Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
13-3
#12 Missouri
11-2
Bucknell Men Drop 66-64 Heartbreaker at No. 12 Missouri
1/5/2013 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 5, 2013
Box Score | Photo Gallery 
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Bucknell went into Mizzou Arena and went blow-for-blow with 12th-ranked Missouri for all of 40 minutes, but the Bison came up a fraction short and fell 66-64 on Saturday afternoon to drop to 13-3 on the season. Mike Muscala had a huge game with 25 points, 14 rebounds, four assists and two blocks, but Phil Pressey scored 19 of his 26 points in the second half to help the Tigers get to 11-2.
Cameron Ayers added 13 points and Bryson Johnson had 11 for the Bison, who head into Patriot League play with a league-record 13 wins. Bucknell came close to beating a ranked opponent for the first time since 2005, and they nearly ended Mizzou's 72-game home winning streak against non-league foes, but the Tigers hit some big jump shots down the stretch and got two clinching free throws from Earnest Ross with 3.0 seconds left.
"I thought we executed a game plan and played really hard, but we are disappointed not to come away with a victory," said Dave Paulsen afterward. "Our guys come to Bucknell to play in games like this, but there are no moral victories. We have had some close calls in the past, and we feel like we should have won this one. It was a solid effort, we just needed a little bit more. Give plenty of credit to the poise of Missouri, and Pressey played extremely well in the second half when they needed him most, which is what All-Americans do."
Bucknell led 28-24 at the break, but on Missouri's opening possession of the second half Stefan Jankovic hit the Tigers' first 3-pointer of the night. That was also the first assist of the game for Pressey, who was coming off a 19-assist game against UCLA.
Jankovich followed that with a one-handed jam to give the Tigers the lead back and get the near-sellout crowd back into it. Ayers hushed the crowd with a 3-pointer off a drive-and-dish from Muscala, and it was "game on" from there. The two teams traded points for the next nine minutes before the Bison pieced together a 6-0 run.
Trailing 46-43 after a Jabari Brown 3-pointer, Muscala scored on a short bank shot, followed by an Ayers slash down the lane. A Bison miss appeared to result in an easy fastbreak layup for Missouri, but Muscala came out of nowhere to stuff the shot. At the other end Steven Kaspar's layup rimmed out, but Muscala tipped it back in to give the Bison a 49-46 lead with 7:15 left.
Ayers and Johnson sandwiched 3-pointers around a Pressey trey to give the Bison a pair of four-point leads. But Pressey was red hot coming down the stretch. He tied the game at 55 and 57, then drilled a 3-pointer with 2:55 left to put the Tigers up 60-57.
Willman answered with a baseline jumper for Bucknell. Missouri ran the shot clock down and got a tough step-back jumper from Earnest Ross with 1:54 left. The Bison turned it over at the other end, but Willman's blocked shot led to a shot-clock violation with 1:03 remaining.
Muscala stuck back an Ayers miss and was fouled with 40.7 seconds left. The free throw was no good, and after an inbounds play Keion Bell finished a breakaway dunk. Muscala had another put-back with 13 seconds left, and then Pressey missed the front end of a 1-and-1.
The Bison had the ball down by one with the shot clock off, but as Muscala caught a pass on the baseline, the official spotted a toe on the line and the ball went back to Missouri. Ross then made both free throws with 3.0 seconds left. After a timeout, Willman sent a long inbounds pass to Muscala at halfcourt, where he was fouled. Muscala made the front end of his 1-and-1 with 1.9 seconds left. He missed the second intentionally, and the rebound was batted around as time expired.
Missouri came in as the top rebounding team in the nation, but the Bison finished with a 39-38 edge on the glass. Muscala's double-double was his 10th of the season and 34th of his career. He moved past Lorry Hathaway into fourth place on Bucknell's career rebounding chart, and he became the third Bison to surpass the 1,700-point plateau.
There were six lead changes and five ties in the opening half. It was 17-all inside 10 minutes to play when Ayers hit a left-corner three on a kick-out from Muscala. Then Muscala hit a turnaround jumper over Bowers, and after Ross went just 1-for-4 from the foul line on consecutive trips, Muscala banked in a lefty runner to give the Bison a six-point lead at 24-18.
Muscala's two free throws with 24 seconds left put Bucknell up 28-24, and the Bison got a big defensive stop to close the half and take that four-point lead into the locker room. Muscala, who scored Bucknell's last eight points of the half, had 16 points, eight rebounds and two assists at intermission.
Ayers and Johnson both hit three 3-pointers apiece and Ryan Frazier made one to make the Bison 7-for-16 (.438) from the arc. They shot 41.9 percent overall but went an uncharacteristic 5-for-11 from the foul line, including the intentional miss at the end.
Laurence Bowers, who was the Co-Preseason SEC Player of the Year along with his teammate Pressey, finished with 16 points and eight rebounds. The Tigers shot 42.9 percent from the field and went 5-for-13 from the 3-point arc, although they went 5-for-5 in the second half. Even with that second-half surge, the Bison held Missouri to its lowest point total of the year.
Willman added eight points and six boards for the Bison, and Kaspar played very well off the bench with three assists in 12 minutes.
Bucknell starts league play at home against Army next Saturday at 7 p.m.
