Bulldogs grind for sweep
Bryant struggles in its win over CCSU Blue Devils
There’s a difference between watching the way the Bryant University men’s basketball team pushes the tempo on tape and actually being on the floor for 40 minutes with the Bulldogs.
Visiting Central Connecticut State found that lesson out the hard way in a blowout loss Thursday afternoon and the Blue Devils made some minor adjustments headed into Friday’s rematch at the Chace Athletic Center. CCSU coach Donyell Marshall played more zone defense and deliberately tried to slow down the pace of the game.
Whether it was the change in defenses or Bryant just having an off shooting afternoon, the Bulldogs were held to just 31.3 percent shooting from 3-point land in the first half to take a five-point advantage into halftime.
The Blue Devils, however, had no adjustments or answers for Bryant in the opening 5:46 of the second half. One night after recording his first career triple-double, Bryant redshirt senior wing Peter Kiss scored 12 points early in the second half to extend the lead to 18 points. Kiss ended the game with a career-high 27 points and Chris Childs added 19 in a satisfying 76-64 Northeast Conference victory.
“I challenged our guys a little bit at halftime and obviously they came out in the first five or six minutes of the second half and I think played our best five minutes of basketball maybe in the whole series,” Bryant coach Jared Grasso said.
“We jumped up 16, 18 points, we turned them over, we got out in transition, rebounded the ball, got stops and went out and ran.”
“[Grasso] challenged us at halftime and told us that we needed to pick it up,” forward Luis Hurtado said after producing five points and six rebounds. “The team listens and we just do what we do. We picked it up and that’s what got us going.”
Bryant (9-2, 5-1 Northeast Conference) has now won six games in a row, but the schedule is about to stiffen up for a team that sits atop the conference a third of the way through the season. Bryant begins a four-game road swing next Thursday and Friday with games against Saint Francis in Loretta, Penn. Grasso was quick to point out the Bulldogs have never won a road game against the Pioneers.
Central Connecticut State (2-7, 2-4 NEC) received a team-high 17 points and three assists from guard Zach Newkirk, while reserve forward Karrington Wallace produced the game’s only double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
One night after trailing the entire contest, the Blue Devils were the better team in the opening minutes of Friday’s game. A pair of Newkirk 3-pointers helped the road side build a four-point advantage. The lead, however, wouldn’t last very long because the Bulldogs responded with a 12-0 run to take a lead they would never relinquish.
Sophomore point guard Michael Green III
(14 points and five assists) and Kiss sparked the run. Unlike Thursday’s game where the Bulldogs continued to build on their first
half lead, Central Connecticut responded and only trailed by a point after a bucket by Nigel Scantlebury with 5:44 left in the half.
“We saw a little more zone from them today than we did the first night, but we didn’t shoot the ball well,” Grasso said. “I don’t know if it was fatigue or just one of those nights where we didn’t shoot it as well as we have. I like the shots we took, but we had to play a little more inside the 3-point line, so I tried to run some actions to get Peter Kiss some curls and some post-up stuff around the rim.”
Kiss, who made 10 of his 13 shots inside the 3-point line, attacked the paint early and often in the second half to help the Bulldogs earn their second straight conference sweep. Kiss bracketed a Hurtado hoop with two straight layups. After finishing off a threepoint play, Kiss knocked down a 3-pointer and then hit a jumper to extend the lead to a game-high 18 just 5:44 into the second half.
“I liked [Friday’s win more] because it was a little grittier and grimier,” Grasso said. “We need to play in hard games and we need to play in some games where we struggle and we have some adversity because that’s when you learn about yourself. We need to go through some of those games. Today was a little bit hard for us.”
The Bulldogs were an impressive 10-of18 on two-point shots in the final 20 minutes and made all seven of their free throws to pull away for the victory.
“We are happy with the way we played and we’ll continue to practice hard and that’s what make us play good basketball right now,” Hurtado said.