Bucknell University
9-1
Boston University
4-7
Bucknell Reaches Cable Car Classic Championship Game with 63-57 Win over Boston University
12/29/2005 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 29, 2005
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Chris McNaughton scored a game-high 20 points and Charles Lee scored 15, including six straight critical points down the stretch, to lead Bucknell to a 63-57 victory over Boston University and a berth in the championship game of the Cable Car Classic.
Now 9-1 on the season, the Bison will take on host Santa Clara in the title contest on Thursday at 11 p.m. EST. The Broncos were 63-61 winners over UC Riverside earlier in the night.
This one figured to be a defensive struggle between two of the nation's top-ranked defenses, and it lived up to its billing early on as Bucknell grinded out a 26-23 halftime lead. But the Bison, who were playing for the first time in a week, loosened up offensively in the second half, shooting 61.9 percent from the field.
Bucknell scored seven straight points behind a Lee 3-pointer, a McNaughton layup off a Lee feed and an Abe Badmus 17-footer to take a 37-29 lead at the 15-minute mark. The Bison stretched their lead to 10 points for the first time at 42-32 on Kevin Bettencourt's 3-pointer with 12:34 to play.
The Terriers (4-7), who had won four of their last five coming in, rallied late. Trailing by eight at 55-47 inside four minutes to play, Ben Coblyn sandwiched a pair of buckets around a fastbreak layup by Shaun Wynn, making it a 55-53 game with 2:21 left.
With the game on the line, Lee, a senior co-captain, came up big. He followed an athletic offensive rebound with a pair of free throws to make it 57-53, then after a Boston University turnover, the Bison milked the clock and Lee drove in from the right wing for a layup that pushed it back to a six-point game at 59-53 with 53 seconds left.
Corey Hassan, who was the only Terriers player in double figures with 16 points, made a pair of free throws with 45 seconds left, but Lee answered with two charity tosses and Donald Brown made 1 of 2 to give the Bison a commanding 62-55 cushion with 24 seconds left.
Brown was outstanding off the bench with nine points on 4 of 5 shooting to go with six rebounds. Bettencourt also scored nine and tied Lee and Badmus for team-high honors with five assists. Bucknell had 17 assists on 23 field goals with only 11 turnovers.
Bucknell shot 53.5 percent from the field, the sixth time in 10 games this season it has topped the 50-percent mark. Defensively the Bison held Boston University to 40-percent shooting from the field.
The Bison have now won four straight games and are 9-1 for the first time since 1957-57. It is the sixth time since 2001-02 that Bucknell has played in the championship game of an in-season tournament, although the Bison will be looking for their first in-season tourney title since winning the Pepsi/Marist Classic in 1999-2000.
