding a six-game
losing streak following losses to Utah Valley State (61-40) and
Chicago State (84-68) last weekend at home. The Highlanders
are just 1-57 in their last 58 games including an 0-29 mark in
2007. In the Highlanders last outing against Chicago State, Jehryl
Wilson scored a game-high 26 points and grabbed seven rebounds
while Isaiah Wilkerson added 12 points in the loss. NJIT shot
42 percent from the floor and turned the ball over 16 times
resulting in 26 points for Chicago State. Wilkerson leads the
team with 13.9 ppg scoring average while Wilson and Gary Garris are
next with 11.1 ppg scoring average as NJIT comes into today's game
averaging just 49 points per game and allowing 65. The Highlanders
are currently in its third year of reclassifying to Division I in
2008-09. In July, the school announced that it is joining the
Great West Conference for all sports beginning in 2009-10.
Originally a football only conference, the Great West is expanding
into an all-sports league starting next year. Members include
Texas-Pan American, Utah Valley State, Houston Baptist, North
Dakota, South Dakota and NJIT. The six-team conference will not be
eligible for automatic Division I postseason qualification.
BLUE DEVILS KNOCK-OFF BULLDOGS
Ken Horton scored a game-high 23 points while grabbing
eight rebounds to lead Central Connecticut past Bryant, 65-61, at
the Chace Center Saturday afternoon. Senior guard Pete Lambert hit
three threes in the game and had a shot to tie the game with 20
seconds left from the right-wing, but came up just short. Cecil
Gresham led the way for Bryant with 15 points, while Chris Birrell
had 14 points to compliment his four assists and four steals. The
Bulldogs trailed for much of the first half, taking their first
lead on a Gresham three with just over 10 seconds left, but a
Horton three at the buzzer tied the game at the break. Bryant led
by as many as four, and came as close as one in the final two
minutes after a Jerran Wright put-back, but could not quite gain an
edge. Wright had 11 points and eight rebounds for the game.
BRYANT AND NJIT
This will be the fourth all-time meeting between the two
programs with Bryant holding a 2-1 edge in the series after NJIT
grabbed a, 61-51, win earlier this season in Newark. Jehryl Wilson
led all scorers with 26 points in the game, 20 in the first half
while connecting on four threes. Peter Lambert hit six threes for
Bryant to score a team-high 21 points.
SINCE THEY LAST MET
The Highlanders have dropped six-straight since beating
the Bulldogs back on Jan. 21, losing by an average of 16.2 points
per game. On the other hand, Bryant has gone 4-3 since its, 61-51,
loss in Newark, including winning three-straight road games in a
stretch from Jan. 31 until Feb. 7, and have been scoring at a pace
of 63.6 points per game. The Bulldogs were 3-15 prior to facing
NJIT, averaging just 54.3 points per contest.
ON SECOND THOUGHT
The Bulldogs have proven to be a second half team this
season, averaging 7.1 points more per game in the second half than
the first half this season, scoring 31.9 points while shooting 41
percent from the floor and 34.5 percent from three point land. In
the first half, Bryant has had its struggles, shooting at a clip of
37.1 percent from the floor and just 31.5 percent from behind the
arc while averaging 24.8 points. The Bulldogs have gone into the
locker room with double-digit deficits 16 times this season. Bryant
has also minimized the rebounding differential in the second half,
going from a -5 differential in the first half to -2.6 in the
second half. Bryant has outscored or tied its opponents in nine of
the last 13 games in the second half, including beating Yale 50-24,
Cornell 28-26, Sacred Heart 41-32, Fairleigh Dickinson 31-19, NJIT
36-30, Saint Francis (PA) 45-30, Monmouth 42-37 and Quinnipiac
40-35, while tying Brown 31-31. The Bulldogs have only been
outscored by five-points (398-393) in the second half against
Northeast Conference opponents, but were beaten, 32-28, in the
second frame last time out against CCSU.
BRYANT VS THE NEC
The Bulldogs, who will become full members of the
Northeast Conference in the 2012-2013 season, have posted a 6-6
record against NEC opponents. The squad has defeated
Quinnipiac twice (59-50 and 72-68), Fairleigh Dickinson (56-43),
Long Island (57-55), Saint Francis, Pa. (65-60) and Monmouth
(83-71), while falling to Mount St. Mary's (68-44), Sacred Heart
(73-64), Long Island (76-61), Robert Morris (72-47), Wagner (72-60)
and Central Connecticut (65-61). The team has averaged 60.8 points
per game, shooting 41.4 percent from the floor against the
conference. Against non-NEC opponents, Bryant has allowed 69.9
points and 46.9 percent shooting while scoring 53.2 points on 37.1
percent from the floor.
ROAD WARRIORS
Prior to the loss to Wagner, the Bulldogs went on a
three-game road winning streak, all coming against NEC opponents.
During the three-game stretch, the Bulldogs averaged 73.3 points
per game while grabbing victories over Saint Francis (PA), Monmouth
and Quinnipiac. The team shot 48 percent from the floor and 40.9
percent from downtown in that period. Four different players
averaged double figures, with Adam Parzych leading the way scoring
19 points per game off the bench, followed by Cecil Gresham with 14
points, Pete Lambert with 13.7 and Nick Pontes with 13. Three
different players led the team in scoring in each of the three
wins, as Lambert scored 22 against Saint Francis (PA), Gresham had
27 against Monmouth and Pontes put in 21 against Quinnipiac. Bryant
is 3-3 on the road against Northeast Conference opponents this
season.
LONG RANGE LAMBERT
Senior guard Pete Lambert (Cumberland, R.I. / Cumberland)
has made 52 threes this season, putting him second on the team
while attempting a team-high 156 on the year, good for 33.3 percent
shooting. Lambert has hit six three's on three different occasions
this year, going 6-for-8 against Long Island, 6-for-10 against NJIT
and 6-for-17 against Saint Francis, PA. The 17 three-point attempts
were the second most ever by a Bulldog in a single game. The senior
was 12-for-21 from downtown in a three-game stretch in January,
scoring 16 against Yale, 18 versus LIU and 11 at Brown. He
has hit for 20+ points two times, putting in 21 against NJIT and 22
at Saint Francis while leading the team in scoring on four
different occasions. He currently ranks seventh all-time at Bryant
with 116 career made three point field goals, and has taken 349 or
his 381 total field goal attempts from behind the arc, accounting
for 91.6 % of his shots.
THREE'S COMPANY
The Bulldogs have attempted 562 three pointers this
season, which would rank them second among teams in the Northeast
Conference behind St. Francis (NY) who has put up 607. Bryant has
shown itself to be an outside shooting team over the past six
seasons, including taking 662 shots from behind the arc last
season, with the all-time record coming back in the 2005-2006
season when the team rifled 756 shots from three point land. Three
different players on this year's team have had more than half of
their field goal attempts come from downtown in Cecil Gresham (146
of 287), Pete Lambert (156 of 169) and Chris Birrell (101 of 144).
The Bulldogs have connected on 185 three's, shooting 32.9 percent
overall on the season.
HOME SWEET HOME
Bryant has shot 41.2 percent from the floor and 33.3
percent from behind the arc in its nine home games this season,
posting a 3-6 record, compared to a field goal percentage of 37.4
percent and 32 percent three-point shooting on the road. The
Bulldogs have also done a better job on the boards at home, getting
outrebounded 33.3 to 29.8 at home while the margin climbs to 37.8
to 28.3 on the road. Overall, the team has been outscored 70.7 to
55.4 on the road but just 63.3 to 58.7 at home.
RISING UP THE CHARTS
Cecil Gresham moved up to fifth all-time in career made
three-pointers after hitting three from downtown last time out
against Wagner, giving him 121 for his career, passing Jon Wallace.
Pete Lambert moved up to seventh all-time after hitting six against
Saint Francis (PA) on Jan. 31. He has 116 for his career and trails
Wallace by three for sixth all-time.
ON PAR
Sophomore guard Adam Parzych (Lindenhurst, N.Y. /
Lindenhurst) has been a big reason for the Bulldogs' recent
success. He recorded career-highs in points in three of his last
seven games, scoring 12 points against LIU followed by a 17 point
performance against Saint Francis (PA) and registering 21 at
Monmouth. He scored 19 points in a win at Quinnipiac, with 17
coming in the second half. Parzych scored 17 points, all
coming in the first half including 14-straight to start the game in
a home loss to Wagner. The Bulldogs are 4-4 when Parzych plays 20+
minutes, with the four losses coming at Boston College, at Robert
Morris, versus Wagner and versus Central Connecticut. He has done a
great job going to the hoop, attempting 38 free-throws over the
last five games, converting on 31 (.818 free-throw percentage).
Parzych is averaging a team-best 14.4 points per game to go along
with 2.3 rebounds over the last seven games.
UP NEXT
The Bulldogs will host St. Francis (NY) Thursday in the final home
game of the season. The Bulldogs senior class of Jerrann Wright,
Peter Lambert, Andrew Lyell and Ryan McLean will be honored
prior to the tip.