THE MATCHUP:
St. Francis Brooklyn vs. Bryant
Thursday, February 28, at 7 p.m.
Brooklyn Heights, NY
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The Terriers (16-13, 8-8 NEC) return to the Pope Physical Education Center on Thursday, February 28, when they face Bryant (10-17, 7-9 NEC) at 7 p.m. The meeting marks the second contest of the year between the teams, who opened up the conference slate against each other back on January 3. St. Francis Brooklyn has dropped its last two games, while Bryant is on a two-game winning streak which is tied for a season-high. Despite the defeat against Robert Morris on Saturday, the Terriers clinched a berth in the 2019 Northeast Conference (NEC) Tournament thanks to losses from Central Connecticut State and Mount St. Mary's. It marks the second year in a row that the Terriers have qualified for the postseason conference tournament. With two games to play in the regular season, the Terriers could potentially finish as high as the No. 4 seed in the NEC Tournament.
ALL-TIME SERIES:
St. Francis Brooklyn has an 11-7 record against Bryant dating to their first meeting in the 2008-09 season. Bryant picked up a win in the first meeting this season between the teams on January 3, in Smithfield. The Bulldogs defeated the Terriers, 76-66, behind a game-high 28 points from Sebastian Townes. St. Francis Brooklyn had four players score in double-digits and were paced by
Jalen Jordan and
Glenn Sanabria who both scored 14 points apiece.
Yaradyah Evans poured in 11 points and pulled down five rebounds, while
Deniz Celen tallied 10 points and seven rebounds. The Terriers are 3-2 over their last five contests against Bryant and have won each of their previous two home games against the Bulldogs. St. Francis Brooklyn is 8-7 against Bryant under head coach
Glenn Braica and 7-0 at the Pope Physical Education Center versus the Bulldogs.
SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS:
After losing five in a row, the Bulldogs have rattled off back-to-back wins over Wagner and Mount St. Mary's in their last two contests. Bryant is currently tied with LIU Brooklyn for seventh-place in the NEC with two games to go in the regular season. Bryant has been paced by four players who are scoring in double figures this season. Sebastian Townes is the team's leading scorer as he has poured in 15.6 points per game and is averaging 5.0 rebounds per contest in 27 games (23 starts). Townes ranks seventh in the NEC in scoring, while teammate Adam Grant is tied for eighth with 15.4 points per contest. Grant is tied for the third-most made threes in the league with 74 and is third in threes made per game with 2.7. Byron Hawkins is third on the team in scoring as he's tallied 11.8 points per game. Freshman Joe Kasperzyk rounds out the Bryant foursome in double-digits as he's scoring 10.6 points per contest.
LAST TIME OUT:
The Terriers fell to Robert Morris, 67-62, in Moon Township last Saturday. The Colonials erased an eight-point halftime deficit to top the Terriers and gained the advantage in the season series with their second win. St. Francis Brooklyn put forth a balanced scoring attack in the first half, which saw eight different players record points with seven of them scoring four or more. Robert Morris held the Terriers to 25 points in the second half on 30.8 percent shooting from the field. Josh Williams scored 15 of his 22 points for the Colonials in the second half as he went 4-of-6 from behind the arc en route to the comeback victory.
Jalen Jordan finished the game as the Terriers' leading scorer with 18 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the field and went 4-of-8 from deep.
HOME COOKIN':
St. Francis Brooklyn is 10-2 at home this season; the 10 home wins are tied for the third-most in the league. Last season the Terriers posted an impressive 10-3 record on their home court. They went 3-1 at home during non-conference play and 7-2 during their league slate. Since the start of the 2017-18 season, the Terriers are 20-5 at the Pope. The 10 home wins are tied (also won 10 home games last year) for the most for the Terriers since they recorded 13 in 2014-15.
DEFENDING THE ARC:
The Terriers have been one of the toughest teams in the nation to shoot the three-ball against. Opponents are shooting just 30.4 percent from deep, which is the 23rd-lowest mark in the NCAA. Through 16 conference games, the Terriers have held opponents to only 30.4 percent shooting from behind the arc which is the lowest mark in the league.
NEC RANKINGS:
The Terriers have allowed the third-fewest points per game (70.0 ppg), and are tied for the third-best scoring margin (+1.1) in the NEC this season. St. Francis Brooklyn is the second-toughest team in the conference to shoot against, opposing teams are just shooting 42.8 percent from the field against the Terriers. Opposing teams are shooting only 30.4 percent from behind the arc which is the lowest mark in the conference. St. Francis Brooklyn is the fifth-best rebounding team (36.4 rpg). The Terriers are the third-best defensive rebounding team in the conference averaging 25.7 per game. As a team, the Terriers are blocking 4.2 shots per game and have swatted away 121 shots. They are third in the league in both blocks and tied for second in blocks per game. St. Francis Brooklyn is second in the league in threes per game (8.1) and have the most makes from deep (236).
Jalen Jordan is tied for eighth in the NEC in scoring (15.4 ppg), Sanabria (12.6 ppg) is 17th, and Hawkins (11.5 ppg) ranks 25th. Jordan is shooting 42.6 percent from three, which is the second-best mark in the league. He has knocked down 83 threes and is averaging 2.9 makes from behind the arc per game. The guard ranks second in the league in both made threes per game and total three-pointers.
Deniz Celen and
Rosel Hurley cracked the top 15 in field goal percentage. Celen is 11th with a 49.7 field goal percentage while Hurley ranks 12th in the league at 49.5 percent.
NON-CONFERENCE NOTABLES:
The eight non-conference wins were the most for the Terriers since they posted nine during the 2013-14 season. The Terriers went 5-0 at home during non-conference play. St. Francis Brooklyn recorded the most non-conference wins in the NEC, the most home wins (five), were tied for the most road wins (three), had the most wins by 10 or more points (five), and were the only team over .500. The Terriers were on a three-game winning streak from November 24 to December 3. It was the longest winning streak for the Terriers since they won four-straight (Feb. 18-27) to close out the 2015-16 season.
GS1K:
Graduate guard
Glenn Sanabria scored his 1,000th career point in a win over Niagara on November 24. Sanabria became the 32nd player to join the Terriers' 1,000-point club and the first since Brent Jones did so on February 5, 2015, against Central Connecticut. He currently is in 13th place on the Terriers' all-time scoring list with 1,307 points after he surpassed Anthony D'Elia who had 1,304 points. Sanabria is now chasing Vernon Stokes who is in 12th place with 1,336 points.
TERRIERS COACHING RECORDS:
St. Francis Brooklyn men's basketball head coach
Glenn Braica passed Rody Cooney for third place on the program's all-time wins list for victories by a head coach. Braica has compiled 131 wins over his nine seasons on Remsen Street. Braica is just one of four Terriers' head coaches to win over 100 games in their career.
NEC COACHING VETERANS:
Head coach
Glenn Braica and Robert Morris' head coach Andrew Toole are the two longest-tenured head coaches in the NEC as they both took over their respective programs before the 2010-11 season. Toole is the active leader for wins at an NEC institution with 164, Braica is right behind Toole in second with 131. LIU Brooklyn's Derek Kellogg has the most career wins of any coach in the NEC with 186 (nine years at UMass, two years at LIU Brooklyn).
TERRIERS INK QUARTLEBAUM:
On November 16, St. Francis Brooklyn men's basketball announced the signing of Trey Quartlebaum. Quartlebaum is a 6-foot-1, 170-pound guard from Lawrence, KS and attends Lawrence High School. He is originally from Dobbs Ferry, NY and plays AAU ball for KC Run GMC. The guard averaged 13.0 points per game during his junior year at Lawrence and was a Kansas 6A All-State Honorable Mention.
UP NEXT:
The 2018-19 regular season finale is slated for Saturday, March 2, when the Terriers face Mount St. Mary's on Senior Day.
