Colonials escape with 71-67 victory Saturday

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Trailing by two points, the Bryant University men's basketball team forced a turnover with 18.5 seconds to play but couldn't get the equalizer in the final seconds, falling to Northeast Conference rival Robert Morris,71-67, Saturday afternoon at the Chace Athletic Center.

Senior forward Alex Francis (Harlem, N.Y.) paced the Bulldogs (9-8, 1-1 NEC) with 29 points on 11-for-15 shooting and led the Black and Gold with eight rebounds. Junior guard Dyami Starks (Duluth, Minn.) added 13 points, with 11 more coming from classmate Joe O'Shea (Burlington, Vt.). O'Shea and senior point guard Corey Maynard (Adelaide, Australia) each pulled down five boards while the latter paced the game with eight helpers.

Karvel Anderson led the visiting Colonials (7-10, 2-0) and the game with 32 points, including six makes from beyond the arc. Jeremiah Worthem was the only other Robert Morris player to finish in double figures (10 points), while Lucky Jones pulled down a game-best 11 rebounds.

As expected, the teams matched each other nearly shot-for-shot throughout the contest, with neither side taking more than a two-possession lead through the opening 12 minutes and both squads heading to the locker room knotted at 36-36.

The back-and-forth battle would continue early in the second, as the Bulldogs took their biggest lead of the game, 44-40, five minutes into the half following a breakaway layup by Maynard.

A Starks three would be equaled by RMU's Charles Oliver, 47-47, but O'Shea gave Bryant a 56-52 advantage with 8:20 to play in the contest. Francis would follow it with an alley-oop dunk off a pass from Maynard, but consecutive treys from Oliver and Anderson re-knotted the game at 58-58 with just over seven minutes remaining.

A great baseline feed from rookie Dan Garvin (Bethel, Conn.) afforded Francis the easy lay in for a 64-62 edge, but Anderson would knock down his sixth triple of the day with 3:41 remaining to put the Colonials back up by one, 65-54. The score would hold until the final two minutes, when Anderson dropped in a long jumper for a three-point advantage heading in to the final 90 seconds.

Starks would even the score at 67-67 from the top of the arc with 74 seconds to play – his third trifecta of the day – but Anderson put Robert Morris back up by two with 36 ticks left on the clock on a long jumper under heavy pressure.

With three fouls to give, the hosts would be forced to foul after missing their own shot going the other direction. And when the Bulldogs went for the steal on the inbound with 18.5 seconds to go, senior forward Claybrin McMath (Adelaide, Australia) would bully RMU's Lucky Jones into a five-second violation, giving Bryant back the ball trailing by two, 69-67.

A Starks 3-point attempt from the top of the arc would miss the mark with 0.9 seconds left in regulation, though, and Anderson would hit two free throws to send the Colonials home with the 71-67 victory.

"You talk about a Player of the Year-type performance, he's had two in a row," Bryant head coach Tim O'Shea said of Anderson. "Give them a lot of credit. It was a great game, similar to the last [time we played]. We'll have another chance when we go down to Coraopolis later this month, and we'll see what happens."

The Bulldogs held a slight 20-19 edge at the midway point of the first frame, but Robert Morris took its largest lead of the game with 7:25 showing on the clock, 28-23, off a Jones second-chance layup. That lead would extend to 31-25 as the clock ticked below six to play, and but Joe O'Shea cut the deficit back to a single possession with an and-one play at the 3:31 mark, 34-31.

A corner three from Shane McLaughlin (Old Tappan, N.J.) with two minutes to go brought the score to 36-34 in RMU's favor. Francis would tie the game for the first time since the 10:28 mark (19-19) with 1:25 to play before the intermission, and the 36-36 knot would stick through the half's final whistle.

On the game, the Bulldogs shot 48.1 percent after a 53.8 percent clip in the first 20 minutes. Robert Morris finished shooting 38.8 percent from the floor, but outrebounded the Black and Gold, 43-33. As a team, Bryant dished out a season-high 20 assists but turned the ball over 17 times.

"It was a very good college basketball game. If we consistently give that kind of effort, we are going to win a lot of NEC games," said Tim O'Shea. "I thought offensively we were good, and I thought they were good. I think the biggest difference, when you look at the stat sheet, were the rebounds – they had 20 offensive boards and 10 more rebounds than us.

"I thought it was a good college basketball game, we just came up on the short end of it," he added. "That's just how it goes sometimes."

The Bulldogs return to action Thursday, Jan. 16 at 7 p.m. to wrap up their current four-game homestand against regional and NEC foe Sacred Heart at the Chace Athletic Center. Thursday's league matchup will be broadcast live on Cox Sports and the Ocean State Network.