Bryant hosts MSM in Saturday finale (4p)

BULLDOGS HOST MOUNT ST. MARY'S SATURDAY IN 2011-12 FINALE (4 P.M.) 

FULL GAME NOTES
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SMITHFIELD, R.I. -- The Bryant University men's basketball team hosts Mount St. Mary's University Saturday afternoon at the Chace Athletic Center in the 2011-12 season finale. Saturday's game is the second half of a men's/women's Northeast Conference doubleheader, and the men will tipoff at 4:00 p.m. in search of a season-ending win for the first time in the program's four-year Division I history.

THE SERIES
Mount St. Mary's leads the all-time series, 3-1, having won this season's first meeting, 64-60, at Knott Arena in Emmitsburg, Md., on January 14. The Bulldogs have the edge in the teams' only previous tilt in Smithfield, though, as Bryant topped the Mount with an Alex Francis buzzerbeater, 62-60, back on January 29, 2011 at the Chace Athletic Center.

SCOUTING THE SEASHAWKS
Julian Norfleet paces the Mount St. Mary's offense, scoring 13.8 points per game off 40.3 percent shooting from the field while chipping in 4.1 rebounds per outing. Lamar Trice, the team's only other scorer to average double figures, chips in 10.0 points per game while 28-game starter Danny Thompson leads the Mount on defense, pulling in a team-best seven boards each time out and boasting 38 blocks on the year while also adding in 7.9 points per contest. Mount St. Mary's top shooter, Raven Barber, hits at a 57.8 percent clip (93-161) and sits third on the team's scoring ranks at 9.3 points per outing. Josh Castellanos has dished out a team-leading 123 assists with 8.1 points per game while Kelvin Parker (8.8 ppg, 4.4 rpg) is the team's steals leader with 34. As a unit, the 7-21 Mountaineers average 59.9 points per game and shoot 42.3 percent from the floor with a 31.7 mark from long range.

BRYANT vs. THE NORTHEAST CONFERENCE
The Bulldogs enter the 2011-12 season finale with a 15-52 record against current Northeast Conference members since joining the Division I ranks. All-time against current conference members, the Bulldog basketball program is 43-106 (.289), having most frequently faced off against former Northeast-10 Conference (DII) member Quinnipiac (18-41). Bryant is 1-16 this season against the NEC, having earned its only league win January 7 against Saint Francis (PA), 59-56.

LAST TIME AGAINST MOUNT ST. MARY'S (January 14, 2012)
Junior Raphael Jordan scored a game-high 17 points off 7-of-8 shooting to lead three Bulldogs in double figures, but Mount St. Mary's shot 54.2 percent in the second half to outscore the Bryant University men's basketball team in the final 20 minutes and escape with a 64-60 win at Knott Arena.

Jordan scored 14 of his 17 points in the second frame, while sophomore Alex Francis and junior Frankie Dobbs also chipped in double-digit point figures for the Bulldogs, with 16 and 12, respectively. The visitors took a 31-30 lead into the halftime break but were outscored in the second frame, 34-29. Mount St. Mary's was paced by 26 points from Julian Norfleet and also saw three record double-digit points.

The Bulldogs got the quick start out of the gate, taking a 7-2 lead in the opening three minutes. Bryant would stay out ahead of its host all frame long, but the half wouldn't be without snags for the Black and Gold. A steal at midcourt from Francis led to a breakaway dunk the other way, the sophomore's second-straight jam, spotting the Bulldogs a 15-11 edge with 13:53 to play in the opening stanza.

The visitors would grow that lead to a game-high 10 points, 29-19, as the clock ticked down to the 6:51 mark, but Bryant would score just once more in the remainder of the frame – a floater in the paint from junior guard Dan Calandrillo with 4:16 to play – opening up the opportunity for Mount St. Mary's to get right back in the game before the intermission.

And using an 11-2 run over the final seven minutes, that is exactly what the Mountaineers did. Four different Mount St. Mary's players scored in the stretch, including five-straight points from Norfleet, as the Bulldogs went 0-5 from the floor – with four of those takes coming from 3-point land – to take just a 31-30 edge into the locker room at the break.

The Bulldogs shot 48.1 percent in the first half, paced by 12 points from Francis, who started the game a perfect 5-for-5 from the floor and recorded 10 of team's first 19 points. Norfleet collected 10 points to pace the home side, who outrebounded the Black and Gold by a 20-12 margin in the frame.

But the Mount would continue its run out of the intermission, scoring the first points of the frame to take the home side's first lead of the contest, 32-31. Before the Bulldogs scored again, Mount St. Mary's run would extend to 16-2 and span both halves for a 35-31 edge with 18:41 left to play.

And after making just one of 10 long ball attempts in the first half, the Mountaineers could hardly miss from 3-point range to open the second, going 3-for-6 from beyond the arc over the first four minutes. Jordan would pull the Bulldogs back within three, 41-38, at the 16:04 mark, scoring seven-straight points for the visitors, and from there, no team would lead by more than five points, as the sides battled back and forth deep into the game's waning seconds.

But entering the final minute, Mount St. Mary's held the edge, a two-point, 60-58 lead, one that Josh Castellanos upped to four points when he banked home a jumper two seconds later. Francis had a chance to cut the game to two at the free throw line with 48 seconds left, but the sophomore couldn't find net, and the Bulldogs were forced to send the Mountaineers to the free throw line, where they went 2-for-4 down the stretch. Rookie Ben Altit would get a layup with 13 seconds remaining, but it was too little for the Bulldogs, who would fall in a 64-60 final.

Bryant shot 46.3 percent from the floor in the contest but struggled from the free throw line, going just 4-of-11 on the afternoon. Mount St. Mary's finished the day 48.1 percent from the field and outrebounded the Bulldogs, 37-26.

QUICK HITS
>> Push to 500: After a 21-point performance Thursday night against Wagner College, sophomore forward Alex Francis needs just 11 points to hit the 500-point mark on the 2011-12 season. If he acheives the mark today, he would be the first Bulldog to score 500 points in a single season since John Williams did so back in 2005-06 (628 points in 31 games). Francis is also nearing a pair of major career benchmarks, as the second-year Bulldog now sits just 68 points from 1,000 on his career and 49 rebounds from the 500-career mark.

>> New Heights: Junior guards Dan Caladrillo (13 points) set a new career mark while Erick Smith (9 points) matched his personal best Thursday against Wagner.

>> From Perfect to Perfectly Off: After starting Thursday's game a perfect 4-for-4 from 3-point land, the Bulldogs were hard-pressed to find their stroke from long range for the remainder of the game, going just 1-for-9 over the game's final 35 minutes to finish the day with a 5-of-13 mark from beyond the arc.

>> Lead Lines: Thursday night against the Seahawks, Bryant took an 11-point lead with 10:11 to play in the first half, marking just the fourth double-digit lead for the Black and Gold all season long. The Bulldogs worked up their largest lead of the season Jan. 23 against intrastate and Ivy League rival Brown despite a 67-60 loss, leading the Bears by 13 midway through the opening frame. Bryant's other double-figure advantages came Nov. 22 against Army and Jan. 14 against Mount St. Mary's. The Bulldogs led the Black Knights by 11 with five minutes to play in the first, but eventually fell, 69-65, and the team had a 10-point edge on the Mount with seven to play in the opening stanza on the road Jan. 14 before dropping a heartbreaking 64-60 decision.

>> Half-Hearted: Bryant took a 42-40 advantage over Wagner into the locker room at the break Thursday night at the Chace Athletic Center, marking only the fifth halftime lead for the Black and Gold all season long. The Bulldogs earned their largest halftime lead at home on Jan. 7, outscoring Saint Francis (PA), 25-19, in the first frame, and the Bulldogs were also favored on the scoreboard after the first 20 minutes against Providence College (30-29), Army (36-31) and in the first game of the year against Mount St. Mary's (31-30). Bryant is 1-4 in contests where it is on top at the intermission in 2011-12.

>> 50 not so nifty for the Bulldogs... Bryant has shot 50 percent or better in a half eight times this season, including in the opening frame of Thursday night's game against Wagner, but the Bulldogs have finished a game shooting 50 percent or better just twice — a 56.5 percent shooting performance against Southern Utah Nov. 13 and a 50.9 percent outing against Quinnipiac in league play Dec. 3. Both resulted in Bryant losses.

>> Number to Beat: Bryant is allowing opponents to average 75.5 points per game this season, the highest average in the program's four years of Division I competition. So far in 2011-12, the Bulldogs have held their opponents under 70 points just nine times while scoring 70 points or more themselves on seven occasions, including the last time out against the Seahaks. Both of Bryant's wins have come when keeping its competition to 69 points or less (2-7), but the Black and Gold are just 1-6 when topping 70 points themselves.

>> Smooth Smith: Junior Erick Smith has earned consecutive starts in the last seven contests — the first seven starts of his career — but he has been particularly strong in the Bulldogs' last three outings, setting new career marks seemingly every time he steps on the court. Feb. 16 on the road against Robert Morris, Smith set new personal marks in rebounds (4), assists (2) and minutes (34), while last Saturday against Saint Francis (PA), the guard refreshed his career assist number with a trio of dishes while seeing 31 minutes of floor time with a steal and seven points. Thursday night against Wagner, Smith tied his career point total (9) while setting new personal bests in field goals made (4) and minutes (35).

>> Seeing Double: Alex Francis has registered double-digit points in 28-of-29 games this season, the lone exception coming in a six-point performance against Robert Morris back on January 6. Last Saturday, in the Bulldogs' road finale against Saint Francis (PA), the sophomore's 17-point performance marked the 50th double-figure point game of his young career, and in 59 games donning the Black and Gold, the sophomore has scored less than 10 points just eight times.

20'S PLENTY
For the first time this season, a pair of Bulldogs recorded 20-point outings in the same game Thursday night against Wagner. Both sophomore Alex Francis and junior Frankie Dobbs hit the mark, with Francis's 21 marking a team high followed by Dobbs's 20 points.

The performances up Bryant's season total to 16 on the year, all of them coming from just four sources. Dobbs, who has five 20-point outings in 2011-12 and eight on his career, has collected four of those efforts since Jan. 26, including scoring a career-high 26 points at St. Francis (NY) Feb. 4. Francis has a team-leading eight 20-point games so far this year with 14 in his young career. Francis also owns Bryant's top scoring game of the season with his 30-point performance against Quinnipiac Jan. 21.

The other three 20-point outings? Junior Raphael Jordan scored a career-high and game-best 21 points Jan. 5 against Robert Morris, and sophomore sharpshooter Corey Maynard recorded a pair — a 21-point game at Army Nov. 22 followed by a game-high and career-best 22-point showing Dec. 22 against the University of Arizona.

LET'S BE FRANK
Junior guard Frankie Dobbs has had the team's hottest hand as of late, having scored 152 points over the last nine contests to average 16.9 points per game since Jan. 26. In the final third of the 2011-12 season, Dobbs has posted a quartet of 20-point outings, 24 trifectas and is shooting an impressive 90.6 percent (48-53) from the free throw line. His 26 points Feb. 4 against St. Francis (NY) marked a new career high for the point guard, who is the only Bulldog to have started all 29 games this year.

FREE AND EASY
Alex Francis took nearly 200 trips to the free throw line as a rookie in 2010-11, among the most fouled players in the Northeast Conference. But the forward converted on just 52 percent of those opportunities (103-198). In 2011-12, though, the now-sophomore has improved significantly from the charity stripe, posting a .669 shooting percentage from the free throw line while accounting for 37.4 percent of the team's points from the stripe. After going 11-for-12 from the stripe Thursday night against the Seahawks, junior Frankie Dobbs accounts for 34.2 percent of Bryant's points from the line as the team's top performer, converting at a rate of 81.7 percent (107-131), good for sixth in the league rankings.