Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Men's Basketball Heads to Dartmouth Tuesday for Final Non-League Game
1/2/2012 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 2, 2012
WHAT: Bucknell (9-6) at Dartmouth (3-11)
WHERE: Leede Arena, Hanover, N.H.
WHEN: Tuesday, Jan. 3, 7 p.m. ET
LIVE WEBCAST: DartmouthSports.com 
RADIO: Eagle 107 (WEGH 107.3 FM) and SportsJuice.com
LIVE STATS: DartmouthSports.com
Complete Game Notes in PDF Format 
With a Win over Dartmouth, Bucknell Would ...
• ... improve to 10-6 on the season.
• ... improve to 4-5 on the road this season.
• ... enter conference play with 10 wins for the first time in program history.
• ... defeat the Big Green for the second straight year and improve to 3-1 all-time against them.
• ... win in Hanover for the first time.
• ... defeat Ivy League teams in consecutive games for the first time ever.
• ... win its sixth straight against the Ivy League and pull even all-time against Ivy League opponents at 44-44.
Headlines
• Bucknell kicks off 2012 — and closes out non-conference play — with a road game at Dartmouth on Tuesday night.
• The Bison improved to 9-6 with a 63-60 home win over Cornell on Saturday afternoon. The Bison got off to a rough start and trailed by five at halftime, but that was followed by a strong second half, led by 18 points from Mike Muscala. Bucknell spoiled the return of Hall of Fame guard Bill Courtney '92, who is in his second year as head coach at Cornell.
• Muscala has surged ahead in the Bucknell team scoring race with 62 points in his last three games. Muscala is now averaging 14.6 points per game, seventh-best in the Patriot League. Cameron Ayers (12.0), Joe Willman (11.0) and Bryson Johnson (9.9) are not far behind.
• Muscala continues to lead the Bison in rebounding (9.3) and blocked shots (1.5). He leads the Patriot League in rebounding by a wide margin, and he has seven double-doubles this season, including an 18-point, 13-rebound performance in Saturday's win over Cornell.
• The Bison were unanimously picked as the preseason favorite in the Patriot League by the league's head coaches and SIDs.
• The Bison returned four starters from last year's team that finished 25-9 overall and 13-1 in the Patriot League. Bucknell went on to capture the Patriot League Tournament title, but the 14th-seeded Bison were ousted by red-hot Connecticut, the eventual national champions, in their NCAA Tournament opener.
• Dartmouth has dropped three straight to fall to 3-11 on the season. Most recently, Holy Cross rallied to defeat the Big Green 65-61 on Saturday at Leede Arena. Dartmouth has also fallen to Patriot League foes Army and Colgate. The Big Green have been in most of their games, however. Seven of their losses have been by six points or less, including all three against Patriot League competition. R.J. Griffin leads the team in scoring at 10.4 points per game.
• Dartmouth's director of athletics, Harry Sheehy, coached Dave Paulsen at Williams College, and he was the AD at Williams when Paulsen served as head coach there from 2000-08.
How to Get the Game
• The Bucknell-Dartmouth game will not be televised, however a live webcast will be available at DartmouthSports.com (subscription rates apply).
• The game can be heard in the Susquehanna Valley on the radio on Eagle 107 (WEGH 107.3 FM), with Doug Birdsong and Terry Conrad describing the action. The pregame show begins 30 minutes before tip-off.
• The audio feed is available online free of charge via BucknellBison.com and SportsJuice.com.
• Live statistics are available at DartmouthSports.com.
Bucknell vs. Dartmouth
• This will be the third straight season Bucknell and Dartmouth have squared off, but it is only the fourth all-time meeting between the two teams.
• The first meeting between the Bison and Big Green came in Lewisburg on Feb. 27, 1905. Bucknell won that one 24-13 on the way to an 8-1 season. The second matchup came 105 years later in Hanover, N.H., with Dartmouth winning a defensive struggle 49-43.
• Last season, Bucknell won 74-57 at Sojka Pavilion, behind 14 points from Bryson Johnson. A dozen of Johnson's points came in a three-minute span in the first half to get the Bison going after a slow start. Bucknell outrebounded Dartmouth 41-28, led by a career-high-tying 10 boards from Bryan Cohen.
Bucknell vs. The Ivy League
• Bucknell is 43-44 (.494) all-time against the Ivy League. The Bison have played 47 games against Cornell, but only 40 combined against the other seven Ivy teams. In addition to its 24-23 record against Cornell, Bucknell is 4-2 against Yale, 3-1 vs. Brown, 3-4 vs. Penn, 4-10 vs. Princeton, 2-1 vs. Dartmouth, 2-2 vs. Columbia and 1-1 vs. Harvard.
• The Bison are 5-1 against the Ivy League over the last last two seasons. A year ago they defeated Cornell, Columbia and Dartmouth while falling to Princeton. This season Bucknell has a 62-56 win over Princeton as well as Saturday's 63-60 victory over Cornell.
Last Time Out
• After a miserable start offensively, Bucknell came alive in the second half and rallied past Cornell 63-60. The Bison missed 15 of their first 18 shots and were stuck on six points more than 14 minutes into the game, but thanks to some good defense they never trailed by more than nine, even after a seven-minute scoring drought.
• Rebounding was the key to victory, as the Bison grabbed a season-high 16 offensive rebounds and finished with a 40-31 edge on the glass. Bucknell outscored Cornell 17-4 in second-chance points.
• After being held scoreless on only two shots in the first half, Mike Muscala exploded for 18 points in the second period. He also grabbed 13 rebounds, giving him his seventh double-double of the season.
• With Joe Willman in foul trouble for much of the night, Brian Fitzpatrick played a season-high 21 minutes off the bench and had one of his best games of the year. He grabbed a season-high nine rebounds to go with seven points.
• Bryson Johnson hit a critical 3-pointer with 1:48 remaining to stretch a two-point lead up to five, and he totaled 12 points in the game.
• Bryan Cohen continued his offensive resurgence with his second straight double-digit scoring game. Cohen was a perfect 7-for-7 from the foul line and finished with 13 points, four rebounds and three assists.
• Bucknell was just 3-for-15 from 3-point range and shot 37.9% overall. But the Bison held Cornell to 37.5% shooting.
• Bucknell was playing for just the third time ever on New Year's Eve, and for the first time since a 74-70 loss at Florida in 1968.
Stats Worth Noting
• Bucknell was shooting 50.6% as a team in its previous five games before struggling against Cornell.
• Bucknell has been dominant on the glass of late. After going -15 in rebound margin against Minnesota and Vanderbilt to start the season, the Bison are +102 since then and have outrebounded every opponent except Syracuse and Loyola. Bucknell's +5.7 rebound margin for the season is by far the best in the Patriot League.
• A big part of Bucknell's rebounding success has been limiting opponents' second chances. The Bison have held 12 of their 15 foes to eight or fewer offensive rebounds.
• Bucknell has been better at the free-throw line of late. After shooting just 68.5% at the line in their first 10 games, the Bison have made 80.4% (82-102) as a team in the last five contests. That includes a 21-for-21 performance in the win over Richmond. Last year Bucknell ranked third in the nation in free-throw shooting last season at 78.8%, and after the slow start the team is up to 72.8% this season.
• Bucknell has gotten a big lift so far from newcomers Brian Fitzpatrick and Steven Kaspar. Fitzpatrick, a junior forward in his first eligible season after transferring from Penn, is 24-for-43 (.558) from the floor and is averaging 4.5 points and 3.3 rebounds in 12.8 minutes per game. Kaspar, a freshman point guard, has not scored much yet, but he leads the team and ranks in the top 10 in the Patriot League in both assists (44) and steals (18).
• Eight Bison have had at least one double-digit scoring game this season, and 10 of the 14 on the roster have done it at least once in his career.
• Kaspar's seven assists against West Alabama were the most by a Bison freshman since Abe Badmus had eight against Navy in 2003-04.
• Johnson's 15 3-pointers in the wins over West Alabama and Morehead State were a school record for most threes in consecutive games. Bucknell's 17 treys in the West Alabama game set a school record.
2011 a Year to Remember
• Saturday's win over Cornell was Bucknell's 26th of 2011, a new program record for victories in a calendar year. The previous mark was 25, set in 2005.
What's Next?
• Bucknell opens Patriot League play at Army on Saturday. Tip-off is at 4 p.m. at Christl Arena.
