Bryant Holds Off Mt. St. Mary’s in Thrilling Game at the Chace Center

February 5, 2015 11:48 pm

Bryant news release…

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – A last-second layup from Gregory Graves rolled off the rim with three seconds left in the game for Shane McLaughlin (Old Tappan, N.J.) to pull in and take the foul, and the junior point guard drained one free throw with 0.6 seconds to play to seal the Bryant University victory over Mount St. Mary’s, 55-53, Thursday night at the Chace Athletic Center.

The tilt, televised live on ESPNU, featured a raucous home crowd as the Bulldogs (11-11, 8-3) took sole possession of second place in the Northeast Conference standings with the victory and a Robert Morris loss.

Bryant entered the final five minutes of the game with a 52-46 lead, but Mount St. Mary’s (10-12, 6-5) would run off eight straight to pull back within one as the clock ticked below the three-minute mark, 52-51.

A huge offensive rebound from sophomore Andrew Scocca (Melrose, Mass.) would give the Bulldogs the ball entering the final 60 seconds up by three, 54-51, but the hosts couldn’t find the basket despite possessing for nearly two full minutes.

Rookie guard Hunter Ware (Powder Springs, Ga.) would send Byron Ashe to the line for a one-and-one with 12.2 seconds to play, and the sophomore would hit them both to draw the margin back to one, 54-53. Graves would steal the Bryant inbound pass for a Mountaineer possession with 5.1 on the clock, setting up the last-second drama that led to the Bulldog win.

Redshirt-freshman Bosko Kostur (Melbourne, Australia) and senior guard Dyami Starks (Duluth, Minn.) paced the game with 17 points while senior Joe O’Shea (Burlington, Vt.) added 10 points and a trio of assists. Sophomore forward Dan Garvin (Bethel, Conn.) led the game with 10 rebounds (6 points), while McLaughlin added seven boards to his three points and two assists.

The Bulldogs shot 41.7 percent from the field and went 5-of-15 from 3-point range with a 10-for-12 clip from the charity stripe. Bryant won the battle on the glass, 34-28, while the Graves-led Mountaineers shot 35.8 percent in the game. Graves finished the contest with 14 points and five rebounds, while Junior Robinson added 12 points.

The teams traded threes for seven of the game’s first eight baskets Thursday night en route to a 14-9 Mount St. Mary’s lead seven minutes into the contest. The Bulldogs went on an eight-point stretch from there, capped off by the third triple of the night from Starks, to take over a 17-14 advantage at the 12:11 mark, but the Mount would regain the edge just minutes later and keep it until a layup from Garvin with under six to go.

Ware got on the board with four minutes to play in the first with a midrange jumper to put the Bulldogs on top, 29-26, but a Robinson three from the corner knotted the game at 31-31 entering the final media timeout with 2:36 to play. The Mountaineers would take a 34-32 edge into the halftime break.

Bryant started out the second frame with a 17-4 run stretching the first eight minutes of the stanza, with a Kostur and-one giving the Bulldogs their first lead of the second half 4:30 in, 37-36. O’Shea gave the Bulldogs a 44-38 advantage with an and-one of his own at the 12:35 mark, and Kostur capped off the run with a pair of free throws that gave the hosts the first double-digit lead of the night, 49-38, with just over 10 minutes to play. The lead was the largest of the game in the two-point Bulldog victory.

After just one game at home in Smithfield, the Bulldogs return to the road for the next three, kicking off the road spurt with a Saturday afternoon rematch against Sacred Heart (3:30 p.m.). The game can be seen live on NECFrontRow.com.