Starks, O'Shea lift Bulldogs to 67-63 victory in NEC opener
SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Senior guard Dyami Starks (Duluth, Minn.) tied his season high with 25 points while classmate Joe O'Shea (Burlington, Vt.) added a season-best 18 points and nine rebounds to lead the Bryant University men's basketball team to a 67-63 victory over LIU Brooklyn on the road Saturday in the 2014-15 Northeast Conference opener.
With less than five minutes left in regulation, the Bulldogs (4-6, 1-0 NEC) took their first lead since the opening minutes of the contest, 50-49, on a 3-pointer from Starks and would not relinquish the lead for the remainder of the game despite a strong Blackbird (4-8, 0-1) push through the final whistle.
The Black and Gold built their lead to as many as seven, 62-55, with 51 seconds to play on a layup by junior point guard Shane McLaughlin (Old Tappan, N.J.) (10 points, 4 assists). The teams traded points from there until a triple from Martin Hermannsson with 28 ticks to play closed the margin to a single possession, 63-61.
McLaughlin and Hermannsson traded a pair of made free throws to run the clock down to 13 seconds, but the Blackbirds would be forced to foul McLaughlin after the junior took possession of the inbounds pass with seven seconds left on the clock, and McLaughlin would nail both freebies to finalize the 67-63 victory.
The Bulldogs shot 41.9 percent from the floor thanks to a 56.7 percent clip in the second half alone, also pulling in a season-high 45 rebounds to win the margin on the glass. Starks added seven rebounds and three assists in 40 minutes of action, going 10-for-21 from the floor and hitting all three of Bryant's treys. Sophomore Dan Garvin (Bethel, Conn.) added eight points and eight rebounds.
Martin paced the Blackbirds and the contest with 27 points off 10-of-16 shooting from the field, while LIU Brooklyn as a team shot just 30.4 percent from the field and 24 percent from downtown. Hermannsson was the only other Blackbird to finish in double figures with 14 points, adding seven rebounds and five assists. Nura Zanna tied O'Shea's game-high mark on the glass with nine rebounds (6 points).
The Blackbirds led for all but two minutes of the first half, using six-straight points from Hermannsson to take over an 11-7 advantage just over five minutes into the game. The six-point spurt was part of a larger 15-5 LIU Brooklyn run that saw the hosts build their largest lead of the frame, 20-12, on a Joel Hernandez layup with 7:04 left in the stanza.
The Bulldogs would respond just over three minutes later with a 9-3 run of their own to draw back within a single possession, 25-22, with 1:17 left on the first-half clock. Seven of the nine points would come from the hands of O'Shea.
Trevin Woods would score the final basket of the frame with 53 ticks remaining to send the Blackbirds into the locker room with a 27-22 edge.
LIU Brooklyn opened up a 10-point, 34-24, lead three minutes into the second half, but the Bulldogs got hot from there, chipping away at the Blackbirds' margin until they trailed by only two, 42-40, with 11 minutes remaining in the contest. Bryant shot 8-of-12 from the field through the opening 10 minutes of the frame.
Martin made it a five-point spread in favor of the Blackbirds with nine to play, but Starks would score the next seven Bulldog points – interrupted only by a Hermannsson jumper – to tie the score at 47-47 and bring the clock down to 6:15 to go.
The Bulldogs will look to sweep the opening set of Northeast Conference contests, taking on NEC favorite St. Francis Brooklyn Monday afternoon (4 p.m.).