Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
18-4, 5-1PL
American
7-14, 2-4PL
Muscala's Last-Second Shot Lifts Bison Men Past American, 56-55
1/30/2013 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 30, 2013
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Battered and bloodied, Mike Muscala still found a way to get it done. Muscala rebounded his own miss and stuck it back in with eight-tenths of a second remaining to give Bucknell a remarkable 56-55 victory on Wednesday night at Bender Arena. The Bison scored the game's final eight points after trailing 55-48 inside two minutes to play, and they overcame some rare poor free-throw shooting to improve to 18-4 overall and 5-1 in the Patriot League.
Muscala, playing with a bandaged chin after taking two separate elbows to the face, finished with 16 points, 14 rebounds, four assists and three blocks. Cameron Ayers added 14 points for the Bison, who managed an important road victory despite shooting 11-for-24 from the free-throw line and 1-for-10 from 3-point range. But they got key stops down the stretch and American (7-14, 2-4) kept them alive with two missed front ends of 1-and-1s in the final 33 seconds.
The second of those came from Daniel Munoz, an 85-percent free-throw shooter who led American with 13 points on the night. After the miss, Muscala drove in from the left wing but had his shot blocked out of bounds by Tony Wroblicky. Muscala got the ball in the paint on the inbounds, missed a short jump hook but snatched his own rebound and banked it back in off the glass with 0.8 left. Ayers deflected the American inbounds, and the Eagles could not get off a desperation heave.
"The positives are that we showed unbelievable grit and resiliency," said coach Dave Paulsen. "We put ourselves in that position [trailing late in games] every day in practice, so that situation was not foreign to us. We were calm, got on the offensive glass and showed great poise. Now the flip side of that is that we did not play well at all leading up to that point, and we have some things to address before we play Navy on Saturday."
Muscala's double-double was his national-best 15th of the season. Five of his nine rebounds came at the offensive end, including two big ones down the stretch. Bucknell also moved back into a share of the national lead with its ninth road victory of the season (Stony Brook also has nine), and the Bison defeated American for the seventh straight time overall and fourth straight year at Bender Arena.
Bucknell led 28-27 at the half, but American stormed out of the locker room with seven buckets in its first nine attempts, including a long 2-pointer by Blake Jolivette as the shot clock expired that gave the Eagles a 39-32 lead.
A layup by Wroblicky countered a 3-point play by Ayers and made it 41-35, but the Bison came back with six straight points. Joe Willman and Ayers came down with big offensive rebounds that resulted in second-chance points, with Ayers' put-back of a Muscala miss knotting the game at 41-all with 10:58 left.
American answered with a John Schoof 3-pointer and a Wroblicky free throw. Muscala made a nice pass out of a double team to Ben Brackney for a layup to cut it to 45-43. The Bison got the ball back when AU was called for its second flagrant foul of the night - both on elbows to Muscala's face - but he missed both free throws.
At the other end Kyle Kager - who was 1-for-6 from the 3-point arc on the season - rattled in a trey. After Johnson hit 1 of 2 from the line, Munoz hit a pair of free throws and Wroblicky put back a Munoz miss to make it 52-44 with 5:54 left.
Bucknell cut it to four with free throws from Willman and Johnson, but then American ran the shot clock all the way down before Munoz hit a 28-footer at the buzzer to make it 55-48 with 2:15 left.
But those would be American's final points of the night. Muscala went 1-for-2 at the line, and after a stop, Steven Kaspar hit one of the biggest shots of the night, an open 16-footer that made it 55-51 with 1:20 left. Again AU held the ball for 35 seconds, this time forcing a Stephen Lumpkins 3-pointer that was off the mark.
Bryson Johnson was fouled on a 3-pointer, but he only made the first of the three free throws. Muscala grabbed the offensive rebound after the third shot, but his put-back attempt was blocked by Lumpkins. Wroblicky was fouled on the rebound with 32.5 seconds left, but he missed the front end of the 1-and-1.
Johnson's 3-pointer rimmed out, but Muscala skied for the rebound and put it back in with 21.7 seconds left. Bucknell fouled Munoz on the inbounds, setting up the wild finish.
The Bison got out to a slow start, missing their first five shots of the night before Ayers knocked down a 3-pointer from the right corner off a feed from Johnson. That started a 13-4 run, with consecutive buckets from Brian Fitzpatrick giving Bucknell a 13-8 lead.
Muscala had to sit for about seven minutes after taking the first elbow to the chin that required bandaging. His first field goal of the night came when he dunked home his own miss with 3:26 left in the half. American took a brief 25-24 lead on a Munoz floater in the lane with 1:34 left, but Muscala scored on a post move and an 18-foot jumper to put the Bison back in front. Two free throws by Lumpkins made it a 28-27 game at the half.
Bucknell came in ranked 10th nationally in field-goal percentage defense (.373), but American shot 47.8 percent on the night. Bucknell had held 16 of its previous 19 opponents under 40 percent. The Eagles went 4-for-9 from the arc and 7-for-13 from the foul line.
Lumpkins scored 12 points and Jolivette had 10 for the Eagles.
Bucknell returns home on Saturday to face Navy at 7 p.m. at Sojka Pavilion. The annual Alumni Game will take place at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
