Bulldogs drop battle in Brooklyn, 62-59, to Terriers Thursday night

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, N.Y. – Amdy Fall would score a game-high 21 points, including 17 in the second half, and record an impressive 10 blocks for St. Francis Brooklyn, leading the Terriers past the Bryant University men's basketball team, 62-59, Thursday night at the Pope Center.

The Terriers (17-13, 8-7 Northeast Conference) overcame a double-digit halftime deficit to top the Bulldogs (17-13, 9-6), and shot 43.1 percent from the floor to Bryant's 41.7 percent clip. Bryant saw two finish in double figures on the day, with junior Dyami Starks (Duluth, Minn.) picking up his 11th 20-point game of the season and senior guard Corey Maynard (Adelaide, Australia) adding 12 more. Senior forward Alex Francis (Harlem, N.Y.) was limited to nine points but posted a game-best 10 rebounds.

Jalen Cannon also picked up 10 boards with nine points for the hosts, while Brent Jones added 15 points and nine assists.

Starks broke open an evenly contested start to the first half in the final eight minutes of the frame, leading the Bulldogs on an 11-0 run while keeping the Terriers off the board over a five-minute span that brought the clock down to the 2:35 mark. Starks would score 10 of those points and would eventually score 12-straight points for the visitors, who took their largest lead of the game, 34-19, with 2:35 to go.

Bryant would head to the locker room with a 36-23 advantage, with Starks scoring a half-best 16 and shooting 6-for-7 from the floor and 2-for-2 from long range. Junior Joe O'Shea (Burlington, Vt.) added nine points and Maynard chipped in eight through the opening 20 minutes.

The Terriers, however, made up most of the difference in the first minutes of the second half, outscoring the Bulldogs, 11-2. The home team eventually stretched that run to 17-4 to close out the rest of the deficit, knotting the game at 40-40 with 13:40 left in the contest.

Bryant would renew a five-point edge, 47-42, and maintain a slight lead over St. Francis until seven-straight points out of the hands of Fall evened the tally once again, 51-51, entering the final seven minutes.

Bryant would hold a 57-55 lead entering the last two minutes, but Starks was stuffed inside the paint with 1:02 to play to create a jump ball that favored the Terriers, and St. Francis capitalized with a three-point play from Fall to take over the lead, 60-59, with 36.2 seconds remaining.

Francis pulled in the offensive rebound going the other way, and another jump ball would keep possession with the Bulldogs with 24.8 ticks left. But Bryant would turn the ball over with just seconds to go and would be forced to foul from there. A last-ditch effort by Maynard wouldn't find net, and St. Francis would seal off the 62-59 victory with one final free throw in the waning seconds of the game.

With the loss, the Bulldogs will need to win their regular-season finale at LIU Brooklyn Saturday afternoon to secure home court advantage in the Northeast Conference Tournament Quarterfinals, to be held Wednesday. Saturday's game will tip off at 4:30 p.m.