Bucknell University Athletics
Bison Hoops Fans Encouraged to Come Early Saturday for Senior Day Ceremonies, Game vs. Army Tips at 4 p.m.
2/25/2011 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 25, 2011
WHAT: Army (11-17, 3-10 PL) at Bucknell (21-8, 12-1 PL)
WHERE: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa.
WHEN: Saturday, Feb. 26, 4 p.m. ET
WEBCAST: Bison Vision 
RADIO: Eagle 107 (107.3 WEGH FM) and SportsJuice.com
LIVE STATS: GameTracker 
Complete Game Notes in PDF Format 
Please note that Senior Day ceremonies honoring G.W. Boon and Darryl Shazier will begin at 3:50 p.m. prior to the 4 p.m. game. Fans are encouraged to arrive at Sojka Pavilion for Senior Day.
With a Win over Army, Bucknell Would ...
• ... finish with a 13-1 Patriot League record, becoming the eighth team in league history (and fourth Bucknell team) to win at least 13.
• ... avenge a 90-70 loss to the Black Knights on Jan. 29, Bucknell's only loss since Christmas.
• ... set up a rematch with Army in the Patriot League Tournament quarterfinals on Wednesday.
• ... reach the 22-win plateau for the eighth time in program history.
• ... win its seventh straight game and 20th in the last 22 outings.
• ... win its 10th straight home game.
• ... improve to 11-1 at home this season (7-0 vs. Patriot League).
Hot Topics
• Saturday will be Senior Day at Sojka Pavilion, as Darryl Shazier and G.W. Boon will be honored prior to the game.
• Bucknell has been one of the hottest teams in the nation since Dec. 1. The Bison have won six straight games, 15 of their last 16, and 19 of their last 21.
• Bucknell's only league loss came at West Point on Jan. 29, 90-70. The Black Knights played terrific basketball that day, shooting 53% from the floor (12-26 from 3-point range) while forcing 17 Bison turnovers. Army has not won since then, however, dropping six in a row to fall to 3-10 in the Patriot League.
• While Bucknell has the No. 1 seed locked up, Army can still climb out of the No. 8 spot with a win over Bucknell coupled with a Colgate loss at Navy.
• Bucknell jumped into the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top-25 poll for the first time this season, debuting at No. 20 on Monday. The last time the Bison were ranked in the poll was late in the 2006-07 season.
• Bucknell will be the No. 1 seed in the Patriot League Tournament for the third time. In 1993, the Bison were the top seed but lost at home to Holy Cross in the championship game. In 2006, Bucknell completed a perfect 17-0 league season by beating Holy Cross in the final.
• The Bison are in the midst of their best 21-game stretch (19-2) since 1992-93, when the team also won 19 of 21. Bucknell was riding the nation's fifth-longest winning streak (9) and was one game away from the first perfect January since 1918-19 before falling to hot-shooting Army on Jan. 29. The Bison shook off that loss with six straight wins over Navy, American, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Colgate and Lehigh. Their only other loss since Dec. 1 came at Boston College, 84-80.
• The Bison have been strong offensively since the end of the final exam break in December, averaging 73.5 points while shooting 46.3% from the field, 43.4% from the 3-point stripe and 79.8% from the foul line over their last 19 games. Bucknell has seven players averaging at least 6.7 points per game over that span, led by Mike Muscala at 15.9 ppg.
• Muscala has nine 20-point games this season and continues to lead the team in scoring (15.0), rebounding (7.3) and blocked shots (1.8).
• Hot-shooting sophomore Bryson Johnson (11.5 ppg) had a career-high 30-point game at Lafayette last week, and he was named the Patriot League Player of the Week on Monday. Freshman Cameron Ayers earned his third Patriot League Rookie of the Week citation after his 14-point performance in Sunday's win at Colgate.
• Seven Bison are scoring at least 6.9 points per game. Senior point guard Darryl Shazier is leading the Patriot League in assists (5.6) and ranks No. 2 in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.77). Shazier scored a career-high 28 points in the Jan. 8 win over Navy, and he has had two 10-assist games this season, including one on Sunday at Colgate.
• Johnson is 60-for-119 (.504) from long range in the last 18 games, including a 7-for-12 showing at Boston College, 5-for-7 efforts at Richmond and Lafayette, and a 4-for-6 performance against Colgate. Johnson leads the league and ranks 5th nationally in 3FG percentage on the season (.475).
• As a team, Bucknell is leading the Patriot League in all of the shooting categories: field-goal percentage (.450), 3-point percentage (.412) and free-throw percentage (.787). Among the national leaders, the Bison are 4th in FT% and 6th in 3FG%.
• Defensively, Bucknell leads the league and ranks 35th nationally in field-goal percentage defense (.400).
• Army is coming off a 67-46 loss at Lafayette on Wednesday. It was just a two-point game with 14:38 to play, but the Leopards outscored the Black Knights 26-7 the rest of the way. Jeremy Hence led Army with 16 points.
• Hence is having a breakout year for the Black Knights, leading the team in scoring at 15.4 ppg and rebounding at 5.3 rpg. Hence is shooting 52.1% from the field. Ella Ellis (14.1) and Julian Simmons (13.3) also score in double figures, and that trio accounts for 62.2% of Army's season scoring total.
• Army's 672 3-point attempts this season are 13th-most in the nation, and its 250 made threes rank ninth nationally.
How to Get the Game
• The Bucknell-Army game will not be televised, however a live Webcast will be available on Bison Vision at BucknellBison.com (subscription required) as well as Patriot League All-Access at PatriotLeague.org.
• 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 also available online free of charge via BucknellBison.com and SportsJuice.com.
• Live stats are available on GameTracker via BucknellBison.com.
Bucknell vs. Army Series Notes
• The Bison hold a 39-19 lead in a series that dates back to 1929. Bucknell had a 15-game series winning streak, then the Black Knights won four in a row before the Bison swept the season series last year. During the Patriot League era, Army had never beaten Bucknell twice in a row until that recent four-game streak.
• Bucknell had also won 12 straight at home against the Black Knights dating back to Army's 83-71 win in Davis Gym in 1996-97. The Bison are 21-4 all-time at home against Army.
• Army won the first 10 series showdowns, nine of them coming prior to 1966.
• As Patriot League rivals, Bucknell has won 38 of 47 meetings.
• Bucknell swept the season series a year ago, winning 55-48 at Sojka Pavilion and 62-51 in the regular-season finale at West Point.
• In last year's first meeting, Bucknell went just 1-for-18 from 3-point range but turned to defense and rebounding to pull out a 55-48 win. Mike Muscala had 13 points and seven rebounds for the Bison, who held Army to 31.1% shooting. Bucknell essentially held Army without a field goal for the last 10:23 of the game, conceding only a giveaway layup with eight seconds left in a nine-point game. Army shot 23.1% and went 0-for-7 from 3-point range in the second half. Cleveland Richard led the Black Knights with 15 points, while Julian Simmons added 11.
• In the rematch at Christl Arena, Darryl Shazier scored 19 points and Bryan Cohen added 14 while spearheading another strong defensive effort in Bucknell's 62-51 win. The Bison won despite committing 19 turnovers, but they held Army to 15 points in the first half and 32.6% shooting overall. Josh Miller led Army with 11 points, while Simmons added 10.
More from the Lehigh Game
• A terrific defensive performance in the game's final 30 minutes sent Bucknell past Lehigh 72-55 on Wednesday night. At the midpoint of the first half, Lehigh was 10-for-15 from the field and had a 26-18 lead. But the Bison held the Mountain Hawks to 8-for-34 shooting the rest of the way, including 5-for-24 (.208) in the second half. Lehigh's last field goal of the night came with 6:23 left in the game.
• Bucknell received terrific balance in the game, as 11 different players scored in the game. The Bison bench outscored Lehigh's 22-8.
• Darryl Shazier led the Bison with 15 points. He had been 2-for-20 from 3-point range in his career against Lehigh, but went 3-for-5 in this one, including treys on the first possessions of both halves.
• Bryan Cohen enjoyed one of his best games of the season. He littered the stat sheet with 13 points, nine rebounds (seven offensive), six assists, two blocks and a steal. He also spent most of the night marking Patriot League scoring leader C.J. McCollum, helping limit him to 17 points (five below his average) on 6-for-16 shooting. McCollum did not score inside 12 feet from the basket, and he scored 11 of his 17 points in a three-minute span in the first half.
• Mike Muscala was held to nine points but did have five rebounds, four assists and two blocks without a turnover.
• Joe Willman snapped out of a brief shooting slump by making 4 of 6 attempts. Willman had eight points and six rebounds in 22 minutes.
• Bryson Johnson picked up two quick fouls and was limited to 18 minutes, and his streak of 23 straight games with a 3-pointer came to an end.
• Enoch Andoh continued his recent strong play with six points and three rebounds in 10 minutes of action.
• Freshman Ben Brackney made the most of his nine minutes, hitting a long jumper just inside the arc in the first half, followed by a 3-pointer in the second half.
• Bucknell forced 18 Lehigh turnovers and set a season high with 11 steals. Shazier had a career-high five steals, while Cameron Ayers had four.
Statistically Speaking
Some other notable numbers from Bucknell's first 29 games:
• Bucknell has a 425-to-327 assist-to-turnover ratio, the best mark in the Patriot League and 23rd-best in the nation. The Bison have had a negative ratio only six times all season, against Marquette, Loyola, Dartmouth, Richmond, American and Lafayette. Their 11.3 turnovers per game is the 24th-best mark in Division I basketball.
• The Bison as a team are shooting 41.2% from long range, up from last season's 32.9% mark. Bucknell ranks sixth nationally in 3-point accuracy. The Bison are trying to shoot 40% from 3-point range for only the fourth time in school history, and for the first time since 1988-89.
• Bucknell's 45.0% field-goal shooting is the best mark in the Patriot League, and the Bison rank No. 1 in the league and No. 4 in the nation in free-throw percentage at 78.7%.
• While the team's 3-point percentage is up, a lower percentage of Bucknell's total shots have come from beyond the 3-point arc. So far 30.5% of the team's attempts have come from long range, down from 34.7% last year and 35.0% in 2008-09.
• Bucknell has recorded an assist on 59.3% of its field goals this season. By comparison, last year the team was credited with an assist on only 51.6% of its baskets.
• Bucknell has scored 70 or more points in 16 of its last 19 games, but had a streak of eight straight 70-point games snapped against American on Feb. 9. Prior to this season, the last time a Bucknell team reached 70 in eight consecutive games was all the way back in 1995-96. The Bison have scored 70+ points 20 times so far, their most since doing it 22 times in Hall-of-Fame coach Charlie Woollum's final season in 1993-94.
• The Bison have held 12 of their last 16 opponents under 40% shooting from the field.
• Bucknell's average margin of victory in its 12 Patriot League wins is 12.4.
• The team has 12 double-digit wins this season, its most since recording 18 in 2005-06.
• The Bison are 12-0 when outrebounding opponents this season.
• The Bison are now 6-1 when Mike Muscala scores fewer than 10 points in a game this season (only loss was at Marquette).
Who's Got Next?
• Bucknell has home-court advantage throughout the Patriot League Tournament. The Bison will host the No. 8 seed (either Army or Colgate) on Wednesday, March 2, at 7 p.m.
