Bulldogs pull off victory over Lehigh in final seconds, 70-68

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – For the second time in two meetings, the Bryant University men's basketball team earned a victory over Lehigh in the game's final seconds, as senior forward Alex Francis (Harlem, N.Y.) deposited a second-chance layup through the netting with 2.1 seconds to play to vault the Bulldogs over the Mountain Hawks, 70-68, Monday night at the Chace Athletic Center.

With 69 seconds left and Bryant (8-7) trailing by one, senior point guard Corey Maynard (Adelaide, Australia) made a strong drive to the hole and created his own shot, putting the Bulldogs up by one, 67-66. A Lehigh (7-6) miss put the ball back in the hands of the Bulldogs, giving the hosts the chance to gain some breathing room and whittle away at the clock.

With 30 ticks to go, Francis would do just that, hitting one of two from the line for a two-point, 68-66 advantage. Twelve seconds later, Tim Kempton would tie the game at 68-68 after pulling in a big offensive board.

Maynard would miss on a layup attempt with three seconds showing on the clock, but when Mountain Hawk Jesse Chuku's attempt to save the ball put it right into Francis's waiting arms, the senior put home an easy lay-in with 2.1 seconds remaining.

A deep three from Lehigh's Mackey McKnight would fall just inches short of playing spoiler at the buzzer, clanking off the front of the rim as the clock expired.

Francis would finish the game with a contest-high 20 points and side-best seven rebounds, while Maynard added 19 and junior guard Dyami Starks (Duluth, Minn.) chipped in 18 more. Maynard added four assists and six boards to his 9-for-17 performance, as the Bulldogs shot 43.3 percent from the floor as a unit.

Lehigh was paced by 17 points from Kempton and saw four finish in double figures. Kempton pulled in a contest-best 13 rebounds as the Mountain Hawks won the battle on the glass, 39-35. Monday's visitors shot 43.1 percent from the field and 50 percent from long range.

The Bulldogs led for all but 3:46 of the first frame, opening a 16-11 advantage at the 11:21 mark and inching that lead outward as the half ticked away.

Rookie forward Dan Garvin (Bethel, Conn.) gave the hosts a 19-13 lead with a three-point play at the 9:43 mark, and Starks would put the home side up, 23-15, after being fouled on a 3-point attempt with 6:22 to go in the stanza.

Junior Joe O'Shea (Burlington, Vt.) would give the Bulldogs their first double-digit lead of the contest, 25-15, with a baseline jumper seconds later, but Lehigh scored 10 of the next 12 points to close that gap to just three with two minutes on the clock. And with 49 ticks to go, Austin Price drained a three right in front of the Bulldog bench to tie the game at 30-30, a score that would stick heading into intermission.

The Mountain Hawks continued to hold the momentum after the break, and three treys in a three-minute span for the visitors put them out in front, 43-37, with less than 14 minutes to play. Each of the next three possessions would result in three-point play completions – two of them in favor of the Bulldogs – and Starks would drain his first triple of the day with 12:22 on the clock to draw the contest even once more, 46-46.

Lehigh would go back out in front with another Price trifecta and held onto that advantage until the 8:02 mark, when O'Shea capped off a 7-0 Bryant run with his first 3-pointer of the contest for a 56-53 advantage.

Neither team would take a lead of more than two points from there, as the clock ticked under the three-minute mark with the score knotted at 62-62, setting up the tense final minutes en route to the Bulldog victory.

The victory gave the Black and Gold a winning record in non-league play for the second-straight season, finishing 8-7 as the team prepares to enter Northeast Conference action Thursday, Jan. 9 at home against Saint Francis University (7 p.m.).