Bryant Bulldogs Blown Out By Yale Bulldogs 103-61 In Smithfield, Ikenna Ndugba Out With Shoulder Surgery Until January
The Bryant University Bulldogs came into their Wednesday night home game against the Yale University Bulldogs losers of two straight games against Navy and Brown. That was after their win on their opening night at the Chase Athletic Center against St. Peters, a 71-63 victory.
Wednesday night was not a fun night for the Bryant Bulldogs in their game with the Yale Bulldogs. Bryant fell behind early, and while they were able to make up some of the deficit, they fell apart in the 2nd half. In the 2nd half, Bryant struggled to make any shots as they shot just 29.6% and only 11.8% from 3 while Yale ran away with a 103-61 win In Smithfield.
The big story of the night was off the court as news came out that Bryant starting point guard Ikenna Ndugba will undergo shoulder surgery on Thursday. He will be out of play for the Bulldogs until January according to head coach Jared Grasso
Bryant’s First Half Struggles
The last time the two Bulldogs faced off, Bryant fell to Yale by a score of 84 to 67 out in New Haven, Connecticut on November 29th, 2017. In that game, Bosko Kostur, Adam Grant, and Ikenna Ndugba combined to score 64 of Bryant’s 67 points in the game. Unfortunately for the Bryant Bulldogs, this one started to get away from them quickly in the first half as they went down 21-8 with 12:31 to go in the first half while Yale was shooting lights out from the field, especially from 3.
While Bryant was down as many as 22 in the first half, they were able to match the length and speed for the final 7 minutes of the half as they were able to cut it down to 15. In the first half, Bryant let Yale shoot 59.4% from the field, including 8-11 from 3-point range. Bryant only shot 36.4% from the field in the half.
Bryant Looked Slow To Begin The Second Half
After Bryant went down by 22 points in the first half, they were able to match the speed and length to be able to cut the Yale lead down to 15. But coming out to begin the 2nd half, Yale went on a 11-3 run to begin the half. After that, Bryant looked noticeably slower while not getting back on defense to force Yale to take contested shots. This lead to a second half to forget for the Bryant Bulldogs as they allowed Yale to shoot 58.8% from the floor while out scoring Bryant 51-27.
Bryan Hawkins did lead the bulldogs in points on the night with 18 points on the night and Patrick Harding lead with 9 rebounds. But at the end of the day, the bulldogs had 19 turnovers and only 6 assists on the night. That is not a recipe for success for any basketball team.
Ikenna Ndugba OUt Until January Is A Big Loss
News came out today that Bryant point guard Ikenna Ndugba, who hasn’t played at all this season, is expected to be out until January due to shoulder surgery. They are basically hoping to get him back for the start of NEC play.
“We didn’t know until last week that (Ikenna Ndugba) was going to have surgery” said head coach Jared Grasso. “I kind of had planed to play a certain way a certain way. Losing him has kind of hurt on both ends of the floor for the style and system that I had put in because I had planed on having him, so we really have played point guard-less for the first 6 games”.
Grasso was adamant when saying that Ndugbas’ injury isn’t an excuse for the poor play out of the bulldogs. He acknowledged that they do need to play better going forward on both ends of the court.
