Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Men's Basketball Looks to Catch First-Place Holy Cross Friday at Sojka Pavilion
2/8/2007 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 8, 2007
WHAT: Bucknell (15-8, 9-1) vs. Holy Cross (19-6, 10-0)
WHERE: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa.
WHEN: Friday, February 9, 2007, 7 p.m.
RADIO: Eagle 107 and SportsJuice.com
SATELLITE RADIO: SIRIUS 107
TV: ESPNU
COMPLETE PRESS NOTES
The Patriot League's two best teams clash again on Friday night in a battle for first place as part of "Rivalry Week" on the ESPN family of networks. The ESPNU-televised game tips off at 7 p.m. at Sojka Pavilion. Somebody's winning streak is going to end in this one. Bucknell has won seven straight games, while Holy Cross has captured 12 in a row, the nation's second-longest active streak behind only No. 1 Florida's 15-game run. Both teams are coming off narrow road victories on Tuesday night. The Bison came away from American victorious in a 69-66 thriller that featured 19 lead changes and 11 ties, while Holy Cross outscored Army 18-2 in overtime to escape Christl Arena with a 70-54 win. Bucknell's last two victories at Navy and American came without senior Donald Brown, the team's leading scorer and the league's leading rebounder. Brown remains out indefinitely with a hand injury, but the outstanding recent play of veteran big men Chris McNaughton and Darren Mastropaolo, along with the continued emergence of freshmen Stephen Tyree and Patrick Behan, have helped make up for his absence. Holy Cross features two of the league's top players in wing Keith Simmons and point guard Torey Thomas, who lead the Patriot League in scoring (17.9) and steals (2.6), respectively.
with a victory over holy cross, bucknell would ...
-- ... win its eighth game in a row.
-- ... win its 16th game in 20 outings since the 0-4 start.
-- ... move into a tie for first place with the Crusaders in the Patriot League standings.
-- ... win its 32nd straight home game against Patriot League foes (regular season and tournament).
-- ... win its 5th straight at home against the Crusaders.
-- ... improve to 35-4 in Patriot League play since the start of the 2004-05 season.
the bucknell-holy cross rivalry
The Patriot League has deep-rooted rivalries based on geography (Lehigh-Lafayette) and military brethren (Army-Navy), but there has been no better basketball rivalry in the league than Bucknell-Holy Cross. Some of the highlights:
-- The Bison and Crusaders have combined to win five of the last six Patriot League titles, and they are the only two league teams to have won in the postseason (Bucknell in the 2005 and 2006 NCAA Tournaments, Holy Cross in the 2005 NIT).
-- These two teams have met 10 times in 16 Patriot League Tournaments, including three times in the championship game. Bucknell defeated Holy Cross in the 2005 and 2006 title tilts, while the Crusders topped the Bison in the final in 1993.
-- Excluding games against each other, Bucknell and Holy Cross are a combined 71-3 against the rest of the Patriot League since the start of the 2004-05 season. The Bison have not lost to a PL team other than the Crusaders since Jan. 30, 2005 at Navy.
-- The Bison and Crusaders had never met until the formation of the Patriot League in 1990-91, but in 16 years since then they have clashed 43 times, an average of 2.6 meetings per year.
-- Bucknell had won four straight and six of the last seven in the series before Holy Cross ended that streak with a 65-60 win at the Hart Center earlier this season. Bucknell now leads the series 24-19.
-- Bucknell is 11-7 against Holy Cross in Lewisburg, including 4-1 at Sojka Pavilion.
bucknell vs. holy cross earlier this season
Bucknell's Patriot League-record 23-game winning streak against conference opponents came to a halt on Jan. 12 at the Hart Center, as Keith Simmons scored 22 points to lead Holy Cross to a 65-60 victory. Justin Castleberry scored a career-high 16 points to lead the Bison, who trailed by 10 with three minutes to play but rallied within one in the final minute. Donald Brown added 13 points and eight rebounds and John Griffin had 12 points for Bucknell. Tim Clifford and Torey Thomas scored 13 apiece for the Crusaders.
bucknell vs. holy cross last season
The Bison swept three games from the Crusaders a year ago, two during the regular season and one in the Patriot League championship game. All three contests were sellouts.
-- On Jan. 14 at Sojka Pavilion, Bucknell raced to a 34-14 halftime lead and held on for a 56-42 victory. Chris McNaughton led the Bison with 15 points, while Kevin Hamilton had 18 for Holy Cross.
-- On Feb. 11 at the Hart Center, the Bison authored one of their most stirring -- and unlikely -- victories during what would become an undefeated conference season. Backed by a career-high 24 points from Charles Lee, the Bison trailed by 15 points with 16 minutes left but outscored the Crusaders 32-12 the rest of the way and won 57-52. Keith Simmons led Holy Cross with 13 points.
-- On March 10 at Sojka Pavilion in the Patriot League championship game, Kevin Bettencourt hit six 3-pointers and scored 23 points to lead Bucknell to a 74-59 win. Lee added 16 points and McNaughton and Donald Brown had 14 each. Hamilton (20) and Simmons (19) were high scorers for Holy Cross.
last time out
In a game that featured an incredible 19 lead changes and 11 ties, Bucknell came away with a 69-66 win at American on Tuesday night at Bender Arena. Juniors John Griffin and Darren Mastropaolo played starring roles down the stretch. They combined for Bucknell's final 10 points of the night, eight of them either tying the game or giving the Bison the lead. Griffin put Bucknell in front 67-66 with two free throws with 31 seconds left, then after Stephen Tyree came up with a big rebound off a missed layup by Derrick Mercer, Griffin hit two more from the line with three seconds left. Andre Ingram, who led all scorers with 23 points, came up well short on a desperation shot just inside midcourt as time expired.
inside the american boxscore
-- John Griffin was Bucknell's high scorer with 15 points. He made 4 of 6 shots from the field, including 3 of 4 from 3-point distance.
-- Darren Mastropaolo was coming off one of the best games of his career in his return to the starting lineup at Navy, when he went 5-for-5 from the field and had 12 points and seven rebounds. He followed that up against American by making all three of his field-goal tries for eight points, and he tied his career best with four assists. Mastropaolo broke a 61-all tie with a bucket with 2:43 to play, and he put the Bison in front 65-64 with two clutch free throws with 1:23 left.
-- Justin Castleberry enjoyed one of his best games off the bench. Castleberry made both of his 3-point attempts and finished with 10 points and four assists without a turnover in 21 minutes. His biggest assist of the night came on a nice backdoor pass to Mastropaolo with 2:43 left.
-- Both teams shot the ball extremely well. The Bison made 8 of 11 3-point attempts and shot 60.5% on the night (70.0% in the first half). American shot 68.2% in the opening half and 54.5% overall.
-- Bucknell held American to only seven defensive rebounds all night and finished with a 23-18 edge on the glass.
-- The Bison bench combined for 16 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists. Freshmen Stephen Tyree and Patrick Behan came up with five rebounds each.
-- Bucknell attempted only 38 field goals in the game but still managed 69 points.
glasswork
During its current seven-game winning streak, Bucknell has outrebounded its opponents 239-161 (+78). The Bison have walked away with the rebounding edge in eight of their 10 Patriot League games thus far.
going downtown
Bucknell struggled with its 3-point shooting earlier this season but has enjoyed a hot streak of late. In their two most recent outings the Bison made 11 of 22 from the arc at Navy and 8 of 11 at American. In its last five games, Bucknell is 40-for-83 (.482) from 3-point range. Individually over that span, Abe Badmus leads the way at 61.5% (8-13), followed by Justin Castleberry at 50.0% (5-10), Jason Vegotsky at 46.4% (13-28) and John Griffin at 43.5% (10-23).
righting the ship
Bucknell got off to a frustrating 0-4 start this season, with two of the losses coming in overtime to Wake Forest and Penn State. Since then, however, the Bison are 15-4, with three of those setbacks coming to teams (Northern Iowa, Texas Tech, Holy Cross) with a combined 50-23 record. Since the 0-4 start, Bucknell has quality non-league wins over Xavier and George Mason. Four times they have come back from double-digit deficits to win on the road (Saint Francis, Cornell, Lafayette, Colgate), and six times they have won by 14 or more points, including four of the last six.
streaking
Bucknell has now pieced together a winning streak of seven games or longer in four straight seasons. Its current seven-game streak is tied for the 13th-longest active streak in the nation (through Wednesday).
Team Streak Florida 15 Holy Cross 12 Memphis 11 South Alabama 10 East Tennessee State 10 Winthrop 10 Akron 9 Central Connecticut State 9 Butler 8 Albany 8 Marquette 8 Ohio State 8 BUCKNELL 7 Fairfield 7 Virginia 7
streaking, part ii
Bucknell's current seven-game winning streak is tied for the fourth-longest in the Pat Flannery era. The longest overall winning streak in school history is 17 games (1902-04), and the longest within a season is 12 games (1907-08 and 2005-06).
Longest Bucknell Winning Streaks Under Pat Flannery (Since 1994-95): 12 1/7/06-2/18/06 11 12/4/04 - 1/23/05 8 1/13/96 - 2/7/96 7 1/30/04 - 2/22/04 7 1/17/07-pres. 5 1/11/97 - 1/25/97 5 1/9/99 - 1/23/99 5 1/31/99 - 2/17/99 5 1/15/00 - 1/26/00 5 2/9/00 - 2/23/00
bison to host towson in bracketbusters matchup
Bucknell will take on former conference rival Towson in a non-televised game as part of the O'Reilly's ESPNU BracketBusters event. The contest will be played Saturday, Feb. 17 at Sojka Pavilion at 2 p.m. From 1982-83 until 1989-90, Bucknell and Towson were rivals in the now-defunct East Coast Conference. Twenty years ago this March, the two teams met in the ECC Championship game at the Towson Center, with the Bison prevailing 86-74 to secure the first NCAA Tournament bid in school history. The two teams have not met on the hardwood since the 1991-92 campaign, and Bucknell holds a 15-8 series lead.
second-half rallies
Tuesday's win at American was Bucknell's fifth victory this season and 12th since the start of last season when trailing at halftime.
milestone watch
-- Chris McNaughton how has 1,401 points, and he has moved into eighth place on Bucknell's all-time scoring list. He is 98 points behind Bill Courtney for the No. 7 spot.
-- Abe Badmus just became only the second player in Bucknell history to record 200 career steals. He is 82 thefts shy of the school record set by Mike Bright (286) from 1989-93. Badmus has also moved into fifth place on the school chart with 350 career assists. He needs 49 more to catch Cal Puriefoy for fourth place.
-- Against Texas Tech, John Griffin became the 12th player in school history to record 100 career 3-pointers (he now has 118, which is eighth-most in school history). Griffin needs 16 points for 600 in his career.
-- McNaughton is 13 rebounds shy of 600 in his career. He would become the 16th player in school history to reach that milestone.
who's got next?
Bucknell's three-game homestand continues on Wednesday against Lafayette at Sojka Pavilion. The Valentine's Day affair begins at 7 p.m. The Bison topped the Leopards 67-61 in Easton back on Jan. 17.
