Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
11-8, 5-1PL
Lehigh
9-13, 4-2PL
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lehigh | 21 | 23 | 44 |
| Bucknell | 37 | 25 | 62 |
Bucknell Rides Big First Half, Strong Defense to 62-44 Win over Lehigh
1/23/2007 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 23, 2007
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Chris McNaughton tallied 15 points and 11 rebounds while Donald Brown added 15 points and seven boards to lead Bucknell to a 62-44 Patriot League victory over Lehigh Tuesday night at Sojka Pavilion. In winning their third straight game, the Bison broke a second-place tie with the Mountain Hawks and improved to 11-8 overall, 5-1 in the Patriot League.
Bucknell remained one game behind first-place Holy Cross, which remained unbeaten in league play with a 58-55 victory over Colgate on Tuesday. Lehigh, which got 18 points from freshman point guard Marquis Hall, fell to 9-13, 4-2, and dropped into third place.
The Bison, who are now three games over .500 for the first time this season, won for the 30th straight time at home against Patriot League competition.
For the second straight game, Bucknell was fueled by a strong defensive effort and dominance in the low post. On Saturday the Bison held Colgate to 36 points on 26.7 percent shooting, including an 0-for-14 showing from the 3-point arc. In this one they held Lehigh to its second-lowest point total of the season on 31.5 percent shooting (5-for-21 from long range).
Star guard Jose Olivero, who ranked third in the Patriot League in scoring at 16.4 points per game coming in, was limited to nine points on 4-for-15 shooting. No. 2 scorer Kyle Neptune, a 46.8 percent shooter (46.2 from the arc) was 1-for-12 from the floor, 0-for-6 from long distance and finished with three points.
With Brown and McNaughton combining for 30 points, and reserve forward Darren Mastropaolo chipping in another five points and five rebounds, the Bison frontcourt outscored Lehigh's 35-14.
After getting off to slow starts in each of the last two games, Bucknell came out quickly in this one, hitting four 3-pointers while starting 7-for-11 from the field in the first 10 minutes. Jason Vegotsky hit two of those threes, and McNaughton even canned one from the left wing.
Bucknell trailed 10-9 early but then held the Mountain Hawks to only a pair of Hall free throws over a span of 8:18. The Bison outscored Lehigh 14-2 over that span to grab a 23-12 lead. Hall, who scored 11 of Lehigh's first 15 points, buried a 3-pointer with 6:36 left in the half to stop the run, but McNaughton had a jam off a pretty bounce pass from Brown, and John Griffin hit a 3-pointer to push the lead to 30-17.
Another 7-0 run late in the half, keyed by Vegotsky's third 3-pointer, made it 37-19, and the Bison took a commanding 37-21 lead to the locker room.
Lehigh's best stretch of the night came in the opening minutes of the second half, when Hall opened with a 3-pointer, Phil Anderson scored on a put-back and Olivero drove for a layup to cut Bucknell's lead to 37-28.
Perhaps the biggest sequence of the game came a little over a minute later, when Olivero missed a transition layup leading to a fastbreak the other way and a layup for Brown. After a media timeout, Olivero missed another layup on an inbounds play, and Brown answered again, this time with an acrobatic double-clutch finish that he turned into a 3-point play and a 42-28 Bison lead.
Abe Badmus followed with a 3-pointer to make it 45-28 with 13:40 to play, and Lehigh never got closer than 13 the rest of the way.
McNaughton's double-double was the sixth of his career and first since he had 15 points and 10 rebounds in a win at Syracuse in November 2005. It was his second double-figure rebounding effort in the last three games. McNaughton also moved past Jim Wherry and Mike Butts into eighth place on Bucknell's all-time scoring list with 1,351 points.
Bucknell struggled a bit at the free-throw line, making only 12 of 22, but it allowed Lehigh only five points from the line in eight attempts. The Bison are now 9-1 this season when shooting more free throws than their opponent.
The Bison also corrected a recent turnover issue, posting a solid 14-to-8 assist-to-turnover ratio after recording a combined 40 miscues in the two previous contests. Bucknell outrebounded Lehigh 37-30 and now have a +37 rebounding margin in the last three games.
Now 11-4 since Thanksgiving, the Bison wrap up a three-game homestand on Saturday night against Army. Tip-off is 7 p.m. at Sojka Pavilion.
