Brown Handles Bryant 84-71

Brown Handles Bryant 84-71

The Brown Bears ended 2010 on a high note. The Bryant Bulldogs did not.

Friday afternoon at Brown’s Pizzatola Sports Center, the Bears came out firing early taking the lead on the Bulldogs. It was a lead they would never relinquish as they cruised to an 84-71 victory. 

Sophomore forward Tucker Halpern (game-high 23 points) scored the game’s first 7 points putting Brown up 7-0 less than 2:30 in. From that point, the Bears did a fantastic job extending their lead to as many as 26 points keeping Bryant at arm’s length all day long.

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Bears coach Jesse Agel was hoping that his sophomore players would play with the fire they demonstrated as freshman last season and they did just that. Along with Halpern’s outstanding shooting, big man Andrew McCarthy scored 8 points and was a monster on the glass pulling down a career-high 13 rebounds. Matt Sullivan added 12 points and 4 assists off the bench giving their coach exactly what he was looking for.

Seniors Peter Sullivan (8 pts, 7 reb, 6 assists) and Adrian Williams (14 pts) also played well for the Bears.

Bryant was led by freshman big man Alex Francis who scored a team-high 21 points while pulling down 12 boards. Bulldogs coach Tim O’Shea feels that the sky’s the limit for the talented Francis whose biggest weakness may be his free throw shooting (49%).

Sophomore point guard Frankie Dobbs, son of former Brown Coach Frank “Happy” Dobbs, finished with 16 points and 6 assists.

The win lifted the Bears record to (5-6) on the season and improved their all-time record against Bryant to a perfect (10-0).  Next up for Brown is a trip to Washington DC Monday to take on American University.

Bryant falls to (2-11) on the year. The Bulldogs play next on January 3rd when they visit Monmouth for a Northeast conference tilt.