EASTON, Mass.  –   There will be a new regional champion this year as the Bryant University men's basketball team fell to UMass Lowell, 77-67 in first round action of the 2006 NCAA Division II Northeast Regional Saturday afternoon at Easton, Mass.  

The loss ends Bryant's season with a 21-10 overall record having advanced to the NCAA tournament for the third-straight season.  The loss also ends the career of one of best players in the history of the Bryant program as John Williams (Springfield, Mass.) – Bryant's only senior – finished as he has done for most of his career with a team-high 18 points.  

Bryant, the third seed of the regional, came out slow as UMass Lowell took it right to the Bulldogs in the early going.  An Adon El basket and foul gave the River Hawks a 17-10 lead and minutes later, a Brandon Arnette layup gave UML a 21-14 lead.  Bryant would pull to within 21-17 on a Williams three, but the River Hawks, seeded No. 6 in the region, would close out the half on a 20 to 7 run to take a commanding 41-24 lead at the half.

The Bulldogs would turn it up a notch in the second, thanks to an aggressive full-court press that took the rhythm out of the River Hawks who were cruising over the course of the first 20 minutes. 

A Stacey Moragne bucket to open the half, gave Lowell a 43-24 lead, but Bryant would strike with 9 straight points, keyed by another Williams three to pull to get back to within 10 at 43-33.   Bryant, with momentum clearly in the Bulldogs' favor, got a brilliant 4-point play from Chris Burns (Merrimack, NH) after draining a three-pointer and was fouled in the process, to trim the Lowell lead down to 47-42 with 14:45 remaining.

The River Hawks (20-9) would withstand the Bryant run with strong inside play (48 points in the paint) as Jerreh Saidybah slammed home a nice inside pass from El and later added another easy bucket in the paint to push the lead back to double digits, 63-52 with just over seven minutes left.

From there, Bryant would start to heat up once again as Williams hit a three and Dan Hammond (Brunswick, Maine) followed with a drive in the paint to cut the lead to just two, 65-63 with 2:35 left.  However, two costly turnovers and a missed layup hurt Bryant's chances at pulling out the come-from-behind victory as UMass Lowell drained seven free throws in the final minute to advance to the regional semifinals Sunday. 

Williams finished the game going 4 for 14 from the floor including 4 of 8 from beyond the arc and played all 40 minutes. Burns added 14 points and had 4 steals while Hammond added 11 points on 5 of 6 shooting from the floor.

Moragne led all scorers for UMass Lowell as the senior finished with 20 points on just 9 of 20 shooting while El had 17 and Arnette added 16 for the River Hawks.

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POST-GAME NOTES …

* Saturday's game was the third meeting of the season between Bryant and UMass Lowell.  The Bulldogs won the only regular season meeting, 82-66 in Smithfield back on Feb. 1 and met once again in the Northeast-10 Conference quarterfinals, winning 63-61 at Costello Gym in Lowell, MA back on Feb. 27.

* Bryant and UMass Lowell last met in the NCAA postseason in March of 2004 with the River Hawks winning, 63-62 on a baseline shot by conference player of the year Elad Inbar with four seconds left.   With Saturday's quarterfinal win, UMass Lowell has ended Bryant's season twice in the last three years.

* Williams ends his Bryant career ranked No. 4 all-time in school history with 1,754 career points.  He holds Bryant's school record for career 3-pointers with 323 (scoring 4 today).  In addition, Williams ends his career ranked No. 3 all time in Bryant history with 362 and 168 career steals, ranking him third behind Jerome Grier (184) and junior Dan Hammond (176).

* Williams was named the 2006 Co-Player of the Year honors in the Northeast-10 Conference with UMass Lowell's Stacey Moragne.  He was named to the Daktronics First Team All-Region this past week.  It is Williams' second consecutive year receiving first team all-region honors.

* Bryant was picked to finish sixth in the NORTHEAST-10 CONFERENCE preseason poll and not only reached the Northeast-10 Conference semifinal, the Bulldogs earned the No. 3 seed of the NCAA Regional – the highest in five trips to the NCAA tournament.  Bryant was the No. 7 seed in 2004 and No. 6 seed in 2005.