Bulldogs host Wagner in Thursday night NEC contest
SMITHFIELD, R.I. – The Bryant University men's basketball team returns home for one of just three January home games when the Bulldogs host Wagner Thursday night at the Chace Athletic Center.
Tickets are available starting at just $5 as part of an online-only Holiday Ticket Special by clicking HERE.
THE PARTICULARS
Opponent: Wagner
Game Time: Thursday, Jan. 11 – 7 p.m.
Tickets: BryantBulldogs.com/Holiday
Watch Live: NEC Front Row (Jon Wallach, Tristan Hobbes)
Listen Live: WOON 1240 AM (Jon Wallach, Tristan Hobbes)
Live Stats: BryantBulldogs.com
Game Notes: Bryant
SCOUTING THE SEAHAWKS
Wagner is 10-5 and tied for second in the NEC at 3-1 after victories over Sacred Heart and Fairleigh Dickinson last week. The Seahawks are 8-0 at home this season and 2-5 away from Grymes Hill.
Blake Francis ranks third in the NEC with 18.7 points per game on the year, while AJ Sumbry ranks fifth with 6.9 rebounds per game and JoJo Cooper leads the conference with 5.9 assists per game. The Seahawks have held opponents to an NEC-best 69.7 points per game this season.
THE SERIES
The Seahawks are 9-5 in the Division I series, as the teams had four seasons of only meeting once back in the days of the NEC's unbalanced schedule (2009, 2010, 2011, 2014). Both teams were victorious at home a year ago, as four Bulldogs were in double figures in a 77-66 Bryant win in Smithfield. The Black and Gold scored 48 points in the second half.
LAST TIME OUT: BRYANT 79, SACRED HEART 74
Sophomore Adam Grant (Franklin, Va.) scored 26 points and sophomore Sabastian Townes (Chesapeake, Va.) added 21 as Bryant picked up its first NEC win Saturday at Sacred Heart. Sophomore Ikenna Ndugba (Boston, Mass.) chipped in 18 points as the Bulldogs' sophomores combined for 65 of 79 points.
SOME GENERAL STATS ON GRANT
Sophomore Adam Grant has averaged 16.1 points per game on the year with 20-point games against Georgia (24, 11/10), NC State (24, 11/14), Yale (20, 11/29), Mount St. Mary's (29, 1/4) and Sacred Heart (26, 1/6)
Grant hit nine three-pointers at Mount St. Mary's (1/4), 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.
The sophomore guard is the first NEC player with multiple games of nine or more three-pointers against conference competition since Mount St. Mary's Scott Murphy in 1991.
BOSKO GETS BUCKETS
Senior Bosko Kostur (Melbourne, Australia) has been efficient from both two and three in addition to at the line this season. Kostur is shooting 50.4 percent from the floor, 45.8 percent from beyond the arc and 86.4 percent from the free-throw line.
WE LIKE IKE
Sophomore Ikenna Ndugba has raised his scoring average from 6.0 points per game as a freshman to 12.1 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 212 in his career.