Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Men's Basketball Hosts Army Sunday in Patriot League Semifinal Game
3/2/2007 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 2, 2007
WHO: #2 Bucknell (21-8, 13-1) vs. #6 Army (15-15, 4-10)
WHAT: Patriot League Tournament Semifinals
WHERE: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa.
WHEN: Sunday, March 4, 2007, 3:30 p.m.
TICKETS: Available ONLINE or at Sojka Pavilion Ticket Office Saturday from 3-5 p.m. and Sunday beginning at 1:30 p.m.
RADIO: Eagle 107 and SportsJuice.com
LIVE ONLINE VIDEO: Patriot League All-Access
SATELLITE RADIO: Sirius 118
COMPLETE PRESS NOTES
For the 14th time in the 17-year history of the Patriot League, Bucknell finds itself in the semifinals of the PL Tournament. The Bison routed Navy 62-43 on Wednesday night, holding the Midshipmen to 33.3% shooting while maintaining a double-digit lead for the game's final 24 minutes. Bucknell benefitted from the return of senior co-captain Donald Brown, who was spectacular against the Midshipmen (15 pts., 9 reb., 2 blk., 2 stl.) after missing almost a month with a hand injury. The two-time defending champs have now won 13 games in a row and 16 of their last 17. Bucknell's semifinal opponent is sixth-seeded Army, which pulled off the lone upset of the first round and won its first postseason game since 1996. The Black Knights stunned No. 3 Lehigh 47-46 on Josh Miller's coast-to-coast layup at the final buzzer. Army, which has two of the league's top scorers in guards Jarell Brown (16.9 ppg) and Matt Bell (14.7 ppg), is one victory away from its first Patriot League championship game appearance. These two teams met just last weekend at West Point, with the Bison prevailing 54-49 on Abe Badmus' go-ahead 3-pointer with 52 seconds to play.
with a victory over army, bucknell would ...
-- ... advance to the Patriot League Tournament championship game for the third straight year and seventh time overall.
-- ... win its 14th game in a row, which would extend the longest in-season winning streak in school history and become the third-longest overall streak in school history.
-- ... win its 22nd game in 26 outings since the 0-4 start.
-- ... reach the 22-win plateau for the seventh time in school history.
-- ... win its 35th straight home game against Patriot League opponents and 10th straight home game overall.
-- ... win its 15th straight game against the Black Knights.
-- ... improve to 5-1 against Army in the Patriot League Tournament.
-- ... win its 8th straight Patriot League Tournament game.
bucknell vs. army
The Bison hold a 36-14 lead in a series that dates back to 1929. They currently have a 14-game series winning streak, with Army's last win coming at West Point on Feb. 14, 2001. Army won the first 10 series showdowns, nine of them coming prior to 1966. As Patriot League rivals, Bucknell has won 35 of 39 meetings.
bucknell vs. army in the patriot league tournament
Bucknell and Army have met five times previously in the Patriot League Tournament, all five coming in the first round. Bucknell captured four of those games, including wins in the first two PL Tournaments in 1991 (67-49) and 1992 (74-55). The Bison also won quarterfinal games in 2002 (70-59) and 2006 (59-47). Army's lone postseason win over Bucknell came as a No. 7 seed in 1995 in a game played at West Point. Behind 43 points from Mark Leuking, the Black Knights shocked the Bison 94-78 in Pat Flannery's first tournament game as Bucknell's coach.
bucknell vs. army earlier this season
-- On Jan. 27 at Sojka Pavilion, Bucknell rode a terrific first half to a 74-49 victory over the Black Knights. The Bison shot 65.2% in the first 20 minutes, including a 7-for-10 showing from 3-point range, en route to a 43-15 halftime lead. Abe Badmus was the catalyst, hitting all three of his 3-point tries in the first half. Donald Brown and Jason Vegotsky led a balanced scoring attack with 12 points each, while Badmus and Chris McNaughton had 11 each. No Bison played more than 12 minutes, while 10 players scored a point. Jarell Brown led Army with 14 points.
-- Last Saturday at Christl Arena, Abe Badmus scored 15 points, the last three coming on a tie-breaking 3-pointer with 52 seconds left, leading the Bison to a hard-fought 54-49 victory. Chris McNaughton added 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Bison. John Griffin iced the game with two free throws with 10 seconds left. Jarell Brown led Army with 16 points, while Cleveland Richard scored a career-high 14.
bucknell vs. army last season
The Bison swept three games from the Black Knights last season, the last coming in the Patriot League Tournament quarterfinals.
-- On Feb. 1 at Christl Arena, Charles Lee did it all for the Bison, logging 19 points, five rebounds, five assists and six steals in a 67-54 win. Jarell Brown scored 25 points for Army, which led by 10 points in the first half and trailed by only one midway through the second.
-- On Feb. 25 at Sojka Pavilion, it was an emotional Senior Night as the Bison paid tribute to Lee, Kevin Bettencourt, Tarik Viaer-McClymont and Holland Mack. Lee (18) and Bettencourt (13) then combined for 31 points in Bucknell's 70-47 win, wrapping up the first 14-0 season in league history. Matt Bell paced Army with 16 points, while Marshall Jackson added 10.
-- On Mar. 3 at Sojka Pavilion, Chris McNaughton scored a game-high 14 points and Bettencourt and Lee added 13 and 12, respectively, to lead Bucknell to a 59-47 win in the first round of the Patriot League Tournament. Army gave the Bison all they could handle, however. There were nine lead changes and five ties in the first 17 minutes, and Bucknell led by only four with 10 minutes to play before taking control with a 14-0 run.
last time out
Inspired by the return of leading scorer and rebounder Donald Brown, Bucknell rode a 16-0 run late in the first half into 62-43 rout of Navy Wednesday night at Sojka Pavilion. Brown led all players with 15 points and nine rebounds, while Chris McNaughton added 14 points and eight rebounds and John Griffin tallied 10 points. Bucknell outscored Navy 35-9 over a 14-minute span, with Griffin's 3-pointer with 4:12 left in the first half giving the Bison a double-digit lead the rest of the way.
inside the navy boxscore
-- Bucknell's post rotation of Chris McNaughton, Darren Mastropaolo and Donald Brown combined for 24 rebounds. The Bison finished with a 33-28 edge on the glass.
-- Abe Badmus had a terrific all-around game, finishing with nine points, five assists and four steals.
-- Bucknell stuggled a bit from the free-throw line, making 16 of 27 (.593), but the Bison still outscored Navy 16-4 from the charity stripe.
-- Defensively, Bucknell allowed Navy to make only nine of its first 35 shots from the floor, including three of their first 19 3-point attempts. The Mids warmed up a bit late in the second half but still shot only 33.3% from the floorand 26.9% from the arc. In particular, the Bison shut down Navy star Greg Sprink, who came in as the league's second-leading scorer at 17.2 ppg. He was held to nine points on 3-for-9 shooting with eight turnovers.
-- Bucknell came up with 12 steals, its fifth double-digit effort of the season.
-- Jason Vegotsky got the Bison rolling with a pair of 3-pointers to start the game. He finished with seven points.
brown makes strong return
Even though they went 7-0 during his absence, the Bison were certainly glad to have senior co-captain Donald Brown back in the lineup on Wednesday. Brown broke a bone in his hand at Colgate on Jan. 30 and missed the remainder of the regular season. Against Navy, he did not start the game but checked in to a standing ovation 3:06 into the game. Brown made the first shot he attempted and had four points and four rebounds before being subbed back out less than five minutes later. By halftime he nearly had a double-double (eight points, nine rebounds), and he finished the night with 15 points, nine rebounds, two blocked shots, two steals and an assist. Brown was 7-for-15 from the field, with the 15 attempts a career high.
mcnaughton, brown earn all-patriot league honors
The 2007 All-Patriot League Team was announced on Monday, and Bucknell had two honorees. Senior Chris McNaughton was a first-team selection for the third straight year, making him the first Bison to earn three first-team nods since Brian Anderson from 1994-96. Despite missing the last seven games of the regular season with an injury, Donald Brown earned second-team honors. It was Brown's first all-conference recognition.
all-league notes
Bucknell has now had a first team all-conference player in 23 of the last 24 years, dating back to its days in the East Coast Conference ... in addition to his three first-team all-league citations, Chris McNaughton was also an all-rookie pick in 2003-04 ... the only other players in league history to receive some type of league honor (all-rookie or all-league) four times are Bucknell's Kevin Bettencourt, Rob Feater of Holy Cross, Mark Leuking of Army, Brian Ehlers of Lafayette, Pat Campolieta of Colgate and Matt Logie of Lehigh ... Bucknell's streak of five straight years with an all-rookie selection came to an end.
mcnaughton to break games played record
Senior center Chris McNaughton is expected to play in his 124th career game on Sunday afternoon, which would break Bucknell's all-time games played record set last season by Kevin Bettencourt. McNaughton, who has never missed a game in four years at Bucknell, earned his first start at Northwestern in the fourth game of his freshman year. With the exception of two Senior Days where he came off the bench, McNaughton has started every game since then.
bison back in mid-major top-25
Bucknell returned to the collegeinsider.com Mid-Major Top-25 Poll last week, and in Monday's poll the Bison moved up four spots to No. 21. The Bison were ranked as high as No. 2 last season, and they were No. 6 at the start of the 2006-07 campaign before the 0-4 start knocked them out of the top-25. For the complete poll, see p. 5.
streaking
Bucknell has now pieced together a winning streak of seven games or longer in four straight seasons. Its current 13-game streak is the third-longest active streak in the nation (through Thursday).
Team Streak 1. Memphis 18 2. Winthrop 17 3. BUCKNELL 13 Ohio State 13 5. Old Dominion 11 Southern Illinois 11 Vermont 11 Davidson 11
streaking, part ii
Bucknell's current 13-game winning streak is now the longest within a single season in school history. There have been five other winning streaks of 13 games or longer, but all spanned multiple seasons and none came after 1919.
Longest Bucknell Winning Streaks Under Pat Flannery (Since 1994-95): 13 1/17/07-pres. 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 Longest Winning Streaks in Bucknell History (broken up by): 17 3/1/1902 - 2/19/1904 (vs. Allegheny) 15 2/5/1901 - 2/11/1902 (at Princeton) 14 1/10/1908 - 1/27/1909 (at State College) 13 1/17/2007 - present 13 3/9/1906 - 3/9/1907 (at Harrisburg Collegians) 13 2/15/1918 - 2/8/1919 (at Lehigh) 12 1/7/2006 - 2/18/2006 (at Northern Iowa) 11 2/6/1920 - 1/13/1921 (at Temple) 11 2/1/1993 - 3/6/1993 (vs. Holy Cross) 11 12/4/2004 - 1/23/2005 (at American)
on a roll
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 21-4, with three of those setbacks coming to teams (Northern Iowa, Texas Tech, Holy Cross) with a combined 60-31 record. Since the 0-4 start, Bucknell has quality non-league wins over Xavier and George Mason. Five times they have come back from double-digit deficits to win (Saint Francis, Cornell, Lafayette, Colgate, Holy Cross), and eight times they have won by 14 or more points.
Team Record since 11/23 Pct. 1. Winthrop 24-2 .923 2. Davidson 23-2 .920 Kansas 23-2 .920 Memphis 23-2 .920 5. Nevada 22-3 .880 UCLA 22-3 .880 7. Ohio State 21-3 .875 Vermont 21-3 .875 9. Virginia Commonwealth 22-4 .846 Wisconsin 22-4 .846 11. BUCKNELL 21-4 .840 12. Southern Illinois 23-5 .821
who's got next?
If it can pull off a semifinal victory over Army on Saturday, the Bison would advance to the Patriot League title game next Friday, March 9 at 4:30 p.m. on ESPN2. If top-seeded Holy Cross defeats American in the other semi, the Crusaders would host the championship game. Bucknell can host with a victory and a Holy Cross loss.
