December 5, 2008

Box Score

BULLDOGS FALL TO HAWKEYES, 61-36, IN IOWA CITY FRIDAY NIGHT

IOWA CITY, IA- Eight second half three pointers and 73 percent shooting from the field helped the sharpshooting Iowa Hawkeyes get past the Bulldogs, 61-36, at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Friday night.

The Bulldogs struggled shooting the ball in the first half, going just 5-for-19 from the floor, helping Iowa take a 26-14 lead in the halftime break. Junior Cecil Gresham (Bloomfield, Conn. / MCI) led the way with six points but was just 2-for-8 from the field.

Bryant stayed strong defensively as the Hawkeyes only shot 35.7 percent for the half, but took 28 shots compared to 19 for the Bulldogs as they were helped out by eight offensive rebounds and a 21-12 advantage on the boards in the first frame.

The Hawkeyes, known for their outside shooting, came out of the gate knocking down two threes to take a quick 6-0 lead. Andrew Lyell (Portsmouth, R.I. / Northfield Mt. Herman) hit a three to cut the lead to 6-3, but that would be as close as the Bulldogs would get. Lyell continued his solid play since becoming a starter, contributing eight points and two rebounds in 35 minutes.

After falling behind by 13 to start the second half, Bryant went on a 9-2 run, getting 5 points from Lyell and four points from Barry Latham (Taunton, Mass. / Marianapolis) to cut the Hawkeye lead to eight at 31-23 with 16:27 to go. That's when Anthony Tucker took over for Iowa. Tucker hit three treys in a seven minute span as the Hawkeyes responded with a 12-0 run, pushing the lead to 20 with 9:27 left to play. The freshman point guard finished with 12 points, all coming from behind the arc, including two 30 footers to beat the shot clock buzzer. As a team, Iowa went 11-for-15 from the floor in the second half, including 8-for-12 from the land of three. Matt Gatens led the way with 19 points and five rebounds.

Bryant finished the game shooting 29.7 percent (11-37) from the floor and 33 percent from behind the arc, hitting four second half three pointers. Latham and Lyell tied for a team-high eight points while Gresham and Chris Birrell (Scituate, R.I. / Scituate) each had six. Iowa played very tough defensively, getting a hand up on all the of the Bulldogs' shooters.

"There man-to-man defense is very strong. They have a quick team with a lot of young talent. I watched the game against Boston College and they held them in the 50's in scoring and BC is a very athletic team," commented head coach Tim O'Shea after the game.

He went on to discuss building a program at Bryant, ""I'm really looking forward to building a program at Bryant. I'm from the New England area and I was really excited to get back to that part of the country, and I also have the opportunity to build a program. I think what we look like now will be very different compared to what we will look like in four or five years."

Hawkeye head coach Todd Lickliter was complimentary of how tough the Bulldogs played defensively, "I'd like to start by saying that Tim (O'Shea) has done a terrific job with this team during this transition and he is a terrific coach. They will be very tough to play against because they do very tough things defensively and that makes them very difficult to play."

Bryant will return home after playing five straight road games to play Army on Monday night at the Chace Athletic Center (7 pm).