The Bulldogs’ 2-19 record is a little deceptive. While they have been blown out a few times, with four losses by 25 points or more, they have had their share of close games like Thursday night. The Bulldogs are 2-6 in games decided by single digits and 1-4 in games decided by five points or less. Those are stats that can sometimes determine the course of a season for a team.

“We just can’t catch a break right now,” said head coach Tim O’Shea.

This wasn’t quite how the season was supposed to go. While no one expected Bryant to be at the top of the conference, surely no one expected a 2-19 mark after 21 games. But a look at the statistic just mentioned lends some insight into things: last season the Bulldogs were 6-4 in games decided by five points or less. A team can’t win every game like that, but some pull out more than others.

About a year ago at this time, the Bulldogs were in the midst of showing the future potential in the program. They won four straight games in January en route to nine on the season, including a 7-11 mark in Northeast Conference play. With a lot of the core of that team returning, there was reason to believe this team was on the upswing, although they would also appear to be a year away as they have no seniors.

The Bulldogs have struggled in just about every statistical area. On Thursday night, they led in rebounding for most of the first half, but trailed at halftime and ended the game even in that category. They’re not as good a shooting team they were last year. Defense has been a struggle as teams have shot over 46 percent from the field against them.

O’Shea said a couple of things come to mind that this team may be missing. For one, there’s no clear go-to guy, whereas in the past Cecil Gresham held down that role. They have a couple of players who could take that role on, like reigning NEC Rookie of the Year Alex Francis or Dobbs, but neither has done it yet. He also noted that this team doesn’t have a lights-out shooter. Dobbs and sophomore Corey Maynard are capable of shooting well from deep, and Raphael Jordan has had a few games where he has shot very well, but none can shoot like transfer Joe O’Shea (Tim’s nephew) or Dyami Starks. When they become eligible next season, they might provide a sizable boost to the offense.

Despite the struggles, this is a better team than the record indicates. The Bulldogs have played a murderous schedule that featured only two non-conference home games and trips to San Diego State, Notre Dame, Providence, Boston College and Arizona. They are also in a conference that is better than last year; O’Shea described the NEC as “tremendously improved” since he took the job. Not only that, but the Bulldogs have to play each of the top six teams in the standings twice or solely on the road.

Through it all, this team is a few plays away from having a few more wins and possibly feeling better about their progress during the season.

“I really don’t think we’re far away from being pretty good,” O’Shea said.

Next year is the first year where the team’s record really matters. Bryant will be eligible for the NEC Tournament and its automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, and they’ll have a veteran team by that time. That’s part of what the growing pains all lead toward, and there will be a big goal in sight once next season comes. That’s what O’Shea and his staff have been building for.

Most won’t expect the Bulldogs to be in the mix, but they could be a sleeper. They’ll have the entire team back and add the aforementioned transfers. They will be experienced playing with one another, with additional help from an overseas trip that O’Shea is planning to take them on during the off-season. The non-conference schedule will also be lighter, with more home games, which means they could win more games early and have something to show for their efforts. The confidence a team can gain from early wins can’t be underestimated.

“Next year, I think we’re positioned to have a really good turnaround,” said O’Shea.

All along, O’Shea has been able to take a long view of things, and he’s kept a proper perspective on the situation. That has undoubtedly helped him through this season, as it’s easy to think it’s been very taxing on the soul but he says he’s managing fine and trying to hold it together for his team. Thus far, this team has continued to compete, so they aren’t playing like a defeated group, and there is good talent and a well-constructed team.

This season has had more tough losses than good wins, more close calls than breakthroughs. But the Bulldogs will come right back on Saturday against Monmouth and later in the season, as O’Shea and his staff continue to move the team forward for next year. They want to get some wins now, but they know there is a bigger goal, and they also know the team they have isn’t in dire straits.

“I can’t stress enough how much we needed it, because this team is young,” head coach Tom Moore said.

Both teams needed this game, albeit for different reasons. While wins have been hard to come by for Bryant this season, including at home, they needed it to gain some confidence in what has been a difficult season. Quinnipiac entered the game having lost four of five since the calendar turned over to 2012, with several games being tough losses. The four losses came by one, four, three and three points.

The Bobcats look like a team that’s a year away from being a contender. They’re a young team in a Northeast Conference that looks to be up from last year, especially with the contending teams as LIU, Wagner, Central Connecticut and Robert Morris all look quite strong, and Sacred Heart just beat Central Connecticut on Saturday. St. Francis (NY) is also in the mix at 6-2, which not many expected.

Moore noted that this year’s team doesn’t score as easily as the last couple of teams he’s had there, both of which were veteran teams. While they still score almost 72 points per game, they aren’t shooting as well as those two teams and are turning the ball over more than they did last year. In particular, they aren’t good from long range as they make less than 32 percent of their shots from behind the arc. Only senior James Johnson, their leading scorer, is a threat from long range that opposing defenses really have to respect.

“This team has to understand that we have to be almost maniacal defensively to carry us through parts of the game where we don’t score,” said Moore.

In particular, Moore noted that the Bobcats had not played well defensively in the second half of recent games. The statistic he was happiest about on Saturday was what they held Bryant to in the second half and overtime – just over 35 percent from the field and 22 percent from long range. While Bryant’s offensive numbers this season are not good, Moore knows the Bulldogs are capable of being much better than the numbers suggest on any given day.

For all the defensive issues, the Bobcats have been adept at finishing defensive possessions with rebounds. Quinnipiac is out-rebounding teams by more than ten per game and averages about 15 second-chance points per outing. On Saturday, they continued that, out-rebounding Bryant 51-34 with 18 offensive rebounds that turned into 21 second-chance points. (Bryant had just five second-chance points on the afternoon.)

“That’s one thing we’ve done at a high level all year,” said Moore. “I’m disappointed that our offense and defense has ebbed and flowed throughout the year, but our defensive rebounding, our box-outs and ability to swarm the offensive glass consistently has been amazing.”

Leading the way in that category is much-improved sophomore Ike Azotam, who is averaging close to a double-double on the season after averaging 5.1 points and 5.4 rebounds per game last season. Azotam was at times the best player on the floor in the first half of Saturday’s game, but wasn’t much of a factor in the second half and overtime. He’s had good help from freshman Ousmane Drame, who moved into the starting lineup after final exams last month and had 13 rebounds on Saturday.

Quinnipiac starts three guards that can all handle the ball some and give them a few options offensively. Sophomore Dave Johnson has been the primary point guard, although he’s been quite the scorer of late. Complementing James Johnson (no relation), who led the Bobcats with 23 points on Saturday, Dave Johnson had his fourth straight game with at least 15 points on Saturday as he scored 12 of his 18 points after halftime.

“Dave’s been terrific,” said Moore. “He’s got four straight games where he’s played at a really high level both offensively and defensively. He’s been flying around and not getting tired.”

Quinnipiac is now home for the next two games, before heading out on the road to begin February. They then play four of six at home to close the regular season, and there are still land mines left on the road as they still have to go to Central Connecticut and LIU. Moore said he didn’t sense the team’s confidence was flagging during the tough stretch, noting that even recently they bounced back from the losses and responded to the coaching staff really getting after them in recent practices.

The Bobcats finished a tough road swing with a much-needed win. Their hope now is that it can spur them on to more wins later after finally getting something to show for their effort on the bottom line.

“I was happy with a lot of it, for sure,” said head coach Andy Toole. “I was happy that we were able to keep some guys’ minutes in check, because when you go Thursday and Saturday, having a little bit of depth definitely helps.”

Robert Morris isn’t an especially good offensive team, although you wouldn’t know it on this night or in their prior game. The Colonials entered the night shooting just 40.4 percent from the field on the season and averaging 14.8 turnovers per game, and with 36 more turnovers than assists. They came in averaging a little under 66 points per game, a mark they surpassed before the halfway point of the second half.

Thursday night, none of that mattered. The Colonials didn’t turn the ball over until several minutes into the game and had just six on the evening. After shooting a season-high 53.2 percent in their prior game at Ohio, they shot 48.4 percent on Thursday, including 51.5 percent in the second half.

“It’s hard to be really good at both ends of the floor, so we want to make sure we’re as solid as we can be and as good as we can be defensively,” said Toole. “In the last couple of games, our shot selection has been really good, I think we’ve shared the ball very well, and we’ve taken higher percentage shots, shots that maybe we’re more capable of making.”

Where the Colonials win is at the defensive end. They hold opponents to 40.5 percent shooting, force 15.5 turnovers per game and out-rebound opponents by more than six per game. They can win by locking an opponent down or turning them over.

Robert Morris also showed what they’re made of with specialty stats, as they had big edge in points off turnovers (31-11) and second-chance points (29-8). That went right with the idea of getting points from the defense, as well as winning in the effort areas. With the easy baskets they got off turnovers, the field goal percentage goes up, and the offense doesn’t have to work as hard. They also didn’t give the ball away much, turning it over just nine times on the night to the 23 Bryant turnovers they forced.

The Colonials also showed their depth. They are nine deep, and all nine players had scored by the second media timeout of the game. Only Coron Williams, at 31.3 minutes per game, averages more than 30 minutes, and on Thursday freshman David Appolon played a career-high minutes, and they weren’t simply garbage time minutes in a blowout as he surpassed his season average of 7.7 in the first half.

Appolon could be the tenth man in the rotation. He was injured before practice began, so he had some ground to make up, but he seems to be getting there of late. His emergence would only make this team tougher to beat.

“If we can get him developed as we go deeper into Northeast Conference play, I think it’s just going to pay dividends for Coron Williams and Anthony Myers and Velton Jones if they can play a couple less minutes and be more productive,” said Toole.

The Colonials now have a 6-3 road record as they head into Saturday’s showdown with Central Connecticut in New Britain. That’s another sign of what this team is capable of, and Toole knows that’s a key to success in the conference. It’s also a sign of what the upperclassmen have done from a leadership standpoint, something he sees being shaped by the success of recent seasons when they were younger.

“They’ve been seasoned,” said the Colonial mentor. “They’ve been through a lot in this league, and I think when we’re playing really hard and playing together, I think we’re a pretty good team.”

The Colonials head into the showdown with Central Connecticut off a win that went about as well as they could have scripted. It was on the road, with the offense playing better and the defense keying everything, and their depth continued to develop and help them. It’s the kind of win that shows why they will contend in the conference as the season goes along.

In the first half of the Pioneers’ 83-73 loss, Gibson could hardly miss. He was 6-7 from the field, including 3-4 from long range, en route to 17 points. There was some buzz among those on press row about his shooting, especially since a couple of his three-pointers were not just barely behind the arc.

The second half was Gibson’s, and the team’s, undoing. Gibson was subbed out of the game with 14:26 left and Boston College up by nine after consecutive layups, one of which saw BC’s Gabe Moton go in for a layup with no Pioneer within about 15 feet of the basket. It wasn’t foul trouble that landed Gibson on the bench, as he had not committed one in the game, and he wasn’t hurt.

“He’s got to give us more,” said Bike. “He took himself out of the game and kept himself out of the game. That hurts not only him, but it hurts us. There’s more to the game than just making some baskets. He wasn’t involved in the game in other parts besides making baskets, so that’s why he sat for a long time.”

With their best player on the bench, the Pioneers fell behind 61-48, then rallied, scoring 12 unanswered points. Bike noted that he wasn’t going to take out players from the group that made the run, as the combination was clearly working, and one could understand that. Plus, Gibson’s body language on the bench wasn’t always positive.

Gibson later came back in with 6:05 left and the Eagles up by five. While he scored eight more points, the Pioneers couldn’t get any closer. He didn’t look like the same player.

Bike said defense was a concern heading into the season, and thus far it remains one. The Eagles came into the game shooting under 40 percent on the season, but shot over 55 percent on Wednesday night. They came in shooting under 33 percent from long range, and went 11-22 from behind the arc. They came in averaging over 60 points per game but scored 83. And for just the fourth time in 12 games, they had more assists than turnovers.

“The defense is not as good as we would like it to be,” said Bike.

The Pioneer backcourt is clearly where the strength lies on this team. Gibson and sophomore Evan Kelley are two nice scorers, with Kelley starting to move towards his potential and scoring 12 on Wednesday night. Chris Evans is a solid complement, and freshman Phil Gaetano has made an immediate impact that was even noticeable on Wednesday night. Gaetano had seven assists off the bench and has the best assist-to-turnover ratio on the team by a good margin at 1.7.

“I think (Gaetano has) helped in a number of areas,” Bike said. “His chemistry that he adds – I think guys like playing with him, he tries to rally the troops, he’s got a good assist-to-turnover ratio.”

The unit that has left a little to be desired is the frontcourt, although talent doesn’t seem to be a question mark. Justin Swidowski and Femi Akinpetide were largely ineffective against Boston College, with the latter fouling out in just nine minutes of play. Senior co-captains Nick Greenbacker and Stan Dulaire didn’t give them as much as they’re capable of, with Dulaire going 4-10 from the free throw line.

The offense has a concern as well: taking care of the ball. The Pioneers average 15.6 turnovers per game, and have had a few games with a high total in that are that they have lost. They had 22 in a loss at Rutgers, 18 in a loss at Richmond in the following game, and 20 in an overtime loss at Central Connecticut. Even more troubling is that Gibson leads the team in that category.

Sacred Heart goes to New Hampshire next Thursday for its final non-conference game. They went 1-1 in early Northeast Conference games at the beginning of the month, but could get into pretty good shape with six of the next eight at home once the calendar turns over to 2012. There are some issues to flesh out, namely at the defensive end, but there is certainly talent there to address them with. If Bike succeeded in getting across the message that scoring isn’t all that matters in winning, the Pioneers could be in good shape when February and its road tests roll around.

The fans saw a good game, all right. It just wasn’t by the team they were rooting for.

Central Connecticut dominated the game from the beginning, and did so starting at the defensive end while scoring the game’s first 13 points. They didn’t let Bryant get anything close to the basket for much of the first half, and when the Bulldogs missed or turned the ball over, the Blue Devils would turn that into run-outs and oftentimes an easy basket. They had a 15-0 edge in points off turnovers in the first half as they only turned it over four times while forcing the Bulldogs into 10.

The Blue Devils weren’t content with their first half, though, and it showed as they kept their foot on the gas pedal right away. They hit five of their first seven shots, including all four attempts from long range, and later built the lead as high as 36. Just over eight minutes in, they were 10-14 from the field and 6-8 from long range for the half.

“There was no coming back on them tonight, the way they played,” Bryant head coach Tim O’Shea said.

Central Connecticut coach Howie Dickenman thought back to their prior game, when they gave up 45 second-half points against offensively-challenged Hartford, for his halftime message to the team.

“We told our team at halftime we don’t want a repeat, where we let up and let Bryant score and get some easy shots,” said the Blue Devil mentor. “We didn’t want to give them a chance to get a run, because when you have as many good three-point shooters as they have, they can slice an 18-point lead in half.”

Symbolic not only of the night, but of how the Blue Devils didn’t stop until it was over, was a sequence with under six minutes left. Raphael Jordan hit a three-pointer off an offensive rebound, then lollygagged back up the floor as Robby Ptacek beat him for a breakaway dunk to put Central Connecticut back up by 29.

Central Connecticut has the NEC’s best player in Ken Horton, and he certainly showed that on Thursday. Besides the numbers, he was active at both ends and played like a leader. You could have watched the game without ever seeing a stat sheet and known that he was the best player on the floor. Horton had 32 points, three off his career high, and did so on 13-19 shooting including 6-10 from long range. Horton also led the rebounding effort with nine and continues to expand his game, as he’s significantly better than he was when he first arrived in New Britain.

But the real reason the Blue Devils will contend can be found in the backcourt. Guard play is hugely important in college basketball, and the Blue Devils have an impressive trio that has ironically been boosted by two freshmen. Robby Ptacek is the seasoned veteran and having an excellent start to his senior season, including 20 points on Thursday night and keying the defensive effort, but he has plenty of help with the conference’s best newcomer thus far in Kyle Vinales and backcourt mate Malcolm McMillan. Vinales has won the NEC’s Rookie of the Week honor every week thus far and leads the team in scoring, while McMillan had 13 assists on Thursday night.

The offensive value is obvious, especially on Thursday night as McMillan led a Blue Devil team that had 25 assists on 32 made field goals. But that’s not all Horton notices about the impact of the freshmen guards.

“I tell them before every game that they set the tone for us on defense,” said Horton. “Malcolm gets right in his man’s shirt for 94 feet. He did it on both ends tonight, he had seven rebounds.”

For his part, Vinales, who had 15 points and five assists on Thursday, has been eager to take the lessons the veterans have for him. In particular, they have helped him overcome in-game adversity to continue to be the productive player he has early in his career.

Central Connecticut was picked third in the NEC’s preseason poll. It’s no secret that the Blue Devils have a good team, and Dickenman has led them to the NCAA Tournament before and has established this program as a consistently good one. They have the seniors in Horton and Ptacek to go with the young talent that has been added, and Horton and Ptacek seem to be playing with the urgency of seniors that often helps win a conference like the NEC. On Thursday night, they looked every bit the part of a contender, and there’s still a lot of upside for this team.

LIU opened up with three games on the road, something which will be a recurring theme as Ferry noted the difficulty in getting non-conference home games. They lost all three, but none were against bad teams as they lost at Hofstra, Old Dominion and Penn State. While Ferry, like most coaches, isn’t into moral victories, he felt like the team got much of what they needed out of them.

“I thought in those three road games to start before we got here, we focused on ourselves more than our opponent and got better every day,” Ferry said.

LIU is a battle-tested team. Last season, they won a national-best 13 games on the road en route to a Northeast Conference title, showing their mettle away from home on a consistent basis as it wasn’t just this year that they had trouble getting non-conference home games. That helped lead them into the NCAA Tournament, and a lot of that team returns so there’s talent and winning experience.

On Sunday against Vermont, they showed a lot of that. They got Vermont’s post players in foul trouble early and often, getting the ball inside and showing a knack for drawing contact when they went up. LIU led the country in drawing fouls last year, and got to the line often for it. Thus far, they have continued that this season, and on Sunday they not only got Vermont’s best post players on the bench often due to foul trouble, but they got to the free throw line 37 times for a big advantage over the Catamounts.

“We’ve been averaging about 30 free throws a game this year, so it was not just tonight,” Ferry noted.

And when it was all said and done, the relentlessness of players like Julian Boyd made a difference. Boyd had 18 points and 12 rebounds and is a threat to put up a double-double almost any night. Jamal Olasewere also had 18 points and was a big factor, and point guard Jason Brickman has stepped into the starting lineup seamlessly after leading the Northeast Conference in assists as a freshman reserve last year. Vermont had rallied to tie the game at 60, but LIU went on a 12-0 run and took the game over from there.

Long Island has a balanced, experienced team that should have a chance to get back to the NCAA Tournament this season. There’s unselfishness, a feel for the game and the team is constructed well from a personnel standpoint. They’re now using the non-conference schedule well to prepare for the Northeast Conference, which is their ticket to an NCAA Tournament bid. Two wins in Connecticut to show for their efforts will only help them move forward more.

Late last month, it seemed like wins were not far away for this team, even though they were hard to come by. They were clearly improving, especially at the offensive end and with their backcourt. The offensive improvement is important because there have been plenty of occasions during the first two seasons where the defense was fine, but the Bulldogs’ struggles to score kept them from winning games. But now, the Bulldogs have shot 50 percent or better from the floor in three of the last four games.

“We’ve definitely done a better job of sharing the ball and getting each other open shots,” said guard Frankie Dobbs, who hit the winning shot with two seconds left on Thursday night. “We definitely have all benefited from it.”

Dobbs has been a big part of the offensive surge as the team’s point guard. Originally recruited be O’Shea at Ohio, he followed O’Shea to an area that is familiar to him, as his father, Frank “Happy” Dobbs was the head coach at Brown from 1991 to 1999. Dobbs has represented a big upgrade at the point, as Chris Burrell ably ran the team the past two seasons but didn’t have the talent or physical gifts Dobbs has.

“Frankie’s on a whole different level,” said senior Cecil Gresham.

That was in evidence on Thursday night, and it wasn’t just his game-winner with two seconds left. Dobbs had a game-high 25 points on 7-10 shooting, including 7-9 on three-pointers. He made them when they counted most, breaking a 56-56 tie with consecutive trifectas to key an 8-0 run. That came before the big shot from the left wing in the final seconds.

It also showed something O’Shea was quick to mention: he’s a winner. Besides being the son of a coach, he played at powerhouse St. Edward High School in Ohio with Michigan State’s Delvon Roe. Add in his ability to make free throws late and the clutch shots he has made this season, and it’s clear his numbers, impressive though they are, don’t tell the whole story.

“You can’t coach that, you can only recruit that,” said O’Shea.

For Gresham, a night like Thursday night seemed so far away a year ago, when an ACL injury shelved him for the season in the early going. His return has certainly helped this team given his experience, and although he struggled early on this season he has returned to look more like the player he was two seasons ago. Besides being injured, seeing the team struggle last year was not easy for him to deal with.

“It’s great to be back on the court after sitting out all last year and seeing the guys lose, lose and lose, and just felt bad not being able to do anything about it,” Gresham said. “This year, the knee feels great and we’re on a tear right now.”

The Bulldogs aren’t playing very differently from earlier in the season, but now they are getting wins to show for their efforts. Part of the difficulty of getting wins earlier in the season is the schedule. Other coaches without a lot of wins by the time January rolls around have pointed to the schedule, and certainly a team’s record is to a degree a function of who they play.

“It’s not like we went out and had a soft non-conference schedule – I think it’s in the top 70 – and a lot of those games were on the road, so it’s not a shock that we struggled like that,” head coach Tim O’Shea said.

Now, the Bulldogs have won four in a row, their first such streak as a Division I team. They are 4-3 in Northeast Conference play, the first time they have been above .500 in conference play. And as they are clearly turning a corner, there’s a different feeling right now. Helping out is that on Thursday, O’Shea felt they didn’t play as well as they had been but were still able to come away with the win, which he called “a big deal for us.”

O’Shea has been allowed to take a long view from the moment he took the job, knowing the transition to Division I is never easy, and he clearly got the players to understand it. It would be easy to lose a team with wins being so hard to come by, but O’Shea never really worried about that given the character of the players. They understood the difficulty of the transition and the schedule they were playing.

With a four-game winning streak and a winning record in conference play, attendance should be better in a week when students get back on campus. Some may come for Saturday’s game against Monmouth to get a head start, but next weekend will be a better barometer.

“Last year, we got good turnouts but we would lose the game and fans would leave,” said Gresham. “Hopefully this year we’ll get those fans back.”

Considering the improvement currently taking place, that would seem a reasonable possibility.

The Blackbirds won five road games in non-conference play, and continued that with their 75-55 win at Bryant on Thursday night. They followed the same formula that they have all season at the offensive end, with four players scoring in double figures and another one just off with nine. They showed a lot of unselfishness, and there was balance in numbers as well, which has been the case all season.

With a team like this, leadership can be an issue. So far, it hasn’t been, and head coach Jim Ferry isn’t looking to just one or two players for it.

“We try to establish leadership,” said Ferry. “It’s going to be a different type of leadership because it’s not going to be just one guy. We’re a pretty unselfish team, and it’s a matter of personalities blending together so we’re all on the same page. I think we’re taking steps towards that.”

The Blackbirds have three seniors, and the feeling is that the two who play significant minutes, David Hicks and Kyle Johnson, are showing the leadership one expects of seniors. In particular, Hicks is on a roll, as he is averaging 15.7 points in his last three outings. Julian Boyd, who had a double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds on Thursday, sees that, as well as the potential for what Ferry is trying to do.

“I think everyone on the team has the capability of being a good leader,” said the sophomore forward. “Definitely David and Kyle, our two seniors, they know this is their last year. Every time we’re about to play a game, they know it can be their last, so they always keep everyone focused and do a good job keeping this team together.”

Long Island plays with a lot of offensive freedom, which is mainly because Ferry demands so much of them at the defensive end. Boyd said defense has been a big focus for them because they give up over 74 points per game, and thus far it appears to be paying off as opponents are shooting just over 39 percent on the season against them and are turning it over 16 times. They play fast, so the scores tend to be high, but Ferry wants that to be better.

“We have to tighten that stuff up and get better defensively if we’re going to win a championship,” Ferry said.

One thing they are doing that will help them win a title is winning on the road. Ferry said they are trying to establish winning on the road since they can certainly win at home, and he feels that’s one more necessary ingredient to winning a championship. That’s why they go on the road often, which this year included four straight at one point. Their ability to win on the road helps their confidence, and Boyd likes the improvement from his first two seasons there.

The Blackbirds had a 19-point lead at the half, but didn’t let Bryant get anything resembling a rally going. The Bulldogs never got closer than 15 points in the second half, and LIU led by 26 at one point.

“It’s something that we’ve talked about over the last couple of weeks” said Ferry. “For us to make a run in this conference, we have to sustain that lead and try to expand it. I thought the kids did a good job of that tonight.”

Long Island heads into Saturday’s game at Central Connecticut with a 2-1 record in early Northeast Conference play. Their 6-2 road record suggests they could come away with another one, and put themselves in a good spot early in conference play. They could look more and more like a team ready to contend.

“If you look a the production we’re getting out of our freshmen and sophomores, we’re a lot better,” head coach Tim O’Shea said.

In particular, the perimeter is driving this improvement. It was a given that Frankie Dobbs, who followed O’Shea over from Ohio and sat out last season as a transfer, would make an impact right away. He would give them some quickness at the point guard spot and be a difference-maker against a press. One could also figure that senior Cecil Gresham would provide an experienced scorer now that he’s healthy again. The pleasant developments have come from a couple of freshmen, and that’s not all.

Dobbs has certainly done what was expected and more, as he leads the team in scoring, assists and three-point shooting. Gresham started off slowly, but has come alive of late and looks more like the player he was two seasons ago. Of late, freshmen Matthew Lee and Corey Maynard are showing that there is plenty of hope for the future as well. Sophomore Raphael Jordan appears to be settling into a reserve role and playing more off the ball, and senior Barry Latham is playing well in a more limited role.

Lee has been improving quickly. Sunday’s 15-point outing at Boston College was his second straight game in double figures and came in his first start, and he set another new career high with 19 in the loss at Michigan a few nights later. The Bulldogs were trying to gradually get him to the point of starting, and if he continues to play as he has he will probably stay in the starting lineup for a while. Maynard has been more up and down, but has a good motor and had back-to-back double-digit scoring games late last month.

The frontcourt has had an injection of talent from Alex Francis. The freshman has won NEC Rookie of the Week honors twice already and is third in scoring and leads in rebounding, and against Boston College he exceeded his numbers in both areas with 15 points and nine rebounds. Add him to sophomore Vlad Kondratyev, who’s been a little up and down, and they’re in reasonably good shape to start. Papa Lo and Claybrin McMath, the latter of whom showed promise before getting hurt last year, haven’t been used much, but McMath can’t be written off just yet because he’s still quite inexperienced.

The 77 points Bryant scored against Boston College is the most since the program went to Division I. Offense has been a big issue all along, and nowhere was that more evident than their most notable near-miss last season. The Bulldogs led for most of the second half against eventual conference champion Robert Morris, before going eight minutes without scoring and not scoring for the final two and a half minutes en route to losing the game.

In light of that, the offensive development is big for this team.

“We put 77 points up on a very good Boston College team, it gives me encouragement,” said O’Shea, still able to take a long view. “We’re getting better. Anybody that saw us a year ago and can see us now, we’ve made a big jump. We’ve got to build this thing so we can make another jump.”

The staff can see that they’re almost there. They want to win these games when they have a chance, such as last month’s tough home loss to Harvard, but they also have some perspective. They’re still establishing a Division I identity, they’re growing, and once Northeast Conference play starts in earnest should be ready to start winning games. They will be familiar with their opponents, which is always a factor that gets underestimated. They will also get more home games, which only helps even without the nice improvement they have shown of late.

“At some point, we’ll turn this into wins,” O’Shea said.

The efficiency:

Possessions, Offensive Efficiency
Bryant 67, 102
FDU 68, 115

The Four Factors:

Observations:

• About the only negative in FDU’s Four Factors was the 22 percent turnover rate. The inside game was so dominant, though, it didn’t matter as much. The Knight owned the lane with an incredible 46-18 points in the paint edge. The Knights were 25 of 42, good for 61 percent on two-point shooting. Granted not every two point field goal attempt is in the paint. But tonight virtually everyone for the Knights was.
• FDU’s inside prowess was reflected in offensive rebound percentage and free throw rate as well, as the Knights shot 31 free throws to Bryant’s 12. As the Knights pounded it inside, Bryant settled for threes. They did shoot 12 of 27 (44%) from beyond the arc and were able to trim two double digit-deficits to a two possession game.
• Bryant’s turnover rate was a step in the right direction. Under 20% is the target and the Bulldogs met it. Nice improvement for a club that entered with a (too high) 23 percent rate.
• FDU coach Greg Vetrone was very pleased with the play of Kamil Svrdlik. The 6-8 junior was dominant on the blocks with a career-high 24 points to go along with rebounds. A native of the Czech Republic, Svrdlik is providing a much needed low post game with Alvin Mofunanya graduated.
• Keeping a shot chart the last 12 minutes, you can see FDU’s inside prowess. The Knights had eight field goals, all in the paint (four in transition). Bryant had seven field goals. Among them five were three-pointers, one on the three-point line and one in the paint.
• Cecil Gresham, Bryant’s senior forward, had a “breakout game” per coach Tim O’Shea, leading all scorers with 28 points. O’shea would like more contributions from sophomore center Vlad Kondratyev, who played very well last year but has not been contributing as well to date.
• FDU improves to 2-3, Bryant falls to 1-6.