Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
12-15, 7-4PL
Lafayette
15-11, 6-5PL
Bison Men Stay in Title Hunt with 78-67 Win over Lafayette
2/17/2010 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 17, 2010
| Video Highlights
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Freshman Mike Muscala set career highs with 23 points and 11 rebounds, and fellow newcomer Joe Willman scored his team's first 10 points of the night and finished with 14, leading Bucknell to a workmanlike 78-67 victory over Lafayette at Sojka Pavilion on Wednesday night. The Bison never trailed in the game, and their sixth win in the last seven contests kept them one game behind league-leading Lehigh with three to play.
G.W. Boon and Bryan Cohen also had strong games for Bucknell, now 12-15 overall and 7-4 in the Patriot League. Along with Willman, Boon paced a 33-point night for the Bison bench with 15 points, eight rebounds, three steals and two assists. Cohen chipped in 10 points, five assists and four rebounds as Bucknell avenged a four-point loss to Lafayette in Easton last month.
The Leopards (15-11, 6-5), who came in as part of a three-way tie for second place with Bucknell and Navy, played without their top scorer and rebounder in Jared Mintz, who was injured in practice during the week. The Bison did a solid job defending Lafayette's other two double-figure scorers, Jim Mower (12 points) and Ryan Willen (nine points), who went a combined 6-for-24 from the field.
Lehigh came from nine down at the half to win 91-81 at Colgate, improving to 8-3 in the league and maintaining its one game lead over Bucknell and Navy. The Midshipmen defeated Holy Cross 83-80 in Annapolis. While they remain a game out of first place, the Bison can lock up a top-four seed and a first-round home game in the Patriot League Tournament with one more victory.
For the third straight game Bucknell had someone dominate the scoring column in the opening minutes. A week ago Muscala scored the game's first 11 points in a win at American. Then on Sunday Darryl Shazier scored 11 of the Bison's first 14 points in a home victory over Holy Cross. This time it was Willman, who came onto the floor only 58 seconds into the game after Stephen Tyree picked up two quick fouls. Willman then proceeded to hit five straight jump shots, ranging in distance from 12 to 17 feet.
The last of the Willman pops gave Bucknell a 10-2 lead, then Boon made a 3-pointer to make it 13-2. The Bison led by at least nine points the rest of the way, and by double digits for the final 31:52. Bucknell's first 15 points, and 18 of the first 20, came from reserves.
Midway through the first half Willman had to go to the bench with two fouls, and his frontcourt partner Muscala began to take over. Four straight Muscala points gave the Bison a 24-9 lead, and soon after he stopped a quick 5-0 Lafayette spurt with a put-back. That was followed by a breakaway dunk by Boon, part of a 9-0 run that made it 33-14.
Lafayette crawled within 36-24 with a 10-3 run sparked by 3-pointers by Mower and Levi Giese, but another trey from Boon and a third-chance layup by Muscala capped another Bucknell 9-0 spurt, and the Bison had their largest lead of the night, 21 points at 45-24 with 1:07 left in the first half.
The Bison led 45-29 at the break, then Muscala scored nine of the team's first 13 points of the second half to help maintain the lead. The only time things got a bit tenuous was when Darion Benbow knocked down a short baseline jumper to cap a 6-0 run that brought Lafayette back within 10 at 62-52 with 7:05 still to play.
On Bucknell's next possession Bryson Johnson an 87.5 percent free-throw shooter, missed the front end of a 1-and-1, but no one boxed out Muscala on the left block and he had an easy stick-back. Then Cohen took a charge at one end and finished a 3-point play at the other, restoring a 15-point lead at 67-52 with 4:40 remaining.
In the final minute Willman scored a layup off a nice open-court pass from Muscala, and Boon went 4-for-4 from the foul line to finish it off.
Lafayette came in to the game leading the Patriot League in overall shooting at 45.8 percent, but the Leopards started 2-for-14 and finished at just 35.5 percent. Bucknell shot 41.5 percent, and after a hot start from long range finished just 5-for-17 from the 3-point arc, 0-for-6 in the second half.
Muscala (8-14) and Willman (7-10) combined to make 15 of 24 field-goal attempts. It was the fourth straight double-figure scoring game for Willman, who is averaging 13.0 points over that span. Muscala, who missed the first meeting of the season with Lafayette due to injury, registered both his second career 20-point game and double-double, and he is now averaging 13.9 points per game in conference play.
Despite being held to two points just one game after scoring a career-high 27 against Holy Cross on Sunday, Shazier handed out five assists, giving him 102 on the season. That marks his second straight 100-assist season and moves him into the top 10 on Bucknell's career list with 297. He passed Bill Courtney and Kevin Bettencourt on Wednesday and now stands in ninth place all-time.
Bucknell grabbed a season-high 46 rebounds, compared to 35 by Lafayette, and the Bison finished with 18 assists and only 11 turnovers. It was their seventh straight game with an even or better assist-to-turnover ratio.
The Bison, who are now 10-0 all-time against Lafayette at Sojka Pavilion, have clinched at least a .500 conference record for the 16th time in 20 seasons in the Patriot League.
Bucknell will play its final regular-season home game on Sunday afternoon against Colgate at 2 p.m. The team will honor its four seniors prior to the game.
