BRYANT MEN LOOK TO GET FIRST-EVER WIN OVER ROBERT MORRIS THURSDAY NIGHT

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SMITHFIELD, R.I. -- The Bryant University men's basketball team looks to move above .500 in league play and tie the program's Division I record for wins over Northeast Conference opponents with a win over Robert Morris on the road Thursday night in Moon Township, Pa. (7:00 p.m.).

THE SERIES
Thursday's tilt will mark just the third meeting between the two programs, with the Colonials holding a  2-0 advantage in the all-time series. Robert Morris took a 79-42 victory on January 29, 2009 in the first-ever contest between the Bulldogs and the Colonials and used a late rally to escape with a 52-42 win over the Black and Gold last time the team visited the Chace Athletic Center (Feb. 13, 2010). In that outing, Bryant couldn't hold onto a four-point lead in the final 10 minutes, allowing Robert Morris to close out the game on a 17-3 run for the eventual victory, despite a game-high 15 points from Vlad Kondratyev. Raphael Jordan also chipped in 11 points in the game.

SCOUTING THE COLONIALS
Robert Morris enters the game in a five-way tie for fifth place in the Northeast Conference with a 5-5 league mark and has a 9-12 overall record on the 2010-11 season. Preseason all-conference selection Karon Abraham paces the Colonials with 15.3 points per game while shooting just a shade under 40 percent from the floor and from 3-point range. Russell Johnson and Velton Jones also average double-figure scoring, and Johnson adds a team-leading 7.6 rebounds per game to his 11.6 points per outing. Jones chips in 74 assists and a team-best 36 steals to complement 10.9 points per game, but it is Lijah Thompson who paces the team with a 53.6 percent accuracy from the field. Anthony Myers's 80 assists are a squad best and Johnson has contributed 12 of his team's 44 blocks on the year. As a team, the Colonials shot 39.6 percent from the field and 32.2 percent from long distance while averaging 64.6 points per game.

BRYANT vs. THE NORTHEAST CONFERENCE
The Bulldogs enter Thursday's contest having drawn even in conference action at 5-5 with a buzzerbeating 62-60 win over Mount St. Mary's at home last Saturday. Bryant looks for its sixth NEC victory of the season against RMU, a win that would tie it with the 2008-09 team for most wins against NEC opponents in a season. Since joining the Division I ranks, Bryant has gone 12-30 against current Northeast Conference members, with six of those wins coming in the program's inaugural DI season in 2008-09. All-time against current NEC members, the Bulldog basketball program is 40-84, having most frequently faced off against former Northeast-10 Conference (DII) member Quinnipiac (17-39).

COMMON DENOMINATOR
Outside Northeast Conference competition, Bryant and Robert Morris have faced off against a pair of common opponents in 2010-11. Both teams took on strong Kent State and Cleveland State sides, with both teams suffering the same outcome. The Colonials fell to Kent State, 62-59, on Nov. 16 and dropped a 58-53 decision to the Vikings on the road. The Bulldogs faced Cleveland State in its season opener (71-57 loss) and took on the Golden Flashes just a day later in Cleveland (90-49 loss).

LAST TIME OUT
With the game tied at 60-60 and 2.4 seconds showing on the clock, freshman Alex Francis took a pass from a grounded Frankie Dobbs at the top of the key and drove through the lane to score his career-high 25th point of the game, laying in a buzzerbeating finger roll that lifted the Bryant University men's basketball team past Mount St. Mary's, 62-60, in a Northeast Conference thriller Saturday at the Chace Athletic Center.

It was such a thriller, that Francis's layup was still mulling around the rim debating whether or not to fall in well after the buzzer had already sounded.

But when the ball finally did come down to earth through the net, the crowd inside the Chace Athletic Center erupted – Bryant had completed yet another seemingly impossible comeback. The win marked the second buzzerbeater victory for the Bulldogs (7-15, 5-5 NEC) this season and the fourth victory in the final seconds of a contest in the 2010-11 campaign.

Francis's game winner capped off a 14-2 run by the Bulldogs, who shot just 35.8 percent on the day, in the final five minutes of regulation, turning what seemed to be a sure Mount St. Mary's (7-16, 5-5) victory into the team's seventh win of the season.

Down by as many as 14 in the contest and 13 with 9:08 to play in the second half, the Bulldogs drew to within a single basket, 58-56, with just over two minutes remaining in the game. But when an errant 3-pointer from Raphael Jordan with almost no time left on the shot clock forced the Bulldogs to inbound from the baseline with just one second to catch and shoot, Francis was there to complete his second biggest play of the night. But it wasn't a basket that proved to be the turning point.

Taking the pass, Francis took a layup from the right side just in time, pulling down his own rebound when The Mount's Josh Castellanos got whistled for a hold, sending the frosh – who shoots just 54.3 percent from the line on the season – to the charity stripe.

Making the first, Francis's second attempt was too long, bouncing off the back of the rim and ricocheting out to the left, where senior Barry Latham battled to take control of the offensive board with 56 seconds remaining and a one-point deficit.

The rebound kept possession with Bryant, setting up Dobbs to dish the ball to Cecil Gresham with 35 seconds left, as the senior drained a 3-pointer to give the home side a two-point lead, 60-58, for the first time since the 10:55 mark of the first half. The Mountaineers raced back to tie up the score on a layup by Lamar Trice, giving Bryant the final possession with the shot clocked turned off.

Francis led the game both on the floor and on the boards, scoring a career-high and game-best 25 points – including 14 of the team's first 18 – while pulling in a game-high nine rebounds. The rookie went 10-for-13 (76.9 percent) from the floor on the day and added a career-high three steals. Gresham chipped in an impressive performance of his own with 21 points, nine boards and an 8-for-8 mark from the line. Julian Norfleet and Trice led Mount St. Mary's on the afternoon with 13 and 12 points, respectively, while the visitors shot 37.7 percent from the field.

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION
Bryant finished January action with a 5-4 record, marking not only the team's first winning month of the 2010-11 season, but the first winning month in the program's short Division I history.

FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING
The month of January also saw the Bulldogs take landmark wins over a pair of opponents. Bryant's 62-60 win over Mount St. Mary's to close out January action was the first time the Black and Gold have ever topped the Mount in the history of the two programs. Bryant also took its first win over Sacred Heart at the Division I level with a 72-59 road win on January 15.

MR. GAME WINNERS
Alex Francis's finger roll basket as time expired Saturday against Mount St. Mary's marked the second buzzerbeater win of the 2010-11 season for the Bulldogs and just the second buzzerbeater win in the program's three-year Division I history. Sophomore guard Raphael Jordan recorded the only other buzzerbeating shot back on Nov. 14, when he beat out the clock with a 3-pointer to lift the Bulldogs to a 74-72 victory over Iona. The shot marked the Bulldogs' first buzzerbeater win since joining the Division I ranks prior to the 2008-09 season. Francis's last-second game-winner was the sixth DI-era victory taken in the final seconds of a contest and was the fourth such win of the 2010-11 campaign.

UNDER PRESSURE: PART I
Of the Bulldogs' four victories taken in the final five seconds of a game this season, Alex Francis's game-winning drive through the lane was the only 2-point field goal used to get the win. Frankie Dobbs used 3-pointer against FDU with 2.4 seconds to play to get a 74-71 for the Bulldogs on Jan. 20. A Corey Maynard trifecta with 4.3 seconds remaining put the Bulldogs on top of St. Francis (NY) for good, 67-64, on Jan. 8. Sophomore Raphael Jordan scored from beyond the arc as time expired to earn Bryant its first buzzerbeater win in Division I history on Nov. 14 for a 74-72 victory over Iona (see Mr. Game Winners above).

The two other Bryant wins in a game's final seconds? Jordan sank a pair of free throws with 0.8 seconds left on the clock against Wagner for the team's only win of the 2009-10 campaign on Feb. 18, 2010, and the now-graduated Adam Parzych hit a layup with 2.1 seconds to play in a 57-55 victory over LIU on Jan. 24, 2009.

UNDER PRESSURE: PART II
And while three of Bryant's four last-second, game-winning shots this season have been 3-pointers from the hands of three different players (Raphael Jordan, Corey Maynard, Frankie Dobbs, see Part I above), the Bulldogs also used their signature shot — the 3-pointer — to force both overtime games of the 2010-11 season. The Black and Gold got a triple from Jordan to force the extra stanza on Jan. 22 and got a long ball from Cecil Gresham to prolong last Thursday night's contest against Wagner. Moral of the story? With the pressure on and a goal to achieve, the Bulldogs seem more than confident in their 3-point shooters and the team's ability to hit from long range — and rightly so.

UP NEXT
Bryant stays in the Keystone State for the next contest, traveling to Lorretto, Pa. for a Saturday afternoon game against Saint Francis (PA) before returning to New England for the start of NEC Rivalry Week.