SEASON’S FIRST WINNING STREAK ON THE LINE AS BRYANT TRAVELS TO SACRED HEART SATURDAY (3:30 P.M.)

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SMITHFIELD, R.I. – The Bryant University men's basketball team returns to Connecticut for the second of back-to-back games against Constitution State rivals and will take on Northeast Conference opponent Sacred Heart Saturday in Fairfield, Conn. in search of the team's first winning streak of the season. Tipoff from the William H. Pitt Center is slated for 3:30 p.m.

THE SERIES
Bryant has faced off against the Pioneers more than any other team in the Northeast Conference other than Quinnipiac, as the two programs share their roots at the Division II level. A DII power until making the transition to Division I in 1999-00, Sacred Heart owns a 12-8 edge in the all-time series, with just four of those bouts coming at the DI level. The Pioneers have won all four of those Division I matchups, as the Bulldogs look to cut into that series edge with their first DI win over Sacred Heart Saturday afternoon.

SCOUTING THE PIONEERS
Shane Gibson paces a pair of Sacred Heart scorers who average double digits, posting 16.4 points per game (19.4 in conference) and shoots at a 41.5 percent clip on the season. Jerrell Thompson's 13.3 scoring average ranks second on the team while his 4.6 rebounds per outing, 52 assists and 30 steals lead the Pioneer side. Chris Evans shoots at a team-best .531 clip from the floor to average 8.7 points per contest, while Gibson and Louis Montes have each recorded a team-leading 10 blocks on the year. As a team, the Pioneers average 65.4 points per game but let opponents shoot at a 43.6 percent clip. Sacred Heart enters the game 2-3 in league play, having lost to Central Connecticut, 88-75, last time out.

BRYANT vs. THE NORTHEAST CONFERENCE
The Bulldogs enter Saturday competition having won back-to-back NEC contests and are 2-3 against their home league on the 2010-11 season. Bryant has gone 9-28 against current Northeast Conference members since joining the Division I ranks, with six of those wins coming in the program's inaugural DI season in 2008-09. All-time against current Northeast Conference members, the Bulldog basketball program is 37-82, having most frequently faced off against former Northeast-10 Conference (DII) member Quinnipiac (17-39).

COMMON DENOMINATOR
Outside Northeast Conference foes, Bryant and Sacred Heart have faced off against a pair of common opponents in Ivy Leaguers Brown and Yale this season. Both squads fell to the Bears — the Pioneers taking an 81-67 loss in December and the Bulldogs suffering an 84-71 setback on New Year's Eve — while Sacred Heart earned a 71-62 victory over Yale on Dec. 19. Bryant dropped a 75-53 decision to the Elis at home on Dec. 8.

CONNECTICUT CONNECTIONS
Fifth-year senior Cecil Gresham returns to his home state and is the only Bulldog on the roster from Connecticut. Gresham hails from Bloomfield while fellow senior Barry Latham attended high school at Marianapolis Prep in Thompson, Conn.

LAST TIME OUT
Down 23 points with less than four minutes to play in the first half, not one person outside the Bryant University locker room thought it would be possible. But with 1:38 left in regulation, senior Cecil Gresham nailed a 3-pointer from the right side to seal up one of the most dramatic come-from-behind victories in Bryant history, putting the Bulldogs up for good en route to a nearly unfathomable 69-61 comeback win over NEC preseason favorite Quinnipiac on the road at the TD Bank Sports Center. The win marks the first time Bryant has earned back-to-back victories since the 2008-09 season.

The visiting Bulldogs more than doubled up host Quinnipiac in second-half action, 54-25, led by 15 points from sophomore guard Frankie Dobbs and 14 from rookie Alex Francis, whose game-best 22 points came off 7-of-13 shooting from the field (5-7 in the second frame). But the game didn't start out that way.

Outmatched from the outset of the first half, the Bulldogs went the opening 13:36 without scoring a single basket, as bad luck coupled with poor shot selection and nine turnovers awarded Quinnipiac a 23-3 advantage. The Bulldogs scored just two points in the opening 10 minutes – three in the opening 13 – all from the charity stripe before registering their first bucket of the night, a trey from rookie Matt Lee out of the left corner, with 6:24 to play before the break. Bryant's scoring situation was exacerbated by the fact that Gresham, a top scoring threat, would be whistled for three fouls and play just nine minutes in the frame.

Bryant would score only two more baskets in the opening half – both coming from Francis – while going 8-for-13 from the free throw line to cut into the Bobcats' lead, but the visitors would enter the locker room down big at the half, 36-15.

But a whole new team emerged after the intermission. The visiting Black and Gold burst out of the break for the first six points of the half and used a 13-2 opening run to cut Quinnipiac's lead to 38-28 less than five minutes in.

Bryant wouldn't stop there. The Bulldogs were shooting at an alarming rate – a blistering 88.9 percent through the opening nine minutes – and a three-point play from Francis at the 12:52 mark cut the score to single digits for the first time, 44-36.

Buckets from senior Barry Latham and Francis brought it down to just three, 44-41, with 11:24 to play. And with 10:33 showing on the clock, Saturday's hero Corey Maynard closed the gap completely, draining a three from the right corner for a 46-44 Bulldog lead. The trey capped off a 31-8 run that stretched nearly the first 10 minutes of the half.

The visiting Bulldogs would maintain a slight edge, never more than four points, until the 4:22 mark, when a breakaway 3-pointer from James Johnson put the Bobcats back on top, 56-54. But a runner from Dobbs reknotted the game at 56-56 less than a minute later, sending the teams into the final two minutes with a tie score.

Neither side would find the net for more than 90 seconds as the clock ticked closer and closer to zero. As the tension mounted, Gresham took the ball, stepping up for one of his biggest shots of the season. And with 1:38 to play, the fifth-year season drilled the game-breaking three – his only bucket of the day – for a 59-56 lead that Bryant wouldn't relinquish. The Bulldogs went 10-of-12 down the stretch, forcing the Bobcats into four missed shots in the final 50 seconds to make the unbelievable 69-61 comeback final.

It was a result no one would have believed in an opening half that saw Bryant suffer through 18-2 and 23-6 deficits. The Bulldogs would shoot just 12 percent in the first session (3-for-25), but responded with 53.8 percent shooting in the final 20 minutes (14-of-26) to finish the day at 33.3 percent, besting Quinnipiac's 31.4 percent clip (24.1 percent in the second half). Francis led the Bulldogs with eight boards, while Ike Azotam posted the game's only double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds for the home side. 

COMEBACK KIDS
The Bulldogs overcame a 23-point deficit to score 54 second-half points — the most points recorded in a single half in the program's Division I era — to mount one of the most unlikely comebacks of the year Thursday night at the TD Bank Sports Center. Bryant shot 53.8 percent from the field in the second frame (14-of-26; 10-for-11 over the first 10 minutes) after shooting just 12 percent (3-for-25; 15 points) in the first for an astounding 69-61 come-from-behind victory over NEC preseason favorite Quinnipiac. The 54-point outpour marks just the third time in DI history the team has reached the 50-point mark in one frame, the other two times coming earlier this season in a 75-72 buzzerbeater win over Iona (53 points) and in the second half against Yale back on Jan. 2, 2009 in a 69-58 victory (50 points).

BULLDOGS EARN FIRST ROAD WIN OF SEASON
Bryant's 69-61 victory over Quinnipiac marked the team's first true road win of the 2010-11 campaign. The Bulldogs have won away from home this season, a 74-72 win over Iona, but the victory came on neutral ground at the season-opening World Vision Classic hosted by Cleveland State (Nov. 14). Bryant has two wins at home this season (vs. Oberlin and vs. St. Francis).

LOW BALL
The Bulldogs held the Bobcats to just 31.4 percent shooting in Thursday's thriller, the lowest shooting percentage allowed this season. Despite having a 36-15 lead at the half, Quinnipiac shot just 36.6 percent in the frame, and Bryant kept the home side to just 24.1 percent shooting in the second session. It was the second-straight game the Black and Gold outshot its opponent and the third time they have done so in the last four outings.

UP NEXT
Bryant returns to the Chace Athletic Center for a four-game homestand against NEC opponents for the next two weekends of action. The Bulldogs kick off the stretch with a 7 p.m. rematch against Fairleigh Dickinson on Thursday, Jan. 20.