Bryant wraps up road trip Saturday at St. Francis Brooklyn
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, N.Y. – The Bryant University men's basketball team closes the fourth weekend of Northeast Conference play with a Saturday afternoon contest at St. Francis Brooklyn.
THE PARTICULARS
Opponent: St. Francis Brooklyn
Game Time: Saturday, Jan. 20 – 4 p.m.
Watch Live: NEC Front Row
Live Stats: SFCAthletics.com
Game Notes: Bryant
SCOUTING THE TERRIERS
St. Francis Brooklyn is 7-12 and 4-3 in the NEC after Thursday's 81-73 win over Mount St. Mary's. The Terriers held the Mountaineers to 29 second-half points in the victory.
Rasheem Dunn ranks ninth in the NEC at 15.2 points per game and leads the team with 5.3 rebounds per game. The Terriers have held opponents to 32.7 percent from beyond the arc this season. Saturday marks the fourth-straight home game for the Terriers.
THE SERIES
The Bulldogs are 6-9 against the Terriers in the Division I era with the home team emerging victorious in each of the last 12 meetings. All five starters were in double figures in an 80-69 win in Smithfield a year ago.
LAST TIME OUT: LIU BROOKLYN 83, BRYANT 79
LIU Brooklyn closed the game on a 15-6 run for an 83-79 victory over Bryant Thursday in Brooklyn. Sophomore Adam Grant (Franklin, Va.) led the Bulldogs with 20 points in a game that featured 12 ties and 21 lead changes.
MONTY PROVIDING A SPARK
Freshman Monty Urmilevicius (Kaunas, Lithuania) has given the Bulldogs a lift over his last five games, averaging 7.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per game. Urmilevicius has a pair of 10-point, eight-rebound performances during that stretch: at Mount St. Mary's (1/4) and LIU Brooklyn (1/18).
SOME GENERAL STATS ON GRANT
Sophomore Adam Grant has averaged 17.3 points per game on the year with eight 20-point games: Georgia (24, 11/10), NC State (24, 11/14), Yale (20, 11/29), Mount St. Mary's (29, 1/4), Sacred Heart (26, 1/6), Wagner (23, 1/11), Central Connecticut (24, 1/13) and LIU Brooklyn (20, 1/18).
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 Scott Murphy of Mount St. Mary's in 1991.
SOPHOMORES TAKING THE NEXT STEP
Bryant's sophomore class - Adam Grant, Tanner Johnson (Lexington, Ky.), Ikenna Ndugba (Boston, Mass.) and Sabastian Townes (Chesapeake, Va.) - has accounted for 57.0 percent of the team's scoring in 2017-18. All four have elevated their points per game averages from a year ago, while Grant (17.3 ppg), Ndugba (12.6) and Townes (12.1) are the Bulldogs' top three scorers.
KOSTUR NAMED TO 3X3U WATCH LIST
Senior Bosko Kostur (Melbourne, Australia) was named to the Early Season Watch List for the inaugural Intersport 3X3U National Championship to be held in San Antonio during Final Four weekend. The tournament will feature a team of graduating seniors from each of the 32 Division I conferences in a three-day event March 30-April 1.
NEXT UP: CENTRAL CONNECTICUT
Bryant opens a four-game homestand Thursday when the Bulldogs host Central Connecticut for their second meeting in 13 days. The 7 p.m. tip can be seen on ESPN3, while Jon Wallach will have the call on WOON 1240 AM.
Tickets for Thursday's game against Central Connecticut and the 2017-18 Bryant University men's basketball season are available by clicking HERE or calling (401) 319-TIXX.
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