Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Men's Basketball Starts Road Trip Saturday at Saint Francis (Pa.)
11/19/2010 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 19, 2010
WHAT: Bucknell at Saint Francis (Pa.)
WHERE: DeGol Arena, Loretto, Pa.
WHEN: Saturday, Nov. 20, 7 p.m. ET
RADIO: Eagle 107 (107.3 WEGH FM) and SportsJuice.com
LIVE STATS: goredflash.com
Complete Release in PDF Format 
With a Win over Saint Francis, the Bison Would ...
• ... win their second straight game and get to .500 on the season at 2-2.
• ... win their first road game of 2010-11.
• ... defeat the Red Flash for the second straight year and improve to 15-11 all-time against them.
• ... win in Loretto for the first time since Nov. 29, 2006.
About the Game
• Bucknell looks to build off a convincing home victory over Binghamton when it visits Saint Francis at DeGol Arena on Saturday night. For the Bison, it will be their first of four games in five days.
• Bucknell will be facing an old friend in Saint Francis coach Don Friday, who was a member of Pat Flannery's coaching staff at Bucknell from 1994-2003.
• Both teams come in with 1-2 records. The Bison followed up competitive losses to No. 6 Villanova and Marquette with a 66-38 rout of Binghamton on Wednesday.
• This will be Saint Francis' fourth straight game against a Patriot League team to start the season. The Red Flash, who were 9-5 at home last season, defeated Colgate 69-66 in Loretto on Nov. 15, but that was surrounded by road losses at American (62-52) and Lafayette (72-68). Umar Shannon leads the team in scoring at 19.0 ppg.
How to Get the Game
• The game can be heard in the Susquehanna Valley on the radio on Eagle 107 (WEGH 107.3 FM), with Kevin Herr and Ed Sigl on the call. The pregame show begins 30 minutes before tip-off.
•The audio feed is also available online free of charge via BucknellBison.com and SportsJuice.com.
• Live statistics can be found at goredflash.com.
Bucknell vs. Saint Francis
• Bucknell has a 14-11 lead in the all-time series, although Saint Francis has won four of the last six.
• The Bison captured seven of the first nine meetings in a series that dates back to 1927.
• Bucknell is 10-3 against Saint Francis (Pa.) in Lewisburg, but 1-2 in games played in Sojka Pavilion. In 2004-05 Bucknell was 12-1 at home, and the one loss was to the Red Flash (70-65) early in the season. Saint Francis also won there (57-54) three seasons ago thanks to a 32-7 second-half run.
• In last year's meeting, Bucknell won 70-58 at Sojka Pavilion, behind 23 points and 12 rebounds from Patrick Behan and eight points and 12 rebounds from Joe Willman. Bucknell went just 2-for-16 from 3-point range but outscored the Red Flash 44-26 in the paint and parlayed 16 offensive rebounds into a 23-2 edge in second-chance points. Devin Sweetney had 16 points and Will Felder 11 for Saint Francis.
• In the last meeting in Loretto in 2008-09, the Red Flash defeated the Bison 69-59 in overtime, behind 19 points from Mislav Jukic and 15 points and 10 rebounds from Sweetney. Saint Francis was 34-for-39 from the foul line, while the Bison were just 9-for-17. Bryan Cohen, in only his third career game, led Bucknell with 22 points.
Bucknell vs. The NOrtheast Conference
Bucknell is 42-32 (.568) all-time against the teams that currently comprise the Northeast Conference. The Bison are 14-11 against Saint Francis (Pa.), 12-8 vs. Mount St. Mary's, 6-3 vs. Robert Morris, 5-2 vs. Saint Francis (N.Y.), 4-6 vs. Wagner, 1-0 vs. Bryant and 0-1 vs. Central Connecticut State. Bucknell has never played Long Island, Monmouth or Fairleigh Dickinson. The Bison will play another NEC team on Nov. 29 when they host Wagner.
More from the Binghamton Game
• Bucknell trailed 18-12 with nine minutes to play in the first half, then pitched a shutout for the next 13 minutes. Over that span the Bison outscored the Bearcats 23-0 to take a 17-point lead. Binghamton crept back within seven with a 13-3 run, but over the final 12 minutes the Bison allowed only three field goals and outscored the Bearcats 28-7 to win going away.
• It was Bucknell's best defensive effort since a 50-36 win over Colgate on Jan. 20, 2007, and it was the team's biggest margin of victory since a 34-point win (81-47) over Navy on Jan. 28, 2006.
• Mike Muscala led the Bison with 16 points and eight rebounds, and Bryson Johnson added 10 points, including a 4-point play to kick off the second half.
• Joe Willman turned in his second straight nine-rebound performance to go along with seven points. The Bison finished with a 39-32 rebounding advantage.
• Bucknell had a balanced scoring attack, with eight players scoring four or more points. Eight different Bison played at least 13 minutes, and only one player needed to play more than 26 minutes.
• Defense was the key to victory for the Bison. They held Binghamton to 20.0% shooting (6-30) in the first half and 24.6% for the game. Bucknell came up with seven steals and forced 15 total turnovers.
• Bucknell had 16 assists on 26 field goals while committing only 10 turnovers (four in the second half). Darryl Shazier had five assists with no turnovers, and Cameron Ayers had a career-high four assists.
A Tough Start
• For the first time in the modern era, Bucknell played its first two games of a season against major conference competition. The Bison were in both games in the second half but fell 68-52 at No. 6 Villanova on Friday and 72-61 at Marquette on Sunday.
• In the Villanova game, the Bison trailed by only seven points with 10 minutes to play, but Corey Fisher scored 10 of his 24 points in the final 9:01 to help the Wildcats keep Bucknell at bay.
• In Milwaukee, the Bison led for most of the first 30 minutes and by as many as 13 three minutes into the second half. Bucknell led 57-45 with 10:22 remaining, but then the Golden Eagles stunned the Bison with 24 straight points to take control.
Statistically Speaking
Some other notable numbers from Bucknell's first three games:
• Bucknell was known for its remarkable scoring balance last season, and if the first two games of 2010-11 are any indication, it may be more of the same this year. In the first two games, six different Bison have had a double-digit scoring effort, but no player did so twice. Against Villanova, Darryl Shazier, Mike Muscala and Cameron Ayers reached double figures, and against Marquette, Bryson Johnson, Joe Willman and G.W. Boon did it. Muscala and Johnson added their second double-figure games against Binghamton.
• Muscala and Johnson are tied for the team scoing lead at 11.3 ppg. Seven Bison are scoring at least 5.0 ppg.
• Bucknell has a 48-to-40 assist-to-turnover ratio in three games.
• Johnson is 11-for-22 (.500) from the 3-point arc so far, and the Bison as a team are shooting 37.9% from long range, up from last season's 32.9% mark.
• Despite a 1-2 record, Bucknell has outscored foes 179-178 on the season.
• Bryan Cohen and Shazier rank among the Patriot League assist leaders with 13 and 12, respectively.
• Boon is 9-for-16 (.563) shooing on the season, ranking him No. 2 in the Patriot League in field-goal percentage.
• As a team, Bucknell leads the Patriot League in assists per game (16.0) and field-goal percentage defense (.370).
• Bucknell has recorded an assist on 70.6% of its field goals this season. By comparison, last year the team was credited with an assist on only 51.6% of its baskets.
Who's Got Next?
• On Sunday the Bison will bus to Harrisonburg, Va., for three games in three days as part of the O'Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic.
• Bucknell will play Presbyterian on Monday, Princeton on Tuesday and James Madison on Wednesday.
