BULLDOGS MAKE DRAMATIC COMEBACK BUT CAN’T OVERCOME IN THE FINAL MINUTE, FALL TO COLUMBIA, 76-72, SATURDAY

NEW YORK – Senior Cecil Gresham (Bloomfield, Conn.) drained his third 3-pointer of the game with one minute on the clock and gave the Bryant University men's basketball team its first lead of the contest, 68-67.

The trifecta capped off 19 minutes of slowly chipping away at a 13-point halftime deficit, one basket and one defensive stop at a time. But despite outscoring Columbia, 45-36, in second-half play – and 41-27 before the final minute – the Bulldogs' comeback would fall just short, sending the Lions to the line eight times in the final 30 seconds to ultimately suffer a 76-72 setback on the road at Levien Gym.

Bryant (1-8) shot an impressive 59.3 percent in the second half to make up for a less-than-stellar 28.1 percent clip in the opening frame, and held Columbia (6-4) to nearly half its first-frame shooting after the break, dropping the Lions from 62.5 percent to just 36 percent in the final 20 minutes.

Gresham and rookie Alex Francis (Harlem, N.Y.), who was playing in front of friends and family just blocks from his home, led the Bulldogs with 16 points apiece, while Frankie Dobbs (Berea, Ohio) kept his streak of nine-straight games in double figures intact with 14 points, all coming in the second session. Dobbs also dished out a career-high 10 assists on the night.

Freshman sharpshooter Matthew Lee (Bloomfield, N.J.) chipped in a career-high 11 points, while Francis's nine boards were a game high. Noruwa Agho paced the home side with a contest-best 20 points and was perfect from 3-point land (4-for-4).

A 9-for-32 shooting performance through the opening 20 minutes left Bryant in a 13-point hole at the halftime break, 40-27. But out of the intermission, the Bulldogs wouldn't make up any ground until the 12:43 mark, when Lee drained his third trifecta of the game to cut the Lions' lead to 52-42. Dobbs followed it up, draining his first three on the day with 11:42 on the clock to cut the home side's lead to single digits, 52-45.

It would take nearly two more minutes, but at the 9:51 mark, sophomore Raphael Jordan (Bel Air, Md.) would lay in a Dobbs pass and move within five for the first time, 54-49.

Columbia's lead would hover between four and nine points for the next 6:43, when Gresham – back in the game after taking his fourth foul less than five minutes into the second half – converted a layup into just a three-point deficit, 66-63, with 3:08 to go.

A Vlad Kondratyev (Nikolayev, Ukraine) score with 2:35 on the clock moved the margin to 67-65 in the home team's favor, but the scoring on both sides would then break until the shot that completed the Bulldogs' unlikely comeback – Gresham's trey as the clock hit 1:00.

But with his team's first deficit of the game, Steve Frankoski would respond on the next possession, dropping in his own 3-pointer to regain a two-point edge, 70-68. A missed jumper with 31 seconds left gave the ball back to Columbia with no shot clock, leaving the Bulldogs with no choice but to foul.

Agho would miss the first of two shots from the line, keeping Bryant within a single possession. But a huge block from Asenso Ampim gave the Lions back the ball with 12 seconds remaining.

Agho would again miss the front end of two freebies, and with 7.7 seconds to play, an Ampim foul on Dobbs as his shot fell through the hoop set the sophomore up for a three-point play – one which he converted – to bring the Bulldogs back to within one, 72-71. But Bryant wouldn't be able to get any closer, as Columbia went 4-for-4 from the line in the final seconds for the 76-72 victory.

The Lions got 20 points from the charity stripe on the day and outrebounded the Bulldogs, 36-30. Columbia would finish at a .490 clip from the floor, while the Black and Gold finished with one of their better shooting days of the season, at 42.4 percent. Bryant's 72 points was the second-highest total of the year (74 vs. Iona).

But the game didn't look as though it would be so close after the opening 20 minutes of play, as Columbia rushed out to an 11-3 lead in the first three minutes on the back of three-straight treys from Agho and Frankoski. But back-to-back Columbia turnovers directly forced by Dobbs led to five Bryant points, and the Bulldogs would cut the home side's lead to 13-10 with just over 13 minutes to play in the half.

A Gresham and-one play after the Bryant defense forced another Lions turnover brought the visiting Bulldogs to within a basket, 18-16, with 9:15 on the clock, but from there, things would fall apart.

Gresham, who was leading Bryant with nine points just halfway through the frame, took his third foul at the 7:11 mark and was forced to the bench, taking away a top scoring threat for the Black and Gold. The effect would be felt through the remainder of the half, as Bryant was outscored, 11-2, over the next 2:40 and 22-11 through the end of the first half.

Columbia outrebounded Bryant, 8-4, after Gresham's third whistle and would win the war on the glass, 20-14, through the opening 20 minutes. Bryant would win the battle on the offensive boards though, pulling down the only four of the frame.

The Bulldogs now enter their toughest stretch of the season, facing off against opponents from the ACC and the Big Ten before the holiday break, but not before taking a week off from competition. Bryant next tips off against Boston College on Sunday, Dec. 19 (3 p.m.) before heading to Ann Arbor, Mich. to take on the Wolverines on Dec. 23 (7 p.m.).