Bryant hosts St. Francis Brooklyn Thursday at Chace Athletic Center

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – The Bryant University men's basketball team continues a four-game homestand Thursday when Bryant faces St. Francis Brooklyn for the second time in a span of four games.

THE PARTICULARS
Opponent: St. Francis Brooklyn
Game Time: Thursday, Feb. 1 – 7 p.m.
Tickets: BryantBulldogs.com
Watch Live: NEC Front Row (Tristan Hobbes, Cam Boon)
Listen Live: WOON 1240 AM (Tristan Hobbes, Cam Boon)
Live Stats: BryantBulldogs.com
Game Notes: Bryant 

SCOUTING THE TERRIERS
St. Francis Brooklyn is tied for third in a logjammed middle of the conference race, with five teams separated by one game. The Terriers fell at Mount St. Mary's Saturday to snap a three-game winning streak. 

Rasheem Dunn leads the Terriers with 14.8 points and 5.5 rebounds per game, while Glenn Sanabria and Jalen Jordan have each added 11.8 points per game. St. Francis Brooklyn's turnover margin (+2.23) ranks second in the NEC.

THE SERIES
The Bulldogs are 6-10 against the Terriers in the Division I era with all six wins coming at the Chace Athletic Center. The home team is 14-2 in the series, which dates back to 2009. 

The teams last met Jan. 20 in Brooklyn with the Terriers taking an 85-80 decision. Sophomore Adam Grant (Franklin, Va.) scored a game-high 26 points and fellow sophomore Ikenna Ndugba (Boston, Mass.) added 25 on 10-of-15 shooting.

LAST TIME OUT: FAIRLEIGH DICKINSON 89, BRYANT 78
Sophomore Tanner Johnson (Lexington, Ky.) hit six first-half three-pointers in a career-best 19-point effort, but Fairleigh Dickinson was able to close out an 89-78 road win Saturday at the Chace Athletic Center. Senior Gus Riley (Nelson, New Zealand) grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds and was one point shy of his first career double-double. 

BOARD GAMES
Bryant matched its Division I single-game program record for rebounding Saturday with 46 against Fairleigh Dickinson. The mark had been reached three times previously with the last coming against LIU Brooklyn (2/24/11). 

Three Bulldogs set or tied career-high rebounding totals, as senior Gus Riley had a career-best 11, senior Bosko Kostur (Melbourne, Australia) matched his top rebounding performance with 10 and sophomore Tanner Johnson grabbed a career-high six.

MONTY RAISING HIS PLAY AGAINST CONFERENCE SLATE
Freshman Monty Urmilevicius (Kaunas, Lithuania) has given the Bulldogs a lift against NEC competition, averaging 7.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. Urmilevicius has scored 10 points three times in NEC play and recorded his first-career double-double vs. Central Connecticut (1/25) with a career-best 11 rebounds. 

Urmilevicius ranks second in the NEC in conference play in offensive rebounds per game (3.1), eighth in field goal percentage (.521) and ninth in total rebounds per game (6.5).

SOME GENERAL STATS ON GRANT
Sophomore Adam Grant has averaged 17.8 points per game on the year with 10 20-point games, including seven of his last eight. The sophomore guard averaged 23.0 points per game in the month of January. 

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.

BOSKO GETS BUCKETS
Senior Bosko Kostur has been efficient from both inside and outside the arc this season. Kostur is shooting 48.9 percent on two-pointers and 44.7 percent from three in addition to 84.2 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 13.4 as a sophomore. Ndugba is averaging 19.4 points per game over his last five games with 22 or more points in three of the five.

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 passed Alex Francis for fourth in Bryant's Division I era in assists in the game at Albany (12/6) and now has 241 in his career.

WARE RISING IN RECORD BOOK
Senior Hunter Ware (Powder Springs, Ga.) has climbed into the top five in Bryant's Division I history with 96 steals and is in the top 10 in assists with 123. 

SOPHOMORES TAKING THE NEXT STEP
Bryant's sophomore class - Adam Grant, Tanner Johnson, Ikenna Ndugba and Sabastian Townes (Chesapeake, Va.) - has accounted for 58 percent of the team's scoring in 2017-18. All four have elevated their points per game averages from a year ago, while Grant (17.8 ppg), Ndugba (13.4) and Townes (12.1) are the Bulldogs' top three scorers. 

KOSTUR NAMED TO 3X3U WATCH LIST
Senior Bosko Kostur 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. 

BULLDOGS LEAD NATION IN LINEUP COMBINATIONS
Bryant has used 14 different starting lineup combinations this season, which is tied with Pitt for the most nationally entering the week. The Bulldogs have started 12 different players this season, with only Ikenna Ndugba (22) and Adam Grant (19) starting in at least 15 of Bryant's 23 games. 

NEXT UP: LIU BROOKLYN
Bryant concludes its four-game homestand Saturday when the Bulldogs host LIU Brooklyn for Alumni Day at the Chace Athletic Center. The Bulldogs and Blackbirds will square off at 4 p.m. Tickets are available at bryantbulldogs.com/tickets or by calling 401-319-TIXX. The game can be seen on NEC Front Row and heard on WOON 1240 AM with Jon Wallach and Tristan Hobbes.

Tickets for the 2017-18 Bryant University men's basketball season are available by clicking HERE or calling (401) 319-TIXX. 

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