Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
19-8, 12-1PL
Lehigh
12-17, 7-6PL
Bucknell Captures 11th Straight Victory, 69-56 at Lehigh
2/21/2007 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 21, 2007
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - John Griffin scored 16 points, including six straight Bucknell tallies in crunch time, helping Bucknell to its 11th straight victory, 69-56 over Lehigh Wednesday night in front of a large contingent of orange-clad fans at Stabler Arena. Chris McNaughton added 14 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots while Abe Badmus tossed in 13 points for the Bison, who are now 19-8 overall and 12-1 in the Patriot League.
Jose Olivero and Kyle Neptune scored 14 each for Lehigh, which fell to 12-17, 7-6.
In addition to his game-high 16 points, Griffin also had four assists and three steals. He made 3 of 5 3-point attempts, giving him 11 treys in his last three games.
With the win, Bucknell remained in a tie for first place in the Patriot League alongside Holy Cross, which won 68-57 over Colgate on Wednesday.
The Bison shot 48.8 percent from the floor and had 19 assists on 20 made field goals, while committing only nine turnovers. Defensively, they held Lehigh to 32.6 percent shooting from the field and outrebounded an opponent (31-25) for the 11th straight game.
Bucknell led 32-23 at the half and by 12 points early in the second half before the Mountain Hawks made a serious run. After making only six of its first 28 shots on the night, Lehigh made five of its next six, including three 3-pointers and a 3-point play by Olivero. The latter brought Lehigh within 43-41 with 10:53 left.
It was still a two-point game at 45-43 when Jason Vegotsky hit a 3-pointer for the Bison, and after a Neptune dunk, McNaughton scored inside, then blocked a shot that eventually led to a fastbreak finish for Badmus and a 52-45 lead.
A Darren Mastropaolo layup off a nice backdoor feed from Patrick Behan kept the lead at seven, then Griffin took over. He hit two free throws to answer charity tosses from Zahir Carrington at the other end, and he followed with a long baseline jumper to make it 58-50 with 3:17 left.
Perhaps the biggest sequence of the game came moments later, when Bryan White missed a slam dunk for Lehigh, and Griffin answered at the other end by banking in a jumper from the top of the key at the end of the shot clock for a 60-50 lead.
After an Olivero jumper, McNaughton made two free throws to cap a 65-second possession, then Griffin stole the ball in the paint and fed a breaking Badmus for another layup to make it 64-52 with 56 seconds left.
The first half featured eight lead changes before Bucknell went on a 16-4 run. Trailing 17-16 after two Neptune free throws, the Bison scored nine straight points, six coming from the free-throw line. Behan made four from the stripe, Mastropaolo hit two, and Griffin made a 3-pointer to help the Bison go up 25-17.
Matt Szalachowski swished an open 3-pointer from the right wing to bring Lehigh within 25-20, but Badmus and McNaughton combined for four free throws and Griffin canned his third 3-pointer of the half off a nice kick-out from McNaughton to give Bucknell its largest lead of 11 points at 32-21. Carrington's free throws with 52 seconds left made it 32-23 at the half.
Bucknell's 11-game winning streak is tied for the second-longest under Pat Flannery and the seventh-longest in school history.
Bucknell travels to West Point to face Army on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. in the regular-season finale for both teams.
