boxscore

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – The Southern Connecticut State University men's basketball team dug itself into a first half hole on Saturday afternoon at Bryant and, despite outscoring the Bulldogs in the second half, the Owls could never climb out as they fell by a final score of 74-57. With the loss, the Owls fell to 6-18 overall and 2-17 in the Northeast-10 Conference. Senior forward Ktrice McNeill (Bronx, N.Y.) led the Owls' offense with 12 points on the afternoon, and freshman guard Andrew Zito (Windsor, Conn.) added a career-high 10 points.

The teams traded buckets over the first seven minutes of the contest, with Bryant holding the edge at 12-9. The Bulldogs opened up their lead via a 31-10 run over the final 12:43 of the first half to enter the intermission with a 24 point advantage at 43-19. Bryant's Chris Birrell led all scorers with 12 points, and nine Bulldogs in total scored in the opening stanza. McNeill paced the Southern Connecticut offense with six points. The Owls shot 9-for-31 (29%) from the floor in the first half, while the Bulldogs knocked down 50% of their 24 field goal attempts.

The Owls opened the second half on a 13-4 run over the first 4:41 to trim Bryant's lead to a more manageable 15 points at 47-32, but Southern Connecticut was unable to cut the deficit to single digits at any point as the second half wound down. Bryant connected on their free throw attempts down the stretch as they claimed the victory by a score of 74-57.

Sophomore guard Tocari Davis (Bloomfield, Conn.) added eight points for the Owls, as well as a team- and career-high five assists. Sophomore guard Trevor Harris tacked on seven and freshman guard Lance Long (New Haven, Conn.) netted a career-high six points. Senior forward Devon Sullivan (Jamaica, N.Y.) scored six points and hauled in a game-high 12 rebounds. Junior guard Terron Jones (Bridgeport, Conn.) added on five points and sophomore center John Mazzarella (Wallingford, Conn.) added three to round out the Owls' scoring.

Ezeokoli led all scorers with 19 points. Birell scored 14 and Barry Latham and Cecil Gresham each added 10 to make it a quartet of Bulldogs scoring in double figures.

The Owls return to the court on Tuesday, Feb. 19 as they wrap up their home schedule with senior night at the Moore Fieldhouse in New Haven. Southern Connecticut will challenge Massachusetts-Lowell in a Northeast-10 Conference game. The action tips off at 7:30 p.m. following a ceremony honoring the two Owls seniors.