By Samantha Simmons | February 10, 2023
During Wednesday night’s game against Bryant, the University at Albany men’s team lost their eighth game in a row and second loss to Bryant this season, 87-62.
Players warming up before the game
Photo Credit: Samantha Simmons / The ASP
This puts the UAlbany Great Danes 1-10 in the America East and sitting ninth in the conference, the Great Danes are 6-20 overall. Bryant is now 16-8 overall and 7-4 in the America East conference.
Senior forward Gerald Drumgoole Jr. led the Great Danes with 16 points. He added five rebounds with two assists, two steals, and a block.
Bryant Bulldogs’ guard Sherif Gross-Bullock led all scorers with 17 points in the first half and finished with 23 points.
In the first half, the Great Danes trailed behind Bryant almost immediately, with Gross-Bullock scoring less than 20 seconds into the game. UAlbany’s men missed three shots in a row, trailing behind 15-2 with fifteen minutes left in the first half.
Towards the middle of the first half, the Great Danes kept pace with 23-9 with ten minutes remaining, but it would not be enough to boost them within single digits of Bryant for the rest of the game.
UAlbany was down 51-25 before halftime, but with a buzzer beater layup from Drumgoole Jr. the Great Danes were able to bring the score up to 51-27. UAlbany shot 31% from the field in comparison to Bryant’s 47.2%.
The Bulldogs forward Antwan Walker had two dunks early in the second half with over 17 minutes remaining. The first came after a bounce pass from Earl Timberlake, a guard, and hammered in. The next came less than a minute later on a wide-open front court which led to a timeout from UAlbany.
The Great Danes were lacking in their defense against Bryant. With much of the court left open most of the game, Bryant was able to easily score against UAlbany in both halves.
UAlbany struggled with communication during the game. One player said, “I just asked you to look and you’re not looking.” In the post-game conference, Drumgoole Jr. said his teammates need to “pick it up and talk even more.”
Kellogg doubled his season high in points during Wednesday night’s game, finishing with 15 points. Freshman forward Jonathan Beagle finished the game with a team-high of nine rebounds and nine points.
Forward Aaron Reddish wrapped up the game with 11 points in 21 minutes of game play. The game finished with both teams walking off the court with five seconds remaining.
Bryant shot 52.2% and UAlbany followed with 37.1% in the second half.
With only five games left in the regular season, Coach Dwayne Killings said the men have not been “physical or urgent enough” this season.
Killings doubts some of the players' preparedness. In a similar fashion to previous games, Killings said, “we’re not bringing the level of toughness in there.”
Killings said the team does not currently have that “alpha male” who would be crucial in forming a better culture for the team. “We’re a little disjointed, our guys aren’t around each other enough.”
“Bryant didn’t do anything special. It’s about us,” and “we’ve got to get it together,” said Drumgoole Jr.
The Great Danes will play on the road at Binghamton on Saturday, Feb. 11 at 2 PM.
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