Bucknell University
6-20;3-9
Lafayette
7-19;3-8
Bucknell Men Fall 71-68 at Lafayette
2/18/2009 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 18, 2009
EASTON, Pa. - Ryan Willen scored a career-high 20 points and Michael Gruner and Andrew Brown added 16 each to lead Lafayette to 71-68 victory over Bucknell on Wednesday night at Kirby Sports Center. Patrick Behan had 20 points and nine rebounds, but the Bison came out of the gates slowly and could not build on Saturday's big win at Holy Cross.
Justin Castleberry hit for 16 points, Bryan Cohen added 15 and Darryl Shazier 10 for Bucknell, but it wasn't enough to prevent the Bison from dropping a 20th game for just the second time in school history.
Lafayette (7-19, 3-8) snapped an eight-game losing streak and avenged a 10-point loss to Bucknell last month.
On the heels of one of its best shooting nights of the year in Saturday's win at Holy Cross, the Bison got out to a slow start in this one. They made only four of their first 18 shots and finished the first half 7-for-28 with 12 turnovers.
While Bucknell was held to one field goal in an eight-minute span, Lafayette began to stretch the lead. Five straight points by Willen, the last three coming on a three-point play after an offensive rebound, gave the Leopards a 13-point cushion at 33-20.
Castleberry's deep 3-pointer at the buzzer brought Bucknell within 10 (35-25) at the half.
Lafayette pushed its lead up to 16 at 53-37 on two Gruner free throws with 10:30 to play, but the Bison got back in it with a 14-2 run. Shazier and Castleberry canned 3-pointers and Behan got his big second half going with a 3-point play. Castleberry's trey with 5:05 to play made it a 61-55 game.
After Lafayette went back up by eight, Behan cut it to 67-63 with a layup with 1:08 left. Lafayette drained most of the shot clock and Gruner made perhaps Lafayette's biggest shot of the night, a driving layup with 24 seconds left.
Castleberry hit a deep three with 14 seconds left to make it 69-66, then Kari missed the front end of a 1-and-1. Bucknell called timeout with 6.3 seconds left, and Lafayette chose to foul Castleberry before he could attempt a 3-pointer. Castleberry made the first with 2.8 seconds left and tried to miss the second on purpose, but his arcing shot banked in.
Bucknell fouled Willen on the inbounds, and he stroked two free throws with 2.0 ticks left to make it 71-68. Brown batted away a long inbounds pass out of bounds with 1.4 seconds left, and the Bison got a good look on a 25-footer from Castleberry at the buzzer, but it rimmed out.
Bucknell shot 60.7 percent from the floor in the second half after the slow start and finished with a 36-33 edge on the glass.
Bucknell returns to action on Saturday for a 2 p.m. home contest against Delaware. The non-league matchup is part of the ESPNU BracketBusters event.
