Bulldogs wrap up road slate at Wagner Thursday night (7:00 p.m.)

GAME NOTES

SMITHFIELD, R.I. -- The Bryant University men's basketball team closes out the road portion of its 2014-15 regular-season schedule, traveling to Staten Island for a Thursday night rematch against Wagner College (7:00 p.m.).

THE SERIES
Thursday's game marks the 10th all-time meeting between the Bulldogs and the Seahawks, who own a 6-3 advantage in the all-time series. And while Bryant won the first meeting of the 2014-15 campaign, 81-73, back on Jan. 15, the Seahawks own a 3-1 edge on their own home court.

SCOUTING THE SEAHAWKS
Northeast Conference leading scorer Marcus Burton (18.7) paces Wagner and is the team's top shooter from 3-point range (.341) and from the line (.805) while shooting a solid 41.5 percent from the floor on the season. He is the only double-digit scorer on the side, with Corey Henson (9.2) and Mike Aaman (9.0) close behind. Aaman leads the team on the glass with 9.6 boards each time out, while JoJo Cooper's 67 assists are the most on a squad that distributes the ball well across its ranks. Aaman also boasts a team-leading 13 blocks despite appearing in just 12 contests. As a team, the Seahawks average 69.4 points per game, a mark that rises to 72.6 in NEC play, and are converting at a 40.5 percent clip from the field. Wagner is allowing opponents 73.5 points per game with nearly 48 percent accuracy from the floor.

BRYANT vs. THE NORTHEAST CONFERENCE
The Bulldogs are 9-5 in Northeast Conference play in 2014-15 and sport a 40-61 record (.396) against current NEC members since joining the Division I ranks. All-time against current conference institutions, the Bulldog basketball program is 54-78 (.409). Entering Thursday's action, Bryant sits tied with Robert Morris for second place in the NEC standings and is one of seven teams to have clinched a place in the upcoming NEC Tournament.

BULLDOGS CLINCH NEC TOURNAMENT BERTH
For the third-straight season, Bryant is moving on to the postseason. The Bulldogs clinched one of eight spots in the 2015 NEC Tournament with a 74-71 win at FDU last Thursday night, and only one spot remains to be claimed. With four regular-season games left to play, the Bulldogs will now be jockeying for position and home-court advantage, with the league's top four teams hosting quarterfinal matchups.

STARKS EARNS FIRST NEC PLAYER OF THE WEEK OF SEASON
Senior captain and sharpshooting guard Dyami Starks earned his first NEC Player of the Week honor of the 2014-15 season and seventh of his career Monday after a pair of stellar shooting performances. Starks averaged 24.5 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game on the Bulldogs' 1-1 week, shooting 59.3 percent from the floor and 52.9 percent from 3-point range (9-of-17). The Duluth, Minn., native dropped a season-high 31 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field while going 5-of-10 from long distance and 8-for-8 from the line in Bryant's 74-71 win at FDU last Thursday and followed that with a team-high 18 points in Saturday's 75-68 setback at Mount St. Mary's.

On the year, Starks ranks second in the NEC with 18.0 ppg and leads the circuit with 80 triples and 3.2 made trifectas per game. He has amassed 1,565 points as a Bulldog, and his 265 three-pointers at Bryant ranks 12th on the NEC's all-time list. Starks is just five trifectas away from entering the NEC career top-10 despite playing just three seasons in a Bryant uniform. He currently has 1,653 points and 282 made threes on his collegiate career.

THIRSTY THURSDAYS
The Bulldogs seem to be thirsting for Ws on Thursdays this season, as the Black and Gold are 6-1 on the year on the week night. Bryant's only Thursday night loss came at Saint Francis U. on Jan. 29. This season, the Bulldogs are not above .500 on any other day, posting a combined 0-6 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday with an even 5-5 mark on the weekends.

SHOOTING PROFILE
The Bulldogs shot better than 50 percent for the second-consecutive game Saturday against the Mount, converting 53.8 percent from the floor despite the loss. The performance marked the sixth time Bryant has hit at least half of its shots since the start of 2015 and the eighth time of the 2014-15 campaign but is just the second time the team has done so and suffered a defeat. The Bulldogs are 6-2 on the season when hitting the 50 percent mark, with their only other loss coming Feb. 2 against Pitt (51 percent). Conversely, Bryant's 73-60 win over FDU back on Jan. 10 marked the only 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 11-4 when converting at least 40 percent of its shots.

IRONMEN
Of the four players to have started in every appearance this season — seniors Joe O'Shea and Dyami Starks, junior Shane McLaughlin and sophomore Dan Garvin — all four are averaging better than 30 minutes per game. Three Bulldogs — O'Shea (33.3), McLaughlin (35.8) and Starks (37.6) — are each logging 33 minutes or more on the year, and those numbers jump even higher when it comes to conference-only action. The Bulldogs boast the two top minute getters in NEC play in Starks (38.4) and McLaughlin (38.1), and O'Shea joins them in the top-5 at 36.4 minutes per game. Throw in Garvin's 30.6 per contest mark, and all four Bulldogs rank inside the league's top-20 both in overall and conference-only minutes played. Five different Bulldogs have played 40 or more minutes in a game on 17 occasions, including six times each from Starks and McLaughlin. The pair both rank in the NCAA top-50 for minutes per game, with Starks ranking 10th and McLaughlin ranking 45th.

THUNDER FROM DOWN UNDER
If it seems like redshirt-freshman forward Bosko Kostur has come out of nowhere to become a key cog in the Bulldog lineup, you aren't far off. After playing just a combined 55 minutes over the first 18 games of the season (10 appearances) and averaging only 2.1 points and 0.9 rebounds per game, Kostur has earned a starting spot in the last six contests and is averaging 13.1 points, 4.7 rebounds and 33.3 minutes per game through the team's last seven outings. The springy 6-foot-7 wing has also shot an efficient 52.5 percent (32-61) from the floor and 47.6 percent (18-27) from 3-point range over that span.

Kostur's breakout game came Jan. 29 at Saint Francis U., when the Melbourne, Australia resident 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). He has since reset his personal bests in minutes (42 at Sacred Heart) and at the line (5-for-5 vs. Mount St. Mary's).

OH DANNY BOY
Sophomore forward Dan Garvin has been stellar for the Bulldogs since the start of NEC play. The bigman's 24 points against Pitt Feb. 2 marked his third career-high scoring performance in a four-game span, over which he averaged 18.3 points and 9.5 rebounds per game while shooting nearly 59 percent from the floor. The Bethel, Conn., native then went on to post his fourth double-double of the year Feb. 7 afternoon at Sacred Heart, scoring 15 while pulling down a game-best 15 rebounds despite the overtime loss.

Since the start of 2015, Garvin is averaging 12.9 points and 8.6 rebounds per game with four double-doubles, three 20-point games and a .547 shooting clip (82-150). He is also 42-of-54 from the line this calendar year while leading the team in blocks (18) and steals (16). Garvin picked up double-doubles twice against Sacred Heart (20p, 13r Jan. 24; 15p, 15r Feb. 7), 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 second 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. Garvin has led the Bulldogs in scoring three times and has paced his team on the glass 14 times this season and 23 times in his career.

STARKS ENTERS NEC'S ALL-TIME TOP-15
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-15 Feb. 7 at Sacred Heart. Nine treys last week moved him past Dave Calloway (Monmouth '91) and into sole possession of 13th in the all-time rankings, where he remains with 263 trifectas over the course of his three-year Bryant career. To reach the top-10, the Minnesota native — who currently averages 3.2 triples per game — needs to hit just seven 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 282 career trifectas.

BULLDOGS IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
Senior guard Dyami Starks enters Thursday's matchup ranked 12th in the national statistics for threes per game (3.20, 1st in NEC). The Duluth, Minn., native also ranks 10th in free throw percentage (.896, 1st in NEC), 10th in minutes per game (37:38, 1st in NEC), 47th in points per game (18.0, 2nd in NEC) and 71st in 3-point percentage (.352, 2nd in NEC). Sophomore forward Dan Garvin ranks 90th in rebounds per game (7.6, 5th in NEC) and 59th in offensive boards per game (3.00, 3rd in NEC), while junior guard Shane McLaughlin is 45th in minutes per outing (35:52, 3rd in NEC) and 79th in assists per game (4.4, 3rd in NEC). As a team, the Bulldogs rank 46th in free throw percentage (.730, 1st in NEC), 60th in turnovers per game (11.6, 1st in NEC), 72nd in 3-pointers per game (7.3, 3rd in NEC) and 88th in 3-point defense (.322, 3rd in NEC).

UP NEXT
The Bulldogs return to the Chace Athletic Center to wrap up the 2014-15 regular season with a three-game stretch in front of the home crowd. Bryant will open the homestand Saturday at 4:00 p.m. against Robert Morris.