Bulldogs and Terriers match up in Smithfield Saturday at 4:00 p.m.

GAME NOTES

SMITHFIELD, R.I. -- Looking to end a three-game slide and remain in contention to host an NEC Tournament game, the Bryant University men's basketball team hosts St. Francis Brooklyn Saturday at 4:00 p.m. on NECFrontRow.com or WOON 1240 AM (Jon Wallach and Tristan Hobbes).  

THE SERIES
Saturday's contest will mark the 15th between the Bulldogs and Terriers. St. Francis Brooklyn holds a 9-5 edge in the all-time series, but Bryant is 5-2 at home and has won four of the last five meetings.   

SCOUTING THE TERRIERS
St. Francis Brooklyn began conference play 2-0 with a pair of overtime victories, but has dropped 11 straight. The Terriers will look to end the streak behind the play of their freshman guard Rasheem Dunn, who leads the team with 13.3 points per game. Sophomore guard Glenn Sanabria nets 12.6 points per game and senior guard Yunus Hopkinson averages 12.2 points per effort. But the three are the only players on the current team averaging over 5.0 points per contest. The Terriers have struggled to shoot, sitting last in the league in field goal percentage and 3-point field goal percentage. But they sit second in made threes per game and do a great job of holding onto the ball, turning it over the second-fewest times per game in the NEC. 

CURRENT DAWGS vs. ST. FRANCIS BROOKLYN
Ten current Bulldogs have faced the Terriers in their careers. Senior Dan Garvin is averaging 7.0 points and just over 7.0 boards in five career meetings with the Terriers. Sophomores Nisre Zouzoua and Marcel Pettway each averaged double-digit scoring against St. Francis last year, scoring 16.5 and 14.5 points, respectively, with the latter grabbing 10.0 boards per game. Pettway netted 16 points and pulled down 10 boards in the Dec. 29 meeting of this year and Zouzoua scored a game-high 29. Freshman Adam Grant tallied 14 points in that contest.

BRYANT vs. THE NORTHEAST CONFERENCE
The Bulldogs hold an overall record of 53-83 against current NEC members since joining the Division I ranks. Prior to the 2012-13 campaign, Bryant held a 9-44 record against conference opponents, but has recorded a 44-39 record over the last four seasons. The Black and Gold are 25-17 at home versus the NEC and 22-24 on the road since the start of 2012-13. All-time against current conference institutions, the Bulldog basketball program is 67-100.

LAST TIME OUT
Bryant was involved in yet another overtime, drama-induced contest Thursday night against LIU Brooklyn. After tying the game with under 50 seconds to play, the Bulldogs relied on their defense on the final possession to send things into OT, as a timely strip on a potential game-winning shot attempt kept the stalemate. In the overtime, the teams continued to match one another, but after a costly turnover with 39 seconds to go, the Blackbirds made the Bulldogs pay with a deep go-ahead three and 12.5 to go. Bryant had two triples in the final seconds, but both were off the mark in the 88-85 loss. Junior Bosko Kostur tallied a career-high 26 points, sophomore Nisre Zouzoua netted 16, classmate Marcel Pettway scored 15 and freshman Ikenna Ndugba recorded his first double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.   

OT, OT IT'S ALWAYS MUCH FUN WHEN WE GO TO OT 
Bryant has played in back-to-back overtime games and has now been apart of 15 OT contests at the Division I level. The Bulldogs are 5-10 at the DI ranks when a contest is decided in OT and have now played in five overtime games this season, the most in any campaign they have played at the DI level.

I'M CAUGHED UP
The Bulldogs have forced opponents into committing 20 or more turnovers three times this year, as each instance has resulted in an overtime loss. The last time an opponent caughed up the ball 20 or more times against Bryant prior to this season was back on Feb. 28, 2015 (20 by St. Francis Brooklyn). Since the Bulldogs joined the Division I level, they have seen an opponent turn it over 20 or more times on seven occassions and hold a 3-4 record in such games.  

JUST ZOO IT
Sophomore Nisre Zouzoua is in the midst of a superb sophomore campaign with an impressive 20.2 points per game to lead the league and sit 34th nationally, while hitting 2.68 triples per game, most in the NEC. He has scored 21 points or more in 14 outings, including a career-high 31 points at Brown on Nov. 28, his second 30-point game of the year.  

SNEAKY SNEAK
Zouzoua has not just been a force on the offensive end this season, as he has matched the efforts on the defensive side. He sits third in the league with 1.64 steals per game and recorded six steals against the Pioneers on Feb. 4, the most for a Bryant player in a single game at the Division level and the fifth-most in program history. 

GRANTED PERMISSION
Freshman Adam Grant has played like a seasoned vet in his first collegiate campaign. He has netted double-digit points 17 times this season and is second on the team with 13.7 points per game to sit ninth in the NEC, first among league rookies. The 32 points he scored against the Pioneers on Jan. 14 were the second-most by a Bryant rookie at the DI level. Alex Francis ('14) scored 43 points on Feb. 24, 2011.   CRAZY ABOUT 80With the 88-85 OT loss to the Blackbirds on Thursday, Bryant is now 1-4 this season when scoring 80 or more points. The Bulldogs have never lost more than one game in any season at the Division I level when scoring 80+ points and hold a 31-6 record at the DI ranks when doing so.  

BK ALL DAY
Junior forward Bosko Kostur has provided the Bulldogs with an additional threat of late and reemerged as a consistent contributor. After scoring no more than four points and playing no more than eight minutes over the first six games of the year, he has played 20+ minutes in 12-straight games, has started each of those contests and scored in double figures in nine of the last 12. He averaged 17.6 points in five games from Jan. 5 - Jan. 16, scoring no fewer than 15 points and just netted a career-best 26 points against LIU Brooklyn on Thursday behind a personal-best five triples.   

TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT
The Bulldogs have played in some close games this year, as they are 3-89 in contests decided by five points or less and have narrowly lost games by one, two, three, four and five points. The Jan. 28, 73-72 OT win over Fairleigh Dickinson was just the eighth game Bryant had played in that was decided by one point at the DI level (5-3).  

ON TAP
The Bulldogs head into the final two games of their four-game homestand and begin it by hosting Robert Morris Thursday at 7:00 p.m.