In biggest moments against Syracuse, Bryant showed it was ready to fight - literally and figuratively

Sherif Gross-Bullock didn’t think. His coach didn’t leave him any time to and trusted Gross-Bullock to make a play.

And then he made one of the biggest in Bryant basketball history.

The Bulldogs walked into JMA Wireless Dome on Saturday unafraid of the environment or the Syracuse name. It walked out with a 73-72 win that saw a skirmish, mass ejections, a Bryant double-digit lead and a Syracuse comeback before Gross-Bullock won the game with a floater in the lane – a shot made famous on that very court – with 0.8 seconds left to earn a win two years in the making.

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“Our guys found a way to win and it’s a credit to them. It’s what we’re about – we’re tough, we’re competitive, we’re mean, we’re nasty,” Bryant coach Jared Grasso said. “It’s what we want to be. To win a game like this, it’s what you have to be.”

“We’re building something big,” Gross-Bullock said. “This win just gave us all the confidence we need to go and play other schools.”

There aren’t many schools in the area (or state, for that matter) who want to play Bryant and Saturday showed why.

The Bulldogs are a mid-major in name only. They aren’t easily intimidated by the bright lights of big arenas or blue blood flowing through the veins of opponents who pay Bryant to travel to play. These Bulldogs bark and bite and did both against Syracuse.

Gross-Bullock and his teammates had every reason to fold and accept the morale victory after seeing their 13-point second-half lead disappear in the final minutes of the game.

Instead, they made plays and Gross-Bullock made a bunch of them. His steal and dunk with 24 seconds left took the lead back from Syracuse after a home-cooked technical foul call on Antwan Walker put the Orange in good position to finish the game off.

Gross-Bullock had a chance to finish things off but missed a pair of free throws. Syracuse’s Joseph Girard was fouled with 8.1 seconds left and made both to put the Orange up 72-71.

Grasso could have called a timeout, but didn’t. He put faith in the five he had out on the court, especially Gross-Bullock.

Gross-Bullock took the ball and never let it go. His brain said pass but his body said something else and went into auto-pilot, to the countless practices he’s had with one particular shot. The 6-foot-5 Gross-Bullock drove and unleashed a floater that barely cleared the fingertips on the outstretched arms of Syracuse’s 6-foot-11 center Peter Carey.

It was ‘The Sherm.’ The shot is familiar to anyone with a modest knowledge of Syracuse basketball history as it was made famous by former Orangeman Sherman Douglas in the 1980s. For Gross-Bullock, it was just a shot he knew because his coaches made him practice it daily. As he fell to the floor he could only watch as the ball landed softly on the rim and rolled toward the edge before dropping in.

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“I didn’t even know I was going to shoot it like that. It was just a regular shot,” Gross-Bullock said. “My coach came to me and said ‘You shoot the same shot every day in practice, that’s why I get on you to shoot those shots because in games like that you might needed it at the end. We needed it and I hit it.

“I thought it was going to roll out until it went in. I was falling down on the ground, waiting for it to go in. It was a good shot.”

“I have all the confidence in the world in Sharif Gross-Bullock,” Grasso said. “… I told him to go make a play. I thought about calling a timeout, but I said we’re going to play this out. We’re going to put the ball in his hands, go play a play, he’s confident and does it every day in practice and I’m no surprised he went and made a play.”

The win came one day shy of the two-year anniversary of when Bryant nearly beat Syracuse the first time in an 85-84 loss remembered more for Grasso’s refusal to kiss the ring of Jim Boeheim after the Hall of Fame coach whined that game shouldn’t have been played.

On Saturday, the two coaches exchanged words following the postgame handshake. Grasso said he wasn’t sure exactly what Boeheim said other than it was something to do with the handshake line. In Boeheim’s press conference, the coach said two Bryant players ran off the court and didn’t take part in the handshake line and Grasso’s apology for it was “sarcastic” and wasn’t accepted.

Paying a team to come to your gym only to get beat in that fashion would irk anyone.

Bryant used its 3-point shooting to jump out quick to start the game and led 25-17 with 7:35 left when Syracuse’s Judah Mintz and Doug Edert got tangled up. Mintz slapped Edert in the face as he walked past. Edert responded and immediately realized he had made a mistake as Syracuse’s 6-10, 216-pound John Bol Ajak came charging at him to defend his teammate.

While nothing escalated from there, players and coaches were tossed from the game. Ajak and Mintz were both ejected for Syracuse and the Bulldogs lost Edert, as well as Tyler Brelsford and Kvonn Cramer and assistant coach Phil Martelli Jr. for coming off the bench during the skirmish.

Instead of letting the moment break them, the Bulldogs let it bond them and grew the lead as big as 12 before going into the half up 40-29.

“There’s going to be adversity and you have to figure out a way to get through it,” Grasso said. “It’s the kind of adversity you never expect to happen. You can’t prepare for that.”

“To have some of our guys go out of the game, we wanted to play for them,” Gross-Bullock said. “… It definitely added fuel to the game and got us going.”

While it may have temporarily helped, the absence of key players - including marksmen Edert and Cramer - shortened Bryant’s bench and may have led to tired legs that led to tired shots because in the second half, balls that were dropping in the first half suddenly weren’t.

“Every game has been like that. There’s going to be runs because of the pace we play at and the way we play,” Grasso said. “We didn’t shoot the ball particularly well from the 3-point line in the second half. Fatigue may have had something to do with it.”

Syracuse slowly chipped away and took its first lead of the game on a Chris Bell 3-pointer with 1:30 left to play. Walker took it back but on the next play was called for his fifth foul. Immediately after the whistle he ran toward his bench in frustration and was given a technical foul on the way there. The broadcast crew said it was called on the bench, but Grasso said he hadn’t been given one all season and the ref never made an indication who the call was on.

Syracuse’s Justin Taylor made three of four free throws to put the Orange up 69-67 with 50.8 seconds left. Bryant’s Earl Timberlake was fouled and made a pair with 39.5 to go to tie the game before Gross-Bullock and the Bulldogs pushed through to give the program the biggest regular-season win in its history.

“We’ve come a long way. It’s about our player,” Grasso said. “We’ve had guys that have taken a chance on us and our product and believe in what we’re trying to do,” Grasso said. “… It’s a credit to them we’ve been able to build this.”

BRYANT (73): Walker 6-13 6-6 18, Edert 1-4 0-0 3, Gross-Bullock 6-12 0-3 15, Pride 4-11 4-4 13, Timberlake 4-10 5-6 13, Latimer 2-6 3-4 9, Mosher 0-3 0-0 0, Cramer 1-1 0-0 2, Moon 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-60 18-23 73. SYRACUSE (72): Bell 6-13 0-0 14, Williams 0-1 0-0 0, Edwards 5-9 2-5 12, Girard 1-12 2-2 5, Mintz 2-7 3-3 7, Ajak 1-3 0-0 2, Taylor 6-9 10-13 25, Torrence 3-6 1-1 7, Carey 0-0 0-0 0, Brown 0-0 0-0 0, Copeland 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-60 18-24 72.

Halftime_Bryant 40-29. 3-Point Goals_Bryant 7-28 (Gross-Bullock 3-7, Latimer 2-4, Edert 1-4, Pride 1-6, Mosher 0-3, Walker 0-4), Syracuse 6-24 (Taylor 3-6, Bell 2-7, Girard 1-8, Mintz 0-1, Torrence 0-2). Fouled Out_Walker, Timberlake, Edwards. Rebounds_Bryant 30 (Walker 11), Syracuse 42 (Edwards 21). Assists_Bryant 12 (Pride, Timberlake 3), Syracuse 13 (Ajak 4). Total Fouls_Bryant 19, Syracuse 23. A_15,892 (35,446).

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Bryant men's basketball team beats Syracuse on last-second shot