Bucknell University
3-3
Saint Francis (Pa.)
2-3
Bucknell Men Survive Late Flurry, Defeat Saint Francis, 57-54
12/7/2002 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 7, 2002
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Senior Boakai Lalugba scored 24 points and tied his career-high with 16 rebounds to lead Bucknell to a 57-54 victory over Saint Francis (Pa.) Saturday before 1,324 in Davis Gym.
Lalugba made his first eight field goals in the game, the second of which gave him 1,000 career points. Lalugba is Bucknell's 29th 1,000-point scorer, and he is also the 14th player in school history to amass 1,000 points and 500 rebounds.
Bucknell improved to 3-3 on the season, while Saint Francis fell to 2-3.
Freshman Kevin Bettencourt scored 12 points for the Bison, and his layup with 7:58 remaining gave Bucknell a 52-39 lead. But Bucknell had to survive a furious comeback attempt by Saint Francis, who outscored the Bison 13-3 down the stretch and cut the deficit to two points at 55-53 on Erick Wills 3-pointer from the right corner with 1:41 remaining.
The Red Flash, who shot a school-record 21-for-21 from the free throw line in Wednesday's win over Youngstown State, had two chances to tie the game from the line in the final minute but came away empty. With 52 seconds remaining Rodney Gibson missed two free throws, and Wills missed the front end of a one-and-one with 36 seconds to play.
Bucknell, which was 0-for-7 from the field with six turnovers in the final 7:58, got two clutch free throws from Matt Quinn to push the lead to four with 22 seconds left. Darshan Luckey made 1 of 2 free throws with 13 seconds left to make it 57-54 and after a Brian Werner miss from the line, Dan Swoger's off-balance 18-footer was well off the mark as time expired.
In the opening half the Bison sandwiched 8-0 and 12-0 runs around a 7-0 Red Flash spurt to take a game-high 14-point lead at 32-18 with 5:16 remaining. Wills' breakaway layup just before the halftime buzzer cut Bucknell's lead to nine at 35-26 at intermission, but a 12-3 run midway through the second half built the lead back into double digits, setting the stage for Saint Francis' comeback attempt.
Luckey, who is Saint Francis' leading scorer as a freshman, hit his average with 23 points. Wills finished with 15 points and six rebounds.
Lalugba, who finished 9 of 12 from the floor and 6 of 8 from the foul line, logged his fifth straight double-double. He helped Bucknell outrebound Saint Francis 36-29.
The Bison shot 62.5 percent from the field in the first half but cooled to 30.0 percent in the second. The Red Flash shot 36.4 percent for the game.
Bucknell hosts FDU-Florham on Monday evening, while Saint Francis hosts Robert Morris next Saturday in its Northeast Conference opener.
