Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
0-2
Yale
3-1
Bison Men Drop Heartbreaker to Yale 63-62
11/26/2003 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 26, 2003
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Bucknell battled back from a 14-point second-half deficit to take the lead in the closing minutes, but Yale's Scott Gaffield spoiled the comeback bid when he nailed a game-winning 3-pointer with 16 seconds left, giving the Bulldogs a 63-62 victory Wednesday night at Sojka Pavilion.
Dominick Martin led all players with 16 points for Yale, which improved to 3-1. Bucknell dropped its second straight heartbreaker to start the season and heads to Niagara Saturday with an 0-2 record.
Led by 12 points from Chris McNaughton and 11 from Donald Brown, Bucknell got a huge lift from its bench, which made 14 of 19 field goal attempts and scored 33 points. McNaughton and Brown both made 5 of 6 shots from the floor, and it was McNaughton's layup with 44 seconds left that gave Bucknell a 60-59 lead. McNaughton was fouled on the play, and Charles Lee tipped in his missed free throw to make 62-59.
Yale came up with two huge offensive rebounds to set the stage for the winning shot. Paul Vitelli snared Alex Gamboa's missed 3-point attempt and was fouled by Chris Niesz with 20 seconds remaining. Vitelli made the first free throw and missed the second, but Sam Kaplan snared the long rebound and kicked it out to Gamboa, who found Gaffield alone on the left wing for the go-ahead trey.
After both teams used successive timeouts, Kevin Bettencourt missed a contested jumper in the lane. Vitelli rebounded and was fouled. He missed the front end of the 1-and-1 and Bucknell rebounded and called timeout with 2.1 seconds left, but Vitelli intercepted a length-of-the-floor pass and ran out the clock.
Yale took advantage of 13 Bucknell turnovers in sprinting to a 37-26 halftime lead, and Gamboa's 3-pointer in the opening minute of the second half gave the Bulldogs their largest lead of the night, 14 points at 40-26.
Yale still had a double-digit lead at 51-40 with 11:30 to play before the Bison mounted their spirited comeback. McNaughton ignited a 14-2 run with three straight inside buckets that gave them the lead for the first time since 2-0. A reverse layup by Niesz made it 53-50, and Bettencourt, who was 0-for-9 from the field at that point, drained a huge 16-foot jumper to pull Bucknell within a point. Two possessions later Niesz hit a 19-footer to put the Bison ahead 54-53.
After Yale regained the lead on Martin's basket, Bettencourt made another clutch shot, this one a 3-pointer, that gave Bucknell a 58-56 lead with 2:06 remaining. Martin's 3-point play put Yale back in front with 1:08 left, setting the stage for the wild last minute.
Bettencourt, Lee and Niesz all finished with seven points for Bucknell, which shot 46.3 percent from the field. Yale shot 45.3 percent and outrebounded the Bison 33-30. Draughan led all players with nine rebounds.
