Posted: Dec 27, 2009

BULLDOGS TRAVEL TO INDIANA TO TAKE ON HOOSIERS MONDAY AT 9 P.M. (EST)

December 27, 2009

BULLDOGS TRAVEL TO INDIANA TO TAKE ON HOOSIERS MONDAY NIGHT (9 P.M. EST)

Does your TV service subscribe to the BIG TEN Network, if it does, WATCH MONDAY'S GAME LIVE!

SMITHFIELD, R.I. -- The Bryant University men's basketball team continues on its toughest four-game streak of the season, taking on perennial powerhouse Indiana University at Assembly Hall Monday night (9 p.m. EST). The game can be seen live on the Big Ten Network.

THE PARTICULARS
Bryant continues on its toughest four-game stretch of the 2009-10 season Monday night (Dec. 28) with a 9 p.m. (EST) battle with first-time opponent and Big Ten member Indiana University at Assembly Hall. The game is the third contest in a 14-day, four-game stretch spanning the new year which includes road games against Boston College, St. John's, the Hoosiers and Cornell. This is the first and only time the Bulldogs will play a Big Ten school this season and just the second time facing off against a member of the conference in program history.

THE SERIES
This will be the first meeting between the Bulldogs and the Hoosiers in the history of the two programs.

SCOUTING THE HOOSIERS
Indiana is led by freshman guard Maurice Creek, who averages 17.6 points per game and converts with 53.1 percent accuracy from the field (56-111) and at a .453 clip from long range (29-64). The rookie is good for 4.0 rebounds per gameas well, with a team-best 17 blocks so far this season. He is one of three Hoosiers who average double-figure scoring and is joined by Christian Watford (12.2 ppg), who pulls down a team-high 5.7 boards per outing, and Verdell Jones III (11.5 ppg), who has 31 assists and eight blocks on the year. Jeremiah Rivers consistently distributes the ball well and leads the side with 55 assists, and all four have started all 11 games for Tom Crean's Hoosiers in 2009-10. Watford's nine blocks paces Indiana while the team averages 73.5 points per contest and shoots 43.7 percent from the floor as a whole.

BRYANT vs. THE BIG TEN
Just once before have the Bulldogs taken on a Big Ten opponent, the meeting coming last season on the road against the Iowa Hawkeyes on December 5, 2008. No Bryant players recorded double-figure points in the low-scoring affair, as the Bulldogs fell, 61-37, at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Junior Barry Latham (Taunton, Mass.) was one of two Bulldogs to lead the team with eight points while senior Chris Birrell (Scituate, R.I.) dished out three assists and pulled down a trio of rebounds.

LAST TIME OUT
Despite making up a 12-point deficit early to tie the game at 14-14, the Bryant University men's basketball team was outmatched by a strong St. John's side, falling to the Red Storm, 80-44, Wednesday night at Carnesecca Arena in the team's final contest before the holiday break.

And while Bryant may not have gotten the win, one Bulldog had something to celebrate a few days early. When the front end of a pair of free throws fell in with 7:15 left to play in Wednesday's contest, senior captain Cecil Gresham (Bloomfield, Conn.) became the 31st 1,000-point scorer in Bryant men's basketball history. The guard and leading scorer needed just four points to reach the benchmark entering Wednesday's contest and achieved just that, finishing the game with a quartet of tallies.

The landmark achievement was the highlight of the contest for the Bulldogs, who shot 35.4 percent from the floor and 31.3 percent from long distance. Junior Michael Chroney (Nashua, N.H.) also pulled out some highlight reel plays, including a catch-and-shoot bank shot while being knocked to the paint in the middle of the second frame. The walk-on guard, who earned his third-career start Wednesday, posted eight points (4-8), dished out three assists and pulled down a game-best eight rebounds. Senior Adam Parzych (Lindenhurst, N.Y.) led the Bulldogs with nine points off 3-for-4 shooting from the floor in 25 minutes of action.

The Red Storm raced out to a 14-2 advantage in the game's first 3:44 before the Bulldogs played inspired ball to knot the score at 14-14 over the ensuing 2:39. Bryant went 4-for-4 during the 12-0 run, including going 2-for-2 from beyond the arc and adding a 2-for-2 mark from the line. The Bulldogs recorded two of their three first-half steals in that span and added a three of their seven assists.

But the Bulldogs' success woke up the St. John's offense, sparking a 9-0 run for the home side that would move the score to 23-14 with 10:07 to play in the opening frame.

Bryant would knock down just seven more points in the final 9:53 before the break while the Red Storm continued to shoot with consistency and accuracy, upping their lead to 43-21 and shooting at a .517 clip entering the halftime intermission.

Paris Horne's 15 points off 5-of-5 shooting from long range led the game after the opening 20 while six Bulldogs recorded at least three first-half points, none of them scoring more than four.

St. John's opened the second session with a trey from Dwight Hardy before the Bulldogs recorded their first basket of the half, a 3-pointer from Parzych off a Papa Lo (Thies, Senegal) dish 3:56 into the frame.

The home side soon upped its lead to 28 at the 12:49 mark, 54-26, with a layup from Sean Evans and would grow its advantage from there, eventually taking the 80-44 victory in front of the home crowd.

DJ Kennedy scored a game-high 18 points to lead three Red Storm players who finished with double-figure points. Justin Brownlee also pulled down eight rebounds to tie Chroney's game-best. St. John's shot 41.9 percent for the game after shooting 51.7 percent in the first half.

UP NEXT
The Bulldogs close out their toughest stretch of the season as they welcome in the new year with a January 2 road matchup against Cornell University (2 p.m.). The game will be Bryant's final non-conference bout of the 2009-10 season and is the fifth contest against an Ivy League opponent this year.

BABY GRAND
Four points was all senior captain and leading scorer Cecil Gresham needed against St. John's Wednesday night to become the 31st 1,000-point scorer in Bryant men's basketball history. And four points was exactly what he got. And with front end of a pair of free throws falling in for a point with 7:15 to play in the game, Gresham broke the career threshold he's been working toward for neary three-and-a-half years.

The senior guard currently sitting at exactly 1,000 career points and is No. 31 on the all-time scoring list, needing just 18 points more to move up to 30th. Gresham has appeared in just eight of the Bulldogs' 12 games this season due to injury but averages a team-best 14.5 points per game.

Gresham was the team's leading scorer and rebounder as a junior in 2008-09, and while his numbers last season were remarkable, this Bulldog has been at the top of the game for his entire Bryant career. Over his three years in Smithfield so far, Gresham has appeared in 98 games, starting in 77 and averages over 26 minutes per outing. He has racked up 391 rebounds, 30 blocks, 91 assists and 54 steals, but those numbers are nothing compared to the career benchmark he just achieved.

WINDOW WASHERS
The Bulldogs have spread the wealth on the glass this season, with a different player pacing the team on the boards in eight of the team's 12 games. Three times this season junior Michael Chroney has paced the Black and Gold on the glass, while seniors Cecil Gresham and Adam Parzych, and junior Barry Latham have each led the Bulldogs on the boards twice. Seniors Nick Pontes and Chris Birrell, sophomore Papa Lo and freshmen Claybrin McMath and Vlad Kondratyev have each led Bryant on the glass once.

And while Bryant has only outrebounded its opponent as a team twice (vs. Brown; at Army), the Bulldog who has paced the team each game has also posted or tied the game high in seven of the season's contests.

POINT TAKEN
And while Bryant has always spread it around on the glass, the Bulldogs are starting to do the same in the points scored category. Without senior Cecil Gresham, who has led Bryant in scoring six times this season, including last Sunday against Boston College, other players have stepped up to post strong offensive numbers. Juniors Barry Latham and Michael Chroney, seniors Chris Birrell and Adam Parzych, and freshmen Vlad Kondratyev and Raphael Jordan (twice) have each recorded team-best point production this season.

MIGHTY MIDWEST
A pair of Bulldog players and a member of the Bryant basketball staff hails from the midwest, though not from Indiana. Freshman walk-on Brent Abendroth (Toledo) and sophomore transfer Frankie Dobbs (Berea), as well as Director of Basketball Operations Pete Kahler (Athens), are all from Ohio and all will get a bit closer to home when the team travels to Bloomington, Ind. to take on the Hoosiers. Dobbs, who must sit out the 2009-10 season due to NCAA transfer rules, is a redshirt this season and will not be traveling.

TV STARS
The Bryant men make a trio of television appearances this season, two of them carried regionally. The Bulldogs will appear on Fox College Sports (FCS), Madison Square Garden TV (MSG) and Fox Sports Network-Pittsburgh, also appearing on the BIG TEN Network as well as ESPN Full Court. Bryant first appeared in living rooms when it traveled to Brooklyn, N.Y. on December 5 for a conference game against St. Francis (NY), where Fox College Sports and MSG carried the broadcast live. FSN-Pittsburgh, FCS and ESPN Full Court will be on hand at the Chace Athletic Center when the league opponents Bryant and Saint Francis (PA) meet on February 11, 2009 (7 p.m. start). Both games will be carried locally on Cox Sports-3 in Rhode Island and Eastern Connecticut. Bryant will also appear on the BIG-TEN Network for the second year in a row when the team travels to Indiana on Dec. 28 for a 9 pm (EST) game against the Hoosiers. Last year, Bryant made its debut on the BIG-10 Network when the Bulldogs took on the University of Iowa.