SHU Begins Season Long Homestand on Saturday Against Bryant
1/29/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Sacred Heart (5-15, 4-5 NEC) vs. Bryant (7-15, 4-5 NEC)
Saturday, January 30, 2016 - 3:30 pm - William H. Pitt Center (2,067) - Fairfield, Conn.
Game Notes | Video | Live Stats
After six of its first nine Northeast Conference games were on the road, the Sacred Heart men's basketball team begins a season-long three-game home stand when Bryant visits the William H. Pitt Center on Saturday afternoon. The 3:30 pm tip will follow the SHU women's game against the Bulldogs at 1 pm.
Scouting Bryant...After winning four of their first five conference games, the Bulldogs come into Saturday's contest on a four-game losing streak, most recently falling, 78-67, at Central Connecticut on Thursday night. They are part of a five-way tie for fifth place, along with Sacred Heart, at 4-5 in the league standings. Bryant and SHU are the only two teams to have beaten first place Mount St. Mary's at the midway point of the NEC season. The only statistical category in which the Bulldogs are in the top three of the NEC is assists per game, 12.6, and assists to turnover ratio, .93. Shane McLaughlin runs the offense, leading the league averaging 5.5 assists and 37.8 minutes per game, while also ranking third with a 40.7 three-point percentage. Hunter Ware, Marcel Pettway and Nisre Zouzoua each score in double figures with averages of 13.7, 11.3 and 10.9 points per game, respectively. Pettway is also second in field goal percentage, 58.9, and eighth and rebounds per contest, 7.2, while Ware's 2.2 threes per game on 40.2 percent shooting from beyond the arch are both in the top five. Dan Garvin mans the inside, as he is fourth in the conference in rebounds, 7.8, and blocks, 1.5, per game.
Series History... These two teams first met in Sacred Heart's first ever season as a basketball program in 1965-66, with SHU prevailing 105-85 on January 25. SHU swept the regular season series in 2014-15, but Bryant came away with a double overtime victory in the Northeast Conference quarterfinals to make the all-time series 18-13 in favor of the Pioneers. The Bulldogs are one of two teams in the NEC that Sacred Heart has a winning record against, the other being Fairleigh Dickinson. Since Bryant became a member of the Northeast Conference in 2008-09, the Pioneers hold a 9-5 advantage, winning the first four and seven of the first eight. In the Wlliam H. Pitt Center, the SHU is 11-6 all-time, while Bryant now leads the series in Smithfield, 7-6, after the dramatic postseason victory last March. The only ever neutral meeting between the two teams came on November 23, 1991 at the Desmont Tip-Off in Albany, NY, when SHU was the victor, 95-87.
Last Meeting… Bryant's Joe O'Shea hit an off balance three at the regulation buzzer to force overtime, and after Evan Kelley's three-point play with 15.7 seconds remaining sent the game to a second extra period, the Sacred Heart University men's basketball team eventually fell to the Bulldogs, 91-85, in the Northeast Conference Quarterfinal held at the Chace Athletic Center on March 4 of last year. After the Pioneers went up two, 82-80, following a Kelley free throw with 3:04 to go in the second overtime, Bryant scored seven unanswered to ultimately seal the victory. Sacred Heart, who led by as many as eleven in the first, and did not trail until the 6:30 mark of the second, was by led Cane Broome, who led all scorers with 23 points in addition to four assists. He was one of six Pioneers in double figures. Scoring ten, Phil Gaetano was one assist shy of his third double double in four games, against zero turnovers in 43 minutes. Kelley added 15, including 7 in the overtime periods, five rebounds, and five assists. De'von Barnett contributed 14 on a perfect 6-6 shooting, despite only playing 20 minutes after fouling out towards the end of the second half. Jordan Allen, and Steve Glowiak scored ten each, as Alllen led SHU with six boards, and Glowiak and Barnett added five caroms each. O'Shea led Bryant with a career-high 23, 19 of which were after the first half. He went 10-12 from the line, and a near perfect 9-10 following halftime. Dyami Starks added 22, while McLaughlin finished with 18 and five helpers. Kostur and Dan Garvin were each one rebound shy of a double double, as the two ended the contest with 12 and 9 points respectively.
Career Numbers vs. Bryant...
NAME (GP-GS) PPG RPG APG MPG
Tevin Falzon (5-0) 7.5 5.7 0.8 21.8
Cane Broome (3-3) 19.3 3.3 3.0 37.7
Filip Nowicki (3-2) 1.7 3.7 - 10.0
Jordan Allen (3-0) 12.3 5.0 1.7 27.0
Chris Robinson (3-0) 0.3 1.0 - 4.3
-Allen's career high in points came last year at Bryant on February 7, when he came off the bench to score 24 points on 11-14 shooting in just 27 minutes
-One of Falzon's six double doubles on 2014-15 came against Bryant on January 24. He recorded 19 points on a career-high eight field goals, grabbed ten rebounds, and added five blocks in 26 minutes off the bench. He scored just eight points and grabbed nine rebounds in the other two matchups.
-Broome scored a game-high 23 points in the NEC quarterfinal after tallying 17 and 18, respectively, in the two matchups.
Home Sweet Home...Heading into the three-game home stand with 15 away games under its belt, SHU is one of just five teams in Division I basketball to have played four or fewer home games. Despite a 1-3 start in the William H. Pitt Center so far this season, including going 0-2 in the NEC, the Pioneers are 5-3 in their last eight on Coach Bike Court, as they entered 2015-16 on a four-game home winning streak.
Five Win Month... A win over Bryant would give Sacred Heart its fifth win of the month, something it has accomplished just twice since the beginning of the 2011-12 season, a span of 23 months.
-The Pioneers went 6-3 in January of 2013 and 6-2 last February.
Starting Five... Matej Buovac entered the starting lineup for Quincy McKnight on Wednesday night at LIU. SHU has now used six starting lineups this season after using four all of last season.
Sacred Heart's starting lineup in the previous four games, Broome, McKnight, Allen, Hoehn and Falzon, are the five Pioneers who have started the most games this year. Those five are now 3-2 together, as opposed to every other lineup going 2-13.
-Broome and Allen have started every game, and along with Hoehn are the only Pioneers to appear in all 20 games.
Finding the Three-Point Stroke... After averaging 3.8 three-pointers per game in its first six NEC contests, Sacred Heart has averaged 8.3 in the previous three, including tying a season-high with ten on Wednesday at LIU. The Pioneers shot at least 37.0 percent in each of those three games, a mark they eclipsed just three times in the first 17 games of the season.
Pioneer Points…
- Broome scorched the net for a career-high 38 points, making a career-high six three-pointers last time out at LIU Brooklyn on Wednesday night to raise his Northeast Conference-leading scoring average to 21.9, good for 14th in the NCAA. The total was the highest scoring output by an NEC player this season, as his 24.2 points per game in league play is 6.5 points higher than the any other player.
- Also with a career-high in points at LIU on Wednesday was Hoehn, who made 6-8 from the field, 2-3 from beyond the arch, and 5-6 at the line for 19 points. He had come into the game with just 20 points total in his first eight career NEC games, including being held scoreless the previous two. It was the first time he had scored in double figures, as his previous career-high was nine.
- Allen has now scored in double figures in back-to-back games after only doing so twice in the fist seven NEC games.
- After coming off the bench the previous ten games, Matej Buovac returned to the starting lineup on Wednesday at LIU. He started his first six appearances of the season.
