YALE WINS BULLDOG BATTLE, 76-59, WEDNESDAY NIGHT

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Bryant University men's basketball team kept Wednesday's game against Yale tight for nearly 35 minutes, but 21 points from Greg Mangano, 15 of them coming in the second half, allowed the home side to pull away in the final minutes to win the 2011-12 Battle of the Bulldogs, 76-59, at John J. Lee Amphitheater.

Sophomore Corey Maynard (Adelaide, Australia) paced Bryant (1-8) with 15 points off 6-of-10 shooting while classmates Alex Francis (Harlem, N.Y.) and Claybrin McMath (Adelaide, Australia) got 10 points apiece. Three Yale (7-2) players scored double figures, led by Mangano's game high. He also collected a game-best nine boards in the outing as the home side just won out on the glass, 30-29.

Junior Daniel Calandrillo (Leonardo, N.J.) earned his first start of the season and jumpstarted the Black and Gold offense to open the game, scoring Bryant's first five points to put the visitors up, 5-4.

The game would remain tight for the full 20 minutes of the initial frame in a half that featured six lead changes, and neither team led by more than four points, an advantage last held by Bryant at the 12:18 mark, 11-7.

Bryant led for a good portion of the frame, including in the final minutes, before Isaiah Salafia drained a three from the top of the arc with 1.6 seconds on the clock to send the teams into the halftime break in a 27-27 knot.

The game stayed tight for the next 15 minutes out of the break as well, but it was a fading 3-pointer from leading scorer Mangano – a shot that found net just as the shot clock expired – that proved to be the deflating and definitive basket for Yale.

On the play, the Bulldogs' stout defense forced the home side to inbound from the baseline with just six seconds to go on the shot clock. The Bulldogs kept tight to their marks, but with the shot clock winding down, Mangano got enough space to drain the fatal blow from near the top of the key. It was a basket that broke a 52-52 tie in the Elis' favor with 6:48 to play, but it also marked the end of the game's ninth and final tie in what had been up to that point a back-and-forth game.

Bryant would never recover from the momentum-turning trey, and Yale would outscore its visitors, 24-7, through the final seven minutes of the game.

Bryant turned the ball over six times in the final seven minutes, two apiece from high-mileage players Calandrillo and Maynard, who played 39 and 35 minutes, respectively. The visitors would finish with 17 giveaways on the contest. Their opponents finished with 10.

The Bulldogs also suffered from struggles at the line, going just 6-for-13 from the charity stripe, all coming in the second half. Yale converted 23 of its 28 opportunities from the line.

Bryant outshot its opponent for the second game in a row Wednesday night, connecting on 47.9 percent of its shots to Yale's 45.1 shooting percentage. Vlad Kondratyev (Nikolayev, Ukraine) paced the Black and Gold on the glass with six rebounds, while Frankie Dobbs (Berea, Ohio) dished out five assists despite being limited to just five points on the night.

The Bulldogs will have a two-day break before entering into arguably their hardest three-game stretch of the season. Bryant will travel to nearby Providence College for a Saturday noontime matchup before taking on Boston College in Conte Forum Dec. 18. The Bulldogs will wrap-up pre-holiday play Dec. 22 on a trip to the University of Arizona.