Starks scores 35 again, Bulldogs get 87-77 win over Dartmouth on road

HANOVER, N.H. – Junior sharpshooter Dyami Starks (Duluth, Minn.) tied his career high, scoring 35 points for the second-straight game to lead the Bryant University men's basketball team to its first victory of the season, 87-77, over Dartmouth on the road Wednesday night.

Senior guard Corey Maynard (Adelaide, Australia) added 18 points in the victory while senior Alex Francis (Harlem, N.Y.) and junior Joe O'Shea (Burlington, Vt.) also finished in double figures with 15 and 11 points, respectively. Francis paced the Bulldogs (1-1) on the glass with eight rebounds. Alex Mitola paced Dartmouth (1-1) with 15 points, but it was Gabas Maldunas who led the way for the Big Green, posting the game's only double-double with 14 points and a contest-best 11 boards.

The Bulldogs got just eight points outside their top four scorers and just six from outside the starting lineup, as the team's remaining points came from rookie Ellis Williams (Columbus, Ohio) (5 points), senior starter Claybrin McMath (Adelaide, Australia), who scored the first basket of the contest for his only points on the night, and freshman Justin Brickman (San Antonio, Texas), who chipped in a point in the game's final minutes.

Bryant shot better than 55 percent in both halves, with an impressive 61.9 percent mark in the second stanza to finish the day shooting at a 59.2 percent clip. Five of the team's six 3-pointers came from Starks, who finished 10-for-18 from the floor and 5-for-8 from long range while hitting 10-of-12 from the charity stripe. Maynard went 6-for-8 from the field with Francis missing just once in seven shots. As a team, the Black and Gold converted 23-of-28 from the free throw line (.821).

Dartmouth finished the night at 47.5 percent and a shade under 41 percent from long range, but went a dismal 10-for-22 from the line (.455), including a 2-for-8 mark from Maldunas.

The Bulldogs led by as many as 15 points in the opening frame, taking a 21-6 advantage with 12:44 to play when Starks scored the first three of his 11-straight points for the Black and Gold. That string of scores included three trifectas in total, but his points were answered each time by a long ball from the hosts, including back-to-back 3-pointers from Mitola, who paced Dartmouth at the half with nine points.

Starks would finish the frame with 19 to lead all scorers and pace the Bulldogs to 57.1 percent shooting in the stanza.

Bryant's early lead would come with the help of early Dartmouth turnovers, as five of the home side's seven first-half giveaways came in the opening eight minutes. But once the Big Green settled down, they quickly mounted a comeback, closing a 14-point gap down to just three, 26-23, in less than six minutes and backed by a 14-3 run.

Baskets by Starks, O'Shea and Maynard would push Bryant's lead back up to seven before the final whistle, as the Bulldogs held the slight edge on the glass after the first half, 15-14.

Out of the break, the Big Green held the temporary early momentum, closing Bryant's lead to 41-37 less than three minutes in, but after seven minutes of even back-and-forth play, the Bulldogs began to pull out ahead once more. The visitors built back up a double-digit margin by the nine-minute mark, and Bryant's lead would only go up from there, peaking at 21 points, 81-60, with 3:34 left on the clock.

The final minutes would see a late Dartmouth spurt against a lineup of younger Bryant players, closing the gap to 87-77 at the final buzzer.

The Bulldogs will look to carry their momentum into the next contest, Saturday night's home opener against the University of Vermont at 7 p.m.