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Photo by Adam Creech
Photo by Adam Creech
Posted: Jan 05, 2018

Bryant squares off with Sacred Heart Saturday in Fairfield

FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The Bryant University men's basketball team looks for its first victory of Northeast Conference play in a Saturday afternoon showdown with Sacred Heart.

THE PARTICULARS
 Opponent: Sacred Heart
Game Time: Saturday, Jan. 6 – 1 p.m.
Watch Live: NEC Front Row
Listen Live: WOON 1240 AM (Jon Wallach, Cam Boon)
Live Stats: SacredHeartPioneers.com
Game Notes: Bryant 

SCOUTING THE PIONEERS
 Sacred Heart is 6-10 overall and 1-2 in the NEC after a 69-63 loss at Wagner Thursday. The Pioneers split the opening weekend of NEC play with a loss to St. Francis Brooklyn and win over Fairleigh Dickinson. 

Joseph Lopez leads the Pioneers with 13.1 points and an NEC-best 9.1 rebounds per game on the year. Sacred Heart has scored a conference-low 66 points per game this season.

THE SERIES
 The Pioneers are 14-5 in the Division I series and have won the last four meetings. Four of the last six matchups have gone to overtime, including a triple-overtime battle in Smithfield last season which Sacred Heart won, 112-110. 

LAST TIME OUT: MOUNT ST. MARY'S 96, BRYANT 80
 Sophomore Adam Grant (Franklin, Va.) tallied a season-high 29 points and tied his own Division I program record with nine three-pointers, but Mount St. Mary's held off Bryant in a high-scoring clash Thursday in Emmitsburg. Freshman Monty Urmilevicius (Kaunas, Lithuania) recorded career-highs with 10 points and eight rebounds in just 12 minutes. 

BOSKO GETS BUCKETS, PART I
 Senior Bosko Kostur (Melbourne, Australia) has been efficient from both two and three in addition to at the line this season. Kostur is shooting 52.1 percent from the floor, 47.4 percent from beyond the arc and 86.4 percent from the free-throw line. 

BOSKO GETS BUCKETS, PART II
 In four games off the bench this season, senior Bosko Kostur is averaging 15.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game while shooting 60 percent overall and 58.8 percent from three. Kostur has been in double figures in scoring three times in those four games, including a 25-point night against Navy (11/18) and a 23-point, 10-rebound outing vs. Saint Francis U (12/31). 

SOME GENERAL STATS ON GRANT
 Sophomore Adam Grant has averaged 15.3 points per game on the year with 20-point games against Georgia (24, 11/10), NC State (24, 11/14), Yale (20, 11/29) and Mount St. Mary's (29, 1/4). 

Grant hit nine three-pointers in Thursday's game at Mount St. Mary's, tying his own Division I program record set last year against Sacred Heart. The 29-point performance came 10 years to the week after the first game of nine three-pointers by a Bulldog, as Peter Lambert drained nine threes against Merrimack Jan. 2, 2008, in Bryant's final Division II season.

WE LIKE IKE
 Sophomore Ikenna Ndugba (Boston, Mass.) has raised his scoring average from 6.0 points per game as a freshman to 11.7 as a sophomore. Ndugba has two double-doubles on the year: a 16-point, 10-rebound outing at Hartford (11/24) and a 17-point, 11-assist performance at Memphis (12/9). Ndugba tallied 12 assists against Saint Francis U (12/31) - the most by a Bryant player since Shane McLaughlin's 12-assist night at LIU Brooklyn (2/27/16). 

Ndugba passed Alex Francis for fourth in Bryant's Division I era in assists in the game at Albany (12/6) and now has 209 in his career.

NEXT UP: WAGNER
 Bryant returns home for a Thursday night showdown with Wagner at the Chace Athletic Center. Tickets are available at BryantBulldogs.com, and the game can be seen on NEC Front Row and heard on WOON 1240 AM.