BRYANT LOOKS FOR WIN OVER COLUMBIA SATURDAY ON ROAD (4 P.M.)

Game Notes

NEW YORK -- The Bryant University men's basketball team hits the road to unfriendly territory as the Bulldogs travel to New York City to take on Columbia Saturday afternoon for a 4 p.m. tipoff. This is the second of back-to-back games against Ivy League opponents for the Black and Gold, who hosted Yale Wednesday night, and the third of four contests against the Ancient Eight this season.

THE SERIES
The Bulldogs and the Lions have faced off twice in the history of the two programs, the matchups coming in each of the last two seasons. On Nov. 21, 2008, in just the second-ever Division I contest for the Bulldog basketball program, Bryant suffered a 70-54 setback in the first round of the Tyler Ugolyn Columbia Classic at Levien Gymnasium. Now-senior Cecil Gresham paced the visiting Black and Gold, using 7-of-16 shooting from the floor and 7-of-7 accuracy from the line to post a game-best 25 points in 36 minutes of action. Last season, Columbia made the return trip to the Chace Athletic Center on Dec. 12, 2009, upping its all-time series lead to 2-0 with a 69-57 topping of the Bulldogs at home. Just three current Bulldogs have ever faced off against the Lions, while only two have faced them twice. Seniors Barry Latham and Michael Chroney have been a part of each game in the series, each earning a start.

SCOUTING THE LIONS
Columbia is a perfect 4-0 at Levien Gym this season and come off a 77-71 win over fellow Northeast Conference member Wagner College Tuesday night. Junior Noruwa Agho paces the Lions with 15.7 points per game and adds another 5.1 on the boards all while dishing out a team-best 43 assists in nine games on the year. Sharpshooting freshman Steve Frankoski ranks 49th in the nation with a 46.4 percent conversion rate from 3-point range, hitting 26 of his 33 makes on the year from downtown and averaging 11.1 points per outing. Brian Barbour joins the pair in double digits, averaging 10.3 points per contest in a team-leading 33.2 minutes per game. Nine-game starter Brian Grimes leads the Lions on the glass, pulling down 6.6 boards per game with four blocks, and Asenso Ampim is just below him, collected 6.3 rebounds per outing. Columbia sits a game over .500 on the year at 5-4 and shoots 45 percent from the field while allowing opponents 74.6 points per game (45.8 percent shooting). The Lions have also dominated their competition on the glass, outrebounding their opponents by a 347-273 margin.

BRYANT vs. THE IVY LEAGUE
Bryant is 1-10 against the Ancient Eight in its short Division I history, having matched up against Columbia (0-2), Brown (0-2), Cornell (0-2) and Yale (1-2) each of the last two seasons. In the history of the program, the Bulldogs are just 1-16 against Ivy League opponents, most frequently matching up with intrastate rival Brown (0-8). Bryant earned its lone win over the conference on January 2, 2009 with a 69-58 topping of Yale at the Chace Athletic Center. Bryant has already taken on the Ivy League twice this season, suffering a pair of losses to Harvard (69-66) and Yale (75-53) at home. For his career, Cecil Gresham leads the Bryant ranks against Ancient Eight foes, averaging 13.3 points per game in eight contests. The Bulldogs will take on the conference once more following Saturday's game against Columbia (at Brown, 12/31).

LAST TIME OUT
Senior forward Cecil Gresham (Bloomfield, Conn.) scored a game-high 19 points on 6-for-12 shooting and a perfect 4-for-4 mark from the line, but it was not enough to hold off red-hot Yale, who came away with a 75-53 victory in non-league action Wednesday night.

Yale, behind 17 points from Reggie Willhite, shot 52.8 percent from the floor and converted on 9-of-19 from 3-point land in the win, as five different players connected from long range and three finished the night in double figures. Sophomore point guard Frankie Dobbs (Berea, Ohio) was the only other Bulldog to register double-digit points, with 13 on the night.

Bryant kept tight with the Elis on the scoreboard through the opening six minutes, never trailing by more than a single possession before taking a 13-12 edge after two made free throws from Gresham.

But from there, Yale would outscore the home side, 18-2, over the ensuing eight minutes to double up the Black and Gold, 30-15, with 6:01 to play. A long jumper from Gresham would be the only score for the Bulldogs in the stretch, and the senior sharpshooter would end the half with a team-best nine points. The Elis would extend that run for the remainder of the session to close out the frame on a 23-9 run that saw the visitors go 6-for-12 from downtown en route to a 37-23 halftime lead.

The Bulldogs would work hard to get the first basket out of the intermission, points that came when Gresham threw himself into the lane and grabbed a ball that had already seemingly sailed past his reach for a big offensive rebound and subsequent layup in traffic at the 19:02 mark.

That momentum wouldn't stick around for long, though, as Yale extended its lead to 19 after Jeremiah Kreisberg converted a three-point play that sent Bryant bigman Vlad Kondratyev (Nikolayev, Ukraine) to the bench with his fourth foul.

A deep trey from Corey Maynard (Adelaide, Australia) followed by an Elis turnover cut Yale's lead to 52-36, and minutes later a sharp pass from Raphael Jordan (Bel Air, Md.) from deep in the defensive corner found its target in Dobbs streaking down the sideline. The pass sprung the sophomore shooter for a breakaway layup to cut the home side's deficit to 55-42 with just under nine minutes to play.

But time would run out on the Bulldogs, who again struggled to keep their opponent under 50 percent shooting for a 75-53 final setback. The Elis would run out the final five-and-a-half minutes on a 14-5 stretch, punctuated by a Willhite dunk and back-to-back 3-pointers from Austin Morgan and Porter Braswell, before Dobbs drained a three from straightaway center to close the contest's scoring.

The Bulldogs shot just 30.5 percent on the night but gave up six less turnovers than their opponents, 18-12. Gresham's five rebounds paced the home team, who was outperformed on the glass by a 45-30 margin. Greg Mangano (11 points) grabbed a game-best seven boards.

UP NEXT
The Black and Gold stay on the highways and skyways and continue on their current three-game road trip before breaking for the holiday. The Bulldogs will next head to nearby Chestnut Hill, Mass. for a date with the Eagles of Boston College — the team's only ACC matchup of the year — on Sunday, December 19 (3:00 p.m.) before ending their pre-Christmas schedule on December 23, when Bryant faces off against its toughest opponent of the season in the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (7:00 p.m.).