Bucknell Men's Basketball Visits La Salle Tuesday Night

Dec. 1, 2008

WHAT: Bucknell (1-4) vs. La Salle (2-3)
WHERE: Tom Gola Arena, Philadelphia, Pa.
WHEN: Tuesday, December 2, 2008, 7 p.m.
RADIO: Eagle 107 and SportsJuice.com
TV: None
STREAMING VIDEO: GoExplorers.com
LIVE STATISTICS: GameTracker
COMPLETE PRESS NOTES

With a Victory over La Salle, Bucknell Would ...

... earn its first road victory of the season and improve to 2-4 overall.

... defeat the Explorers for the second straight year.

... defeat the Explorers in Philadelphia for the first time ever.

... win a game in the city of Philadelphia for the first time since Dec. 28, 2004 (69-62 at St. Joseph's).

About the Game
Bucknell has two tough road games this week, first on Tuesday night at La Salle, then on Saturday at Wake Forest. The Bison travel to Philadelphia for the La Salle game with a 1-4 record on the season after suffering an 83-79 home setback to a senior-laden Wagner team on Saturday. Bucknell scored 48 points in the second half and had three players reach career scoring highs against the Seahawks, but the Bison struggled defensively for most of the night, allowing their most points in a non-overtime home game in 12 years. Justin Castleberry (13.8 ppg) and Patrick Behan (13.2 ppg) both rank in the top 10 in the Patriot League in scoring. Castleberry scored 31 points in a win over Old Dominion one week ago, while Behan had 27 in the Wagner game. Freshman Enoch Andoh took over the team rebounding lead at 5.8 ppg. La Salle returned four starters from last year's 15-17 squad (8-8 Atlantic 10). The Explorers opened with a 64-61 win over Morgan State, then dropped three straight close games to Florida State (65-61), No. 2 Connecticut (89-81) and Southern Miss (76-72 OT) before rebounding with a 75-70 overtime win over Valparaiso on Nov. 24 at the Paradise Jam in St. Thomas. Rodney Green, who scored 25 points against UConn, leads the team in scoring at 14.4 ppg.

How to Get the Game
The Bucknell-La Salle game will not be televised, however live video can be purchased through La Salle's athletics Web site at GoExplorers.com. The game can be heard locally on Eagle 107 (WEGH 107.3 FM), with Doug Birdsong and Ed Sigl on the call. The pregame show begins 30 minutes before tip-off. The audio feed is available free of charge via BucknellBison.com and SportsJuice.com.

Bucknell vs. La Salle Series Notes

Bucknell and La Salle are former conference rivals in both the Middle Atlantic Conference and the East Coast Conference.

La Salle has a 15-4 lead in a series that dates all the way back to 1903.

Bucknell's series wins came in 1903, 1904, 1979 and 2007.

The Bison are 0-9 against La Salle on the Explorers' home floor.

Last season the two teams met for the first time since 1982, with the Bison prevailing 67-66 on John Griffin's two free throws with eight seconds left. Justin Castleberry and Patrick Behan both scored 18 points for Bucknell, while Griffin had 21. The Bison trailed by as many as 16 points in the first half and by nine with five minutes to play before finishing the game on a 12-2 run. La Salle put on quite a long-range display, connecting on a Sojka Pavilion-record 14 3-pointers in 29 attempts, including seven treys by Darnell Harris, who finished with 25 points. The Explorers went only 7-for-29 inside the arc, however, with the last of those short misses a Ruben Guillandeaux runner in the lane that rimmed out as time expired.

Bucknell vs. The Atlantic 10
Bucknell is 33-87 (.275) all-time against the teams that currently comprise the Atlantic 10. In addition to their 4-15 record against La Salle, the Bison are 5-29 vs. Temple, 3-17 vs. St. Joseph's, 7-2 vs. George Washington, 5-8 vs. Fordham, 3-5 vs. Duquesne, 3-5 vs. Rhode Island, 1-4 vs. St. Bonaventure, 1-0 vs. Saint Louis, 1-0 vs. Xavier, 0-1 vs. Richmond and 0-1 vs. Dayton. Bucknell has never played Charlotte or Massachusetts. Bucknell is 4-2 against the A-10 since the start of the 2004-05 season, however, including two wins over St. Joseph's, a big victory at Xavier, and a 67-66 win over La Salle last season.

Last Time Out
Bucknell received career nights from Patrick Behan (27 points) and G.W. Boon (24 points), but the Bison could not get enough stops on the defensive end and fell 83-79 to Wagner at home on Saturday night. The Bison reduced a 17-point deficit down to two in the final minute, but good free-throw shooting by the Seahawks kept Bucknell from having an offensive possession with the chance to tie or take the lead down the stretch. Joey Mundweiler hit six 3-pointers and scored 19 points for Wagner, which won its fourth straight game to improve to 4-1. Four of those treys came in big moments in the second half when the Bison were trying to rally.

Inside the Wagner Boxscore

Bucknell's 83 points allowed were its most ever in a regulation-time game at Sojka Pavilion. The only visiting team to score more was Wake Forest in an 86-83 overtime win over Bucknell in 2006-07. The last time the Bison gave up that many points in a regulation-time home game came in an 83-71 loss to Army in Davis Gym in 1996-97.

The Bison went 0-for-7 from the 3-point arc in the first half but 9-for-15 in the second.

G.W. Boon's 24 points were twice his previous career high of 12 points, set last season against Long Beach State. Boon canned four second-half three pointers, including three on three consecutive possessions to spark Bucknell's rally. Boon also went 6-for-6 from the foul line and finished 7-for-14 from the field.

Patrick Behan's career-high 27 points came on 11-for-19 shooting from the floor and 4-for-4 accuracy from the foul line. Behan also hit his first 3-pointer of the season and added six rebounds.

Behan became the first Bison to make 10 field goals in a game since Chris McNaughton against Villanova on Dec. 6, 2005.

Part of Bucknell's defensive struggles could be attributed to defensive ace Bryan Cohen's illness. Cohen was battling flu-like symptoms throughout the day and was limited to only 18 minutes of action. Cohen was held scoreless for the first time this season.

As of a week ago Darryl Shazier had never scored in double figures in a game, but now he has back-to-back 14-point efforts. Against Wagner he went 3-for-5 from 3-point distance and 5-for-10 from the floor overall. Shazier also dished six assists, right on his league-leading average.

Freshman Enoch Andoh had a solid game off the bench, finishing with eight points and nine rebounds in 21 minutes.

Justin Castleberry could not repeat his 31-point performance from the Old Dominion game, finishing with four points on 1-for-5 shooting from the floor. But Castleberry did chip in with four rebounds, three assists and a career-high-tying five steals.

Bucknell had a positive assist-to-turnover ratio (15-13) for the second game in a row.

20-20-20-20 Vision
In only five games Bucknell has already had four different players produce a 20-point game. Bryan Cohen scored 22 against Saint Francis (Pa.) on Nov. 22. Justin Castlberry had 31 against Old Dominion last Tuesday, and Patrick Behan (27) and G.W. Boon (24) both topped the 20-point plateau on Saturday against Wagner. The last time four different Bison had 20-point games in a season was all the way back in 2003-04, when Kevin Bettencourt, Donald Brown, Charles Lee and Chris McNaughton had at least one apiece.

Behan, Boon Achieve Rarity
Before Patrick Behan and G.W. Boon did it on Saturday, the last time two Bucknell players scored 24 or more points in the same game was Dec. 4, 1996, when Gordon Mboya scored 26 points and J.R. Holden had 24 in an 81-57 win over Delaware.

Shazier Leads League in Assists ...
Point guard Darryl Shazier is averaging 6.0 assists per game, tops in the Patriot League. In 195 minutes this season, he has 30 assists against 11 turnovers. He is the first Bison to record 30 assists in the first five games of a season since Russell Peyton also had 30 to start the 1992-93 campaign. Since the assists statistic became official in 1975-76, no Bucknell player has recorded a triple-double, but Shazier almost achieved the feat against ODU when he had 14 points, nine rebounds and nine assists.

... and Castleberry in Steals
Justin Castlberry came up with five more steals against Wagner, tying his career high and giving him 13 thefts in his last four games. Castleberry now owns the Patriot League lead in that category at 2.6 per game.

Putting the “Free” Back in Free Throw
Bucknell had a difficult time from the free-throw line in its first three games of the season, when it made only 30 of 60 (.500) as a team. In the last two games, however, the Bison have made 32 of 39 (.821), including 20 of 24 against Wagner.

There's The Difference
Bucknell has been outscored by a total of 45 points (386-341) on the season, and 43 points of that differential has come at the foul line, where the Bison have been outscored 107-64. Bucknell has the same number of 3-pointers and only one fewer total field goal than its opponents so far.

40 not Enough

Never before in its 114-year history had Bucknell played three consecutive overtime games until it did so earlier this season against Boston University, Saint Francis (Pa.) and Old Dominion.

Had the Bison rallied to force overtime against Wagner on Saturday, they would have tied the national record. Jacksonville (1982), Illinois State (1985) and Dayton (1988) all played four straight overtime games to share the NCAA mark.

Bucknell's recent overtime run brings back memories of the 1994-95 season — Charlie Woollum's last as Bison head coach — when the team went to overtime five times in a span of eight games, including two double-overtime games.

On a trivial note, the Bucknell men's soccer team also set a school record for most consecutive overtime games this season. The Bison played five in a row and eight total, also a record.

Freshmen Feats
Bucknell currently boasts the Patriot League's top-scoring freshman in Bryan Cohen (10.6 ppg) and the league's No. 2 freshman rebounder in Enoch Andoh (5.8 rpg). Only Lafayette's Ryan Willen (6.2) is averaging more rebounds than Andoh among PL rookies.

Who's Got Next?
Bucknell travels to Wake Forest on Saturday for a 7:30 p.m. tip at the Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem. The Demon Deacons (6-0), who defeated the Bison 72-56 last season, are ranked No. 17 in the nation and are coming off a championship at the 76 Classic in Anaheim, Calif.

Bucknell University Athletics

Bucknell Men's Basketball Visits La Salle Tuesday Night

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