Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Men's Basketball Returns to New York to Face Wagner Saturday Night
11/25/2009 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 25, 2009
WHAT: Bucknell (3-3) vs. Wagner (0-3)
WHERE: Spiro Sports Center, Staten Island, N.Y.
WHEN: Saturday, November 28, 7 p.m.
RADIO: Eagle 107 and SportsJuice.com
TV: None
LIVE STATISTICS: wagnerathletics.com
Complete Release in PDF Format 
With a Win Over Wagner, the Bison Would ...
+ ... get back over .500 at 4-3 on the season.
+ ... snap a two-game losing streak to the Seahawks.
+ ... improve to 4-6 all-time against the Seahawks.
+ ... win a game in one of New York's five boroughs for the first time since Jan. 14, 1995, when the Bison defeated Fordham 75-52 in The Bronx.
About the Game
Bucknell returns to New York for the second time this week on Saturday evening, taking on Wagner at 7 p.m. at the Spiro Sports Center in Staten Island. The front leg of the Big Apple road trip did not go so well, as the Bison fell 73-59 to Columbia on Tuesday night, ending their three-game winning streak. Bucknell fell victim to some incredible 3-point shooting by the Lions in that one. Columbia made 13 of 18 from the arc, including 7 of 8 by leading scorer Noruwa Agho. Patrick Behan scored 15 points to lead the Bison, his third straight game with 15 or more points. Behan now leads the team in both scoring (13.0) and rebounding (7.3), while Darryl Shazier (11.7) and Bryan Cohen (10.2) are also scoring in double figures. After graduating four starters from last year's team that went 16-14, Wagner is off to a slow start in 2009-10. The Seahawks are 0-3, with the losses coming at home to Lafayette (81-72) and Stony Brook (72-48) and on the road against NJIT (56-51) on Tuesday. Chris Martin leads the team in scoring at 11.0 points per game. Michael Orock, who had 22 points and 14 rebounds against NJIT, averages 10.3 points and 9.3 rebounds. The Seahawks are shooting only 33.9% from the field as a team, with about 48% of their shot attempts and about 41% of their made field goals coming from 3-point range.
How to Get the Game
The Bucknell-Wagner game will not be televised. The game can be heard in the Susquehanna Valley on the radio 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. Live statistics are available through wagnerathletics.com.
Bucknell vs. Wagner Series Notes
+This will be the 10th all-time meeting between the Bison and Seahawks. This will be the third straight year the two teams have squared off, but prior to this series they had not met since the 1984-85 season. Wagner leads the all-time series 6-3, including a 3-0 mark on its home floor.
+The two teams first met in 1955-56 on Staten Island, with the Seahawks claiming a 78-56 victory. Bucknell won 83-56 the following year at the Hofstra Christmas Tournament before Wagner won three of the next four, all before 1968.
+Last season at Sojka Pavilion, Joey Mundweiler hit six 3-pointers and scored 19 points to lead Wagner to an 83-79 victory. Bucknell cut a 17-point deficit down to two in the second half but fell just short, but could not overcome a poor defensive night. Offensively, Patrick Behan (27 points) and G.W. Boon (24 points) both produced their career scoring highs, while Darryl Shazier added 14 points and six assists.
+In the last meeting at the Spiro Sports Center in 2007-09, Mundweiler scored 25 points to lead Wagner to the 64-55 win. Behan had 17 points for Bucknell, but the Bison dug themselves a big early hole thanks to a 5-for-27 shooting performance in the first half. The Bison trailed 29-13 at halftime and could not get closer than 10 in the second half.
Bucknell vs. The Northeast Conference
Bucknell is 41-32 (.562) all-time against the teams that currently comprise the Northeast Conference, including 2-0 already this season. The Bison are 15-11 against Saint Francis (Pa.), 12-8 vs. Mount St. Mary's, 6-3 vs. Robert Morris, 4-2 vs. Saint Francis (N.Y.), 3-6 vs. Wagner, 1-0 vs. Bryant and 0-1 vs. Central Connecticut State. Bucknell has never played Long Island, Monmouth or Fairleigh Dickinson. Earlier this season the Bison posted wins over Bryant and Saint Francis.
Last Time Out
Noruwa Agho and the Columbia Lions put on an epic shooting display at Levien Gymnasium on Tuesday. Agho hit 7 of 8 3-point attempts, and as a team the Lions hit 13 of 18. Bucknell trailed by three at the half but got hot themselves from long range in the second half. G.W. Boon hit three treys and Bryan Cohen canned one to give the Bison a 51-43 lead with 10:14 to play. But they would not make another field goal until the final seconds of the game, and Columbia finished on a 30-8 run. It was just a 60-57 game with 2:36 to play, but a killer sequence in which the Lions hit a free throw, rebounded a second missed free throw, then turned another offensive rebound into a 3-pointer sent them on their way.
Inside the Columbia Boxscore
+Patrick Behan led the Bison with 15 points and six rebounds. He scored 10 of those points in the first half.
+Stephen Tyree had his best game of the season so far. Tyree logged 12 points, three rebounds and three assists without a turnover in 33 minutes. For the first time in his career he made two 3-pointers in the same game, and he also went 4-for-4 from the foul line.
+G.W. Boon also reached a season high with 11 points. Boon hit three 3-pointers in the game, all of them coming within a three-minute span in the second half.
+Bucknell continues to struggle in the rebounding department. The Bison were outdone 38-27 on the glass and allowed Columbia to turn 15 offensive rebounds into a 14-4 edge in second-chance points. Three times in the last three minutes of the game, Bucknell failed to come up with the rebound on a missed second free throw by Columbia. The Bison are now allowing opponents to grab 15.8 offensive boards per game.
+One game after nearly breaking a school record with only four turnovers against Saint Francis (Pa.), the Bison committed eight turnovers in the first half alone against Columbia. They had only five in the second period, however.
+The Lions finished 13-for-18 (.722) from the 3-point arc, but they were only 12-for-37 (.324) inside the arc.
+Darryl Shazier was held without an assist for only the second time since the start of last season. The other was at Wake Forest early last year.
+Freshman Mike Muscala blocked three shots for the second straight game. He now has nine swats on the season.
