Bulldogs host defending NEC champ Mount St. Mary's Thursday on ESPNU (7 p.m.)

GAME NOTES

SMITHFIELD, R.I. -- The Bryant University men's basketball team hosts reigning Northeast Conference champ Mount St. Mary's at the Chace Athletic Center Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. The contest will air live on ESPNU and can be heard on the airwaves on WOON 1240AM.

THE SERIES
Mount St. Mary's has won nine of 12 all-time meetings between these two programs, but Bryant owns a 3-2 lead at the Chace Athletic Center in the Division I era. Ten of the 12 all-time tilts have come at the Division I level, with the series beginning back on Dec. 28, 1982 in Emmitsburg, Md. The teams split the 2013-14 season series.

SCOUTING THE MOUNT
Junior Butler transfer Andrew Smeathers leads Mount St. Mary's with 11.4 points per game and is the only player to average double figures. Byron Ashe (9.9) and Gregory Graves (9.8) are right on the cusp, with the latter pacing the side on the glass at 7.4 rebounds each time out. All three boast better than 40 percent shooting from the floor, while Junior Robinson (8.2 ppg) dishes out 3.3 assists per game with 21 total steals. Taylor Danaher is the team's top shot blocker with 20 stuffs (4.3 ppg). As a team, the Mount allows opponents to shoot 45.4 percent from the floor on the year, though that number drops to below 40 percent in NEC action. Mount St. Mary's is currently tied for fourth in the league standings, just one game behind the Bulldogs.

CURRENT BULLDOGS vs. MOUNT ST. MARY'S
Eight current Bulldogs have seen action against the Mount in their careers, with five of them facing off against Mount St. Mary's more than once. Senior captains Dyami Starks and Joe O'Shea both average double digits against the Mountaineers, with 14.8 and 10.4 points per game, respectively, in five career outings. Starks has converted a shade over 45 percent of his lifetime shots (30-66) with 4.2 rebounds per contests, while O'Shea has scored on 57.1 percent of his 28 career attempts (16-28) while going 5-for-9 from long range. Junior guards Shane McLaughlin (3.6 ppg) and Curtis Oakley (1.5) as well as sophomore forward Dan Garvin (3.0) have also matched up against Mount St. Mary's on multiple occasions. Current Bulldogs are shooting a lifetime .542 (58-107) from the field against the Mount but are a less successful .341 (15-44) from 3-point land and .735 (25-34) from the free throw line.

BRYANT vs. THE NORTHEAST CONFERENCE
The Bulldogs are 7-3 in Northeast Conference play in 2014-15 and sport a 38-59 record (.392) against current NEC members since joining the Division I ranks. All-time against current conference institutions, the Bulldog basketball program is 52-76 (.406). Entering Thursday's action, Bryant sits tied for second in the NEC standings, one game behind league leader and preseason favorite St. Francis Brooklyn.

BULLDOGS KEEP PITT ON ROPES FOR FULL 40 MINUTES
Bryant once again proved it was up to the task Monday night against ACC opponent the University of Pittsburgh, taking a one-point advantage into the final two minutes of action after a 36-34 halftime lead. Despite leading for 22 minutes of the contest, the Bulldogs saw Pitt take a three-point edge on a jumper from Cameron Wright with 16.8 seconds remaining to seal the eventual 72-67 victory. Sophomore forward Dan Garvin scored a career-high 24 points off 10-of-16 shooting from the floor in the tilt, while junior point guard Shane McLaughlin posted his first-career double-double with 10 points and a career-best 10 dimes while also leading the Black and Gold on the glass with a personal-best eight rebounds. Senior guard Dyami Starks added 17 points as the Bulldogs outshot the Panthers, 51 percent to 45.8 percent, and trailed on the glass by just a single rebound, 30-29.

BLACK AND BLUE
The Bulldogs were also without top starter and senior captain Joe O'Shea against the Panthers, after the guard suffered an injury against Robert Morris Saturday that left him nursing two black eyes. O'Shea is expected to be back in action for Bryant's return to NEC play Thursday night and is averaging 14.4 points, 7.0 rebounds and a .500 shooting percentage (46-92) in league action this season.

OH DANNY BOY
Sophomore forward Dan Garvin has been stellar for the Bulldogs since the start of NEC play in early January. The bigman's 24 points against Pitt Monday night marked his third career-high scoring performance of the last four outings, over which he has averaged 18.3 points and 9.5 rebounds per game while shooting nearly 59 percent from the floor. The Bethel, Conn., native has also posted the first three 20-point games of his career in that span.

Since the start of 2015, Garvin is averaging 13.3 points and 8.9 rebounds per game with three double-doubles, three 20-point games and a .555 shooting clip (61-110). He is also 39-of-50 from the line this calendar year while leading the team in blocks (13) and steals (15). Garvin picked up double-doubles against Sacred Heart Jan. 24 (20p, 13r), at Central Connecticut Jan. 17 (15p, 11r) and vs. Fairleigh Dickinson Jan. 10 (16p, 18r). His 18 boards against the Knights are tied for the most in the NEC this season and marked the highest total by a Bulldog since Alex Francis ('14) recorded 18 at CCSU on January 12, 2013. Monday's career-high 24 points against the Panthers marked the third time Garvin has led the Bulldogs in scoring. He has led his team on the glass 12 times this season and 21 times in his career.

ON A DIME
Junior point guard Shane McLaughlin posted impressive back-to-back outings in Pittsburgh, setting new career highs in both rebounds and assists in each of the last two contests. Saturday against the Colonials, he dished out a then-career-high and game-leading nine dimes while pulling down a team-best and then-career-most seven rebounds. The New Jersey native then doled out 10 assists with eight boards Monday against Pitt to once again set two new personal marks. McLaughlin scored 10 points in each of the two outings, picking up his first-career block Saturday at Robert Morris and first-career double-double Monday at Pitt. On the season, McLaughlin is averaging 4.3 assists per game.

THUNDER FROM DOWN UNDER
After a breakout night from redshirt-freshman Bosko Kostur last Thursday against Saint Francis U., the Melbourne, Australia resident earned the first two starts of his young career Saturday against Robert Morris and Monday at Pitt. Kostur exploded for new career highs in points (18), rebounds (7), assists (3), field goals (7), field goals attempted (12) and minutes (32) while tying his career mark at the free throw line (3-4) against the Red Flash despite a Bulldog loss, and the combo guard followed that performance with 11 points (4-8) and three boards in a win over the Colonials two days later. The consecutive outings marked just the second and third double-digit point performances of his career and the first two against Division I competition. Kostur entered last Thursday's contest having averaged just 2.1 points, 0.9 rebounds and 5.5 minutes per game in 10 appearances in 2014-15. He posted 12.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and a .538 shooting percentage on the team's three-game western PA swing.

STARKS ENTERS NEC'S ALL-TIME TOP-20
After becoming the 50th player in NEC history to reach 200 career 3-pointers back on Dec. 3, senior guard Dyami Starks has been working his way up the league's all-time list, officially joining the top-20 Thursday night against Saint Francis U. (Jan. 29). Three more treys Monday against Pitt move him past Jeremy Chappell (Robert Morris '09) and into sole possession of 17th in the all-time rankings with 245 trifectas over the course of his career at Bryant (2+ seasons). To reach the top-10, the Minnesota native — who currently averages three triples per game — needs to hit 25 more treys. Already, Starks is Bryant's Division I leader in threes, and the senior moved into fourth on the program's all-time list on Jan. 20. Including his rookie season at Columbia, Starks now has 264 career trifectas.

SHOOTING PROFILE
The Bulldogs shot better than 50 percent four times in January, including posting a 54 percent clip Saturday against RMU, and are 5-1 on the season when hitting the mark. It's only loss came Monday against Pitt, when the Bulldogs shot 51 percent from the floor but fell, 72-67. Conversely, Bryant's 73-60 win over FDU Jan. 10 marked the first time this season the Bulldogs have shot less than 40 percent from the field (.392) and come away with the victory. Bryant is now 1-9 when shooting below .400 but is 9-2 when converting at least 40 percent of its shots.

BRYANT HOOPS ON WOON RADIO
For the seventh season, all Bryant University basketball home games and select road contests can be heard LIVE on WOON 1240 AM. Veteran sportscaster Jon Wallach of 98.5 FM The Sports Hub Boston returns to call the action as the voice of the Bulldogs, alongside color analyst Tristan Hobbes.

UP NEXT
Bryant gets right back to the highways for its final roadtrip of the regular season following Thursday's contest, embarking on a four-game road stretch that marks the longest of the 2014-15 campaign. The Bulldogs will kick it off with a Saturday afternoon rematch against Sacred Heart in Fairfield, Conn. (3:30 p.m.).