Bucknell University Athletics
League-Leading Bison Men's Basketball Welcomes Lafayette Saturday at Sojka Pavilion
2/10/2012 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 10, 2012
WHAT: Lafayette (11-13, 6-3 PL) at Bucknell (19-6, 9-0 PL)
WHERE: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa.
WHEN: Saturday, Feb. 11, 7 p.m. ET
TICKETS: 570-577-1000 or GameTracker 
Complete Game Notes in PDF Format 
NOTE: A very limited number of tickets remain for Saturday night's game against Lafayette. Tickets may still be purchased online through the end of the day on Friday, or at the Sojka Pavilion Box Office starting at 6 p.m. Saturday evening.
With a Win over Lafayette, Bucknell Would ...
• ... win its 12th straight game and improve to 20-6 on the season.
• ... secure the 11th 20-win season in program history.
• ... continue the team's longest winning streak under coach Dave Paulsen.
• ... sweep the season series against the Leopards.
• ... get out to a 10-0 start in Patriot League play for the second time ever (2006).
• ... maintain at least a two-game lead in the Patriot League standings.
• ... win its 20th straight game against Patriot League foes dating back to last season (including postseason), extending the longest conference winning streak in the nation.
• ... win its 15th straight home conference game.
• ... improve to 95-30 all-time in Sojka Pavilion and 66-12 against Patriot League foes at Sojka Pavilion.
Headlines
• Two of the top teams in the Patriot League do battle on Saturday night at Sojka Pavilion as first-place Bucknell puts its unbeaten conference record on the line against Lafayette, which is tied for third place along with Lehigh. This is a rematch of the 2011 Patriot League championship game, won by the Bison 72-57.
• Bucknell has won 11 straight games, 14 of its last 16, and 19 of its last 23. Since Dec. 1, 2010, Bucknell is 42-9.
• Bucknell's current 19-game winning streak against conference opponents is the longest in the nation. The Bison's last Patriot League loss came at the hands of Army, 90-70 at West Point on Jan. 29, 2011.
• Last time out, the Bison overcome a rare cold shooting night with some stifling defense in a 66-50 win at Colgate on Wednesday. The Raiders shot just 25.9%, and Bucknell led by more than 20 for most of the second half.
• Mike Muscala is averaging 18.7 points over his last 15 games, and he has upped his season scoring average to 16.1, fourth-best in the Patriot League. Cameron Ayers (11.4), Joe Willman (10.1) and Bryson Johnson (9.1) are also top scorers.
• Muscala continues to lead the Bison in rebounding (9.0) and blocked shots (1.5). He leads the Patriot League in rebounding by a wide margin, and he has 11 double-doubles this season, the most in the league. He is five shy of the school record for double-doubles in a season.
• Bryan Cohen has also been red hot of late. Cohen scored a season-high 19 points in last Saturday's win over Army, and he led the team in scoring again with 12 at Colgate on Wednesday. The senior guard is averaging 10.2 points per game while shooting 55.7% from the floor and 61.1% from 3-point range in Patriot League play.
• 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.
How to Get the Game
• The Bucknell-Lafayette game will be televised live on ESPN3 and ESPN Full-Court, in addition to RCN cable systems around the country and WBPH-60 in Eastern Pennsylvania. In addition, a live webcast will be available on Bison Vision via BucknellBison.com as well as Patriot League All-Access via PatriotLeague.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 on GameTracker via BucknellBison.com.
Patriot League Success
• The Bison are 197-92 (.682) in Patriot League regular-season games, the best record of any league team. Including this season, they have finished at least .500 in PL play in 18 of 22 seasons.
• The victory at Lehigh on Jan. 18 made Bucknell the first Patriot League team to go 100 games over .500 in league play.
• The Bison won a league-record 23 straight contests against conference foes from Feb. 23, 2005 to Jan. 12, 2007.
• Bucknell had a streak of 35 straight wins at home against conference opponents come to an end in 2008. The Bison have currently won 14 in a row at home against league foes.
• Bucknell has won 19 straight games against Patriot League foes, 16 in the regular season and three in the Patriot League Tournament. Bucknell owns the longest active conference winning streak (including postseason) among Division I teams.
NCAA Leaders, Consecutive Wins vs. Conference Opponents (through Thursday's games) Streak Team (Conference) Next Game 19 Bucknell (Patriot) Feb. 11 vs. Lafayette 16 Kentucky (SEC) Feb. 11 at Vanderbilt 11 Mississippi Valley State (SWAC) Feb. 11 at Alcorn State 11 Long Beach State (Big West) Feb. 11 at Cal-DavisDivision I Conference Unbeatens (through Thursday's games) Record Team (Conference) Next Game 11-0 Bucknell (Patriot) Feb. 11 vs. Lafayette 11-0 Long Beach State (Big West) Feb. 11 at Cal-Davis 11-0 Mississippi Valley State (SWAC) Feb. 11 at Alcorn State 10-0 Kentucky (SEC) Feb. 11 at Vanderbilt 10-0 Texas-Arlington (Southland) Feb. 11 vs. Texas State 6-0 Harvard (Ivy) Feb. 10 at Penn
Bucknell vs. Lafayette
• Bucknell and Lafayette have met 149 times previously, making the Leopards Bucknell's second most-played opponent (the Bison have played Lehigh 156 times). Since the series began in 1915, Lafayette leads 85-64.
• Since the start of Patriot League play in 1990-91, however, Bucknell has won 35 of 48 meetings.
• Bucknell has won all 11 matchups in Sojka Pavilion and is 20-3 against the Leopards in Lewisburg going back to the Patriot League's first season. Lafayette is actually 0-12 all-time in Sojka, including a neutral-site loss to American in the 2006 PL Tournament quarterfinals.
• The Bison went 3-0 against Lafayette last season, including a 72-57 victory in the Patriot League championship game at Sojka Pavilion. During the regular season, Bucknell won 75-56 at home, followed by a 74-69 overtime victory in Easton. Bryson Johnson scored a career-high 30 points in the game at Kirby Sports Center.
• Bucknell won the first meeting this season, 79-65 in Easton. Mike Muscala had a big night with 27 points on 9-for-13 shooting from the floor and 9-for-9 from the foul line. Cameron Ayers added 15 for the Bison, who led by four at the half before taking control early in the second half. Seth Hinrichs led Lafayette with a career-high 17 points.
Last Time Out
• Bucknell got out to a quick start, then turned up the defense in a 66-50 win at Colgate on Wednesday at Cotterell Court. The Bison started out 8-for-11 from the floor before cooling off considerably. But they held the Raiders to 5-for-28 shooting (.179) in the first half and 25.9% for the game. Bucknell never trailed, and it led by 20 or more points for most of the second half.
• Bryan Cohen was Bucknell's top scorer for the second straight game. He led the Bison with 12 points, while Mike Muscala and Joe Willman added 11 each.
• The Bucknell starters took the rest of the night off with about 11 minutes remaining. No Bison played more than 24 minutes, and every player on the roster saw at least three minutes of action.
• Colgate was shooting under 20% from the field until the final few minutes of the game. No Raiders starter hit more than one field goal, and Bucknell's bench outscored Colgate's starters 21-19. Colgate's top scorer was Sterling Melville with seven points.
• Bucknell entered the game ranked seventh nationally in 3-point percentage, but the Bison hit just 3 of 14 from the arc against Colgate. Bucknell shot 40.4% overall.
• The Bison finished with a 48-31 rebounding edge.
Stats Worth Noting
• Bucknell is now 11-0 since point guard Ryan Hill joined the starting lineup.
• The Bison are 15-0 when leading at the half.
• Bucknell has shot 50% or better as a team in nine of its last 16 games. The Bison have shot 50% 11 times this season and are 11-0 in those games. Bucknell ranks 12th nationally in 3FG% at 40.1%.
• Bucknell leads the Patriot League in both field goal percentage (.469) and field goal percentage defense (.391).
• During this current 11-game winning streak, Bison opponents are shooting 36.0% (208-577). Only three of those 11 teams (Dartmouth, Lafayette, Army) have eclipsed 40%.
• The Bison rank 36th nationally (out of 338 teams) in fewest turnovers per game (11.9), but they only rank 266th in turnover margin (-1.7). Bucknell averages only 4.0 steals per game (335th), but it has counterbalanced that with a good FG% defense and strong defensive rebounding.
• Bucknell has been dominant on the glass for most of the year. After going -15 in rebound margin against Minnesota and Vanderbilt to start the season, the Bison are +164 since then and have outrebounded every opponent except Syracuse, Loyola, Lehigh and American. Bucknell's +6.4 rebound margin for the season is by far the best in the Patriot League and ranks 28th nationally.
• A big part of Bucknell's rebounding success has been limiting opponents' second chances. The Bison have held 18 of their 25 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 79.8% (249-312) as a team in the last 15 contests. That includes a 21-for-21 performance in the win over Richmond, 15-for-15 in the win at Lafayette, and 10-for-10 in the win at Navy. 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 75.7% this season.
• If you remove the freshman class from the free-throw ledger, Bucknell would be shooting 80.0% as a team, which would rank second in the nation, just one percentage point behind Weber State.
• Strangely, Bucknell has been a much better free-throw shooting team on the road this season. The Bison shoot 79.7% as a team in road games, but only 71.3% at Sojka Pavilion.
• 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.
Let's go Streaking
• Bucknell's early five-game winning streak was its longest in the months of November or December since the 2005-06 team started the season 5-0.
• The only longer November/December winning streaks in program history were a six-game streak in 1983-84 and a seven-gamer in 1956-57.
• Bucknell had its 18-game home-court winning streak snapped by Loyola on Dec. 28. The record remains a 24-game streak set across the 1985-86, 1986-87 and 1987-88 seasons.
• The 18-game home winning streak was the 11th-longest in the nation when it was broken.
• Bucknell's current 11-game winning streak is tied for fourth-longest nationally. Kentucky's 16-game streak is now No. 1, after Murray State lost its first game of the season on Thursday.
• The last streak of longer duration than this current 11-game streak came in 2006-07, when the Bison set a modern-day record with a 14-game win streak.
• The 11-game winning streak is tied for eighth-longest in program history and third -longest since 1919.
Longest Winning Streaks in Bucknell History (broken up by): 17* 3/1/1902 - 2/19/1904 (Allegheny) 15* 2/5/1901 - 2/11/1902 (at Princeton) 14 1/17/2007 - 3/4/07 (at Holy Cross, PL championship game) 14* 1/10/1908 - 1/27/1909 (at State College) 13* 3/9/1906 - 3/9/1907 (at Harrisburg Collegians) 13* 2/15/1918 - 2/8/1919 (at Lehigh) 12 1/7/2006 - 2/18/2006 (at Northern Iowa) 11 12/31/2011 - present 11 12/4/2004 - 1/23/2005 (at American) 11 2/1/1993 - 3/6/1993 (Holy Cross, PL championship game) 11* 2/6/1920 - 1/13/1921 (at Temple) 10 2/5/2011 - 3/17/11 (Connecticut, NCAA Tournament) 10 1/14/1984 - 2/8/1984 (at Lafayette) 10* 2/16/1919 - 12/20/1919 (at Syracuse) * Streak carried over multiple seasonsLongest Division I Winning Streaks Streak Team Next Game 16 Kentucky Feb. 11 at Vanderbilt 14 Texas-Arlington Feb. 11 vs. Texas State 12 Drexel Feb. 11 vs. Hofstra 11 BUCKNELL Feb. 11 vs. Lafayette 11 Mississippi Valley State Feb. 11 at Alcorn State 11 Long Beach State Feb. 11 at Cal-Davis 10 VCU Feb. 11 at Old Dominion
What's Next?
• Next up for the Bison is a home date with Lehigh next Thursday, Feb. 16. The game will air live on CBS Sports Network.
• The Bison defeated the Mountain Hawks 68-61 in Bethlehem back on Jan. 18.
