Bulldogs host Binghamton Saturday at 1p

BULLDOGS HOST BINGHAMTON IN HOMESTAND FINALE SATURDAY AT 1 P.M.

FULL GAME NOTES
Watch: NECFrontRow.com
Listen: WOON 1240AM or bryantbulldogs.com
Live Stats: bryantbulldogs.com
Follow along on Twitter: @BryantGameday 

THE PARTICULARS
Bryant searches for its fifth win in the last six outings Saturday, as the Bulldogs welcome America East opponent Binghamton University to the Chace Athletic Center for a 1:00 p.m. tipoff. Fans, don't forget to bring a new, unwrapped toy to Saturday's game! Bryant student-athletes and the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) will be helping to usher in the spirit of the season, as they do their part to give back with the annual Toys for Tots toy drive. Just drop your new, unwrapped toy in the collection box at the entrance of the Chace Athletic Center and help Bryant Athletics spread the holiday cheer.

THE SERIES
This is the third all-time meeting between these two programs, but the first at the Division I level and the first since the 2000-01 campaign. The teams played a home-and-home series that season, with the Bearcats visiting Smithfield on Nov. 19, 2000 and the Bulldogs returning the trip on Jan. 29, 2001. Bryant came out on top in both outings, taking a 61-50 win at home in the second game of the season before fighting to an 89-81 overtime victory in Vestal, N.Y., two months later.

SCOUTING THE BEARCATS
Binghamton has been off since Dec. 3, when the Bearcats suffered their third-straight loss at the hands of fellow NEC member Monmouth, 77-65, and enter Saturday's tilt with a 2-7 record. Binghamton is led by Jordan Reed ­— far and away the team's leading scorer at 18.7 points per game — who averages a double-double on the year with 10.3 boards per game and has a team-high six blocks as well. Jimmy Gray has dished out 38 helpers  and 13 steals to lead the side in both categories, adding a second-best 9.4 points per game. Gray and Rayner Moquete are the only players to start all nine contests for the Bearcats, who are shooting 39.7 percent from the floor with a 29.7 clip from 3-point land. Binghamton is outrebounding its opponents on the year, 334-321, but has seen its only wins of the year come in back-to-back games against St. Peter's (62-54) and Marywood (76-51) mid-November.

BRYANT vs. THE AMERICA EAST
This is the second of two contests against teams that call the America East home in 2012-13. The Bulldogs' prevailed in the first outing, a 76-64 win over the University of New Hampshire in the team's Nov. 17 home opener, and are now 1-2 against the league at the Division I level. Prior to this season's earlier matchup, Bryant hadn't taken on an America East opponent since 2008-09, its first year of Division I play, when the Bulldogs fell to Albany twice in a home-and-home series. All-time, Bryant is 3-2 against current members of the America East Conference, having beaten Saturday's opponent, Binghamton, twice during in the 2000-01 campaign.

50/50
For the second time this season, the Bulldogs finished Wednesday's contest shooting better than 50 percent as a unit. The team's 52.1 percent clip from the field was the second highest mark of the season despite the loss, and Bryant shot 50 percent or better in each half of the contest (.500 in the first, .542 in the second).

The first time the Bulldogs shot over 50 percent in a game was in the Nov. 17 home opener against the University of New Hampshire. Bryant never trailed in the 12-point win over the Wildcats, finishing the game at a .547 shooting clip – the first time a Bryant side has shot better than 50 percent in a game since Dec. 3, 2011 (.509 vs. Quinnipiac). The Black and Gold surpassed the 50 percent mark in each half of that outing, as well, marking the first time the Bulldogs had accomplished that feat since Jan. 20, 2011 against Fairleigh Dickinson (.519/.583).

HAPPY 100TH!
After scoring 22 and 19 points, respectively, against Yale Wednesday night, sophomore guard Dyami Starks and junior forward Alex Francis each eclipsed the 100-point mark in just the seventh game of the 2012-13 season. Starks enters Saturday's contest with 121 total points while Francis has scored 111 through the first seven outings.

A STARK CONTRAST
The Bulldogs have been a different team with the arrival of sophomore guard Dyami Starks. Starks leads the team in points per game (17.3), steals (8), field goals made (44), 3-pointers made (20), 3-point field goal percentage (.351) and free throw percentage (.813) in 2012-13, and the Columbia transfer averaged 19.8 points per game with a .492 shooting percentage over Bryant's recently snapped four-game winning streak. Starks's scoring average ranks fourth in the Northeast Conference while his 20 triples are tied for tops in the league. The Minnesota native has scored 20 or more points in three of the last four games, including a career-high 25 at Brown Nov. 21, and was awarded the program's first-ever Northeast Conference Player of the Week accolade on Nov. 26. Starks posted a game-high 22 points Wednesday night against Yale, and the guard — who sat out last season due to NCAA transfer rules — has started all seven contests and averages 35.4 minutes per game (8th most in the NEC). His 25-point performance against the Bears is the highest scoring output of any Bulldog this season.

STREAKING NO MORE
Bryant entered Wednesday's buzzerbeating loss to Yale riding a four-game winning streak, a stretch that tied the program's Division I record for consecutive victories. The only other time the Bulldogs won four in a row since making the jump to the DI ranks came in January 2011, when the team topped St. Francis Brooklyn (67-64), Quinnipiac (69-61), Sacred Heart (72-59) and Fairleigh Dickinson (74-71) from Jan. 8-20. Interestingly enough, this season's streak all came against opponents the Bulldogs had never previously beaten in the history of the program.

START ME UP
Despite adding the most depth the team has had in its short Division I tenure, the Bulldogs are still relying heavily on their starters in 2012-13. In Bryant's four wins this season, the five-man starting ranks of sophomore Dyami Starks, juniors Corey Maynard and Alex Francis and seniors Vlad Kondratyev and Frankie Dobbs have accounted for 241 of Bryant's 270 points, or 89.3 percent of the team's scoring. On the year as a whole, starters are responsible for 86.4 percent of all points scored (376 of the team's 435 points on the year), while Starks, Francis and Dobbs alone contribute 72.9 percent of Bryant's scoring.

TICKET TO RIDE
Single-game and season ticket packages are still available for the 2012-13 men's and women's basketball seasons. Fans can purchase tickets online at www.bryantbulldogs.com/tickets or by calling the Bryant Athletics Ticket Office at 401-519-TIXX.

CAN'T MAKE IT TO THE GAME?
Bryant University Athletics and the Northeast Conference have partnered with Pack Network to create NEC Front Row, the home for all NEC men's and women's basketball broadcasts in 2012-13. NEC Front Row brings viewers an industry-leading video streaming solution for more than 100 Bryant University home contests during the 2012-13 athletic seasons, including live, free-of-charge broadcasts of all 15 Bulldog home men's basketball games. Live event productions include multiple camera angles, an on-screen scoreboard and state-of-the-art graphics. Visit www.necfrontrow.com for more information and a schedule of events.

BRYANT HOOPS ON WOON RADIO
For the fifth-consecutive season, all Bryant University basketball home games and select road contests can be heard LIVE on WOON 1240 AM. Veteran sportscaster Jon Wallach of 98.5 FM The Sports Hub Boston returns to call the action as the voice of the Bulldogs, alongside color analyst Tristan Hobbes.

UP NEXT
The Bulldogs hit the highways and skyways for one of just two December road games Monday, taking on first-time opponent Navy in Annapolis, Md., at 7:00 p.m. Watch Monday's contest at navysports.com.