Bryant opens NEC action with 77-67 win over SFU

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – The Red Flash pushed Bryant to its limit in the second frame – outscoring the hosts, 40-33, in the half – but the Bulldogs held strong to open 2013-14 Northeast Conference play with a 77-67 victory over Saint Francis U. Thursday night at the Chace Athletic Center.

Senior forward Alex Francis (Harlem, N.Y.) led all scorers with 23 points, marking his second-straight 20-point contest, and added a side-best eight rebounds. Senior guard Corey Maynard (Adelaide, Australia) chipped in 18 points, seven boards and four steals while shooting 50 percent from the floor (7-14), while junior Dyami Starks (Duluth, Minn.) scored 16, including a 4-for-6 mark from long range.

The Red Flash (2-12, 0-1 NEC) were paced by Earl Brown's double-double (10 points, 11 rebounds), while Ollie Jackson and Ben Millaud-Meunier added 13 points each. Saint Francis shot 46.7 percent from the floor and gave away 17 turnovers. The Bulldogs (9-7, 1-0) limited their miscues to nine and shot 49.1 percent in the contest.

The Bulldogs started out the game on a 5-0 run and extended that lead into double digits at the 13:33 mark to take a 15-5 advantage over the visiting Red Flash.

A Starks three with 9:10 to go in the first moved the score to 25-10 in the home side's favor, and the Bulldogs would quickly more than double up Saint Francis, 32-13, on a Shane McLaughlin (Old Tappan, N.J.) (career-high 7 points) trifecta with 6:40 remaining in the frame.

The Red Flash would score the next six points to pull back within 12, 32-19, at the 4:11 mark, but the Black and Gold would head to the locker room with a 44-27 halftime advantage.

The Red Flash came out of the break with the hot hand, though, scoring the nine of the first 11 second-half points to close the deficit to 46-36 four minutes in.

A dunk from Francis would put Bryant up, 58-41, with 12 to play, but back-to-back-to-back treys from the Saint Francis ranks closed the gap to just 10 points, 60-50, as the clock ticked down to the 10-minute mark.

Rookie Dan Garvin (Bethel, Conn.), who already had three blocks in the first 10 minutes of Thursday's league opener, would get his career-high fourth of the night with 9:25 to play, but the Red Flash kept coming. A triple from Millaud-Meunier – the team's sixth of the half – cut Bryant's lead down to single digits, 65-56, with just more than seven minutes left in the contest, and the Red Flash would pull the Bulldogs back within 10 once again minutes later with yet another 3-pointer, 71-61, with 4:37 on the clock.

And while both sides would push hard through the final whistle, the Bulldogs would hit their free throws down the stretch to secure a 1-0 start to league action.

Bryant went 15-of-22 from the line on the day to Saint Francis's 15-for-20 mark. The visitors edged the Bulldogs on the glass, 32-30, while the hosts finished the day with five blocks.

Bryant returns to the court Saturday, hosting Robert Morris at the Chace Athletic Center in a 1 p.m. tip.