Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell, St. John's Meet Tuesday on Fox Sports 1
11/18/2013 12:04:00 PM | Men's Basketball
• ... improve to 3-1 on the season.
• ... defeat the Red Storm for the first time ever.
• ... defeat a Big East team for the first time since Dec. 3, 2005 (57-52 at DePaul).
Headlines
• Bucknell plays a major conference opponent for the third time in four games to start the season when it travels to St. John's on Tuesday. The Bison opened the campaign with a four-point loss at Stanford, then followed that up with its first victory over Penn State since 1976. On Saturday, Bucknell routed Saint Francis (Pa.) in its home debut to improve to 2-1 on the season.
• Bucknell and St. John's are meeting for the first time since Feb. 10, 1912. St. John's won that one 28-18. The 102-season gap between series meetings is the widest in Bucknell history.
• The Bison have shot the ball very well in the early going. As a team they are shooting 52.1% from the field, 45.3% from 3-point range and 80.0% from the foul line. Cameron Ayers is 9-for-10 from 3-point range in the last two games.
• Junior point guard Steven Kaspar has turned heads so far. After logging career highs with 12 points, seven rebounds and nine assists against Stanford, he more than doubled his career high with 25 points on 9-for-13 shooting in the win at Penn State. Kaspar is averaging 14.3 points, 5.0 rebounds and 5.7 assists so far while shooting 55.2 FG%.
• Bucknell used only two different starting lineups all of last season. The Bison have already had three different starting fives in three games this year.
• This is a “new-look” Bison squad, as three standout players from last year's NCAA Tournament team have graduated (Mike Muscala, Bryson Johnson, Joe Willman). Three Bucknell players made their first career starts at Stanford (Brian Fitzpatrick, Dom Hoffman, Ben Brackney), Ryan Frazier started for the first time in his career at Penn State, and Chris Hass did the same against Saint Francis.
• The Bison were picked to finish fourth in the Patriot League in a preseason poll of the league's head coaches and sports information directors. Senior guard Cameron Ayers was a Preseason All-Patriot League selection.
• Bucknell returns two starters and 11 lettermen from last year's squad that won a school-record 28 games, captured Patriot League regular-season and tournament titles, and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the sixth time in program history.
• St. John's is off to a 1-1 start in 2013-14. The Red Storm opened with an 86-75 loss to Wisconsin before topping Wagner 73-57 on Friday. Steve Lavin's team has all five starters back from last year's squad that finished 17-16 and advanced to the second round of the NIT. D'Angelo Harrison (26.0 ppg) and JaKarr Sampson (17.0) have handled the bulk of the scoring so far.
How to Get the Game
• The Bucknell-St. John's game will be televised live on Fox Sports 1. Dick Stockton and Bill Raftery will have the call.
• The game can be heard in the Susquehanna Valley on the radio on Eagle 107 (WEGH 107.3 FM), with Doug Birdsong calling the action. The pregame show begins 30 minutes before tip-off.
• The audio feed is available online free of charge via BucknellBison.com.
• Live stats can be accessed at RedStormSports.com.
Bucknell vs. St. John's Series Notes
• The last time Bucknell and St. John's met in basketball, the United States was comprised of 47 states, William Howard Taft was president, and the RMS Titanic was still two months from her fateful maiden voyage.
• St. John's defeated Bucknell 28-18 in the only previous meeting on Feb. 10, 1912.
Bucknell vs. The Big East
Bucknell is 13-33 (.283) all-time against the teams that currently comprise the Big East. The Bison are 0-1 against Butler, 1-0 against DePaul, 2-9 against Georgetown, 0-1 against Marquette, 0-1 against Providence, 0-1 against St. John's, 0-5 against Seton Hall, 9-15 against Villanova and 1-0 against Xavier.
Last Time Out
• Bucknell never trailed in Saturday's convincing 72-50 win over Saint Francis (Pa.) in the home opener at Sojka Pavilion. The Bison used all 14 players, 11 of whom scored a point, and led by double digits for all of the final 22 minutes.
• Cameron Ayers made all four of his 3-point tries and led all players with 16 points. Dom Hoffman (7-10 FG) and Chris Hass (4-6) reached career highs with 14 and 10 points, respectively. Hass made his first career start.
• Bucknell shot 60.0% in the first half and 55.2% overall. The Bison made 8 of 17 from the arc and won by 22 despite not attempting a single free throw.
• Defensively, the Bison limited the Red Flash to 32.8% shooting. Saint Francis relied heavily on the outside shot, as Bucknell led 38-16 in points in the paint. Of the Red Flash's 58 attempts, 30 came from 3-point range.
• Bucknell's bench combined for 28 points.
Worth Noting
• Steven Kaspar (12, 25), Ben Brackney (13, 16) and Brian Fitzpatrick (10, 13) all set career scoring highs in the opener against Stanford, and then re-set them in game No. 2 at Penn State.
• Bucknell now has four players scoring in double figures — Cameron Ayers, Kaspar, Brackney and Dom Hoffman — and Fitzpatrick is one point shy of that mark (9.7 ppg with 29 points in three games).
• Through three games the Bison are shooting 52.1% from the field, 45.3% from 3-point range and 80.0% from the foul line. They lead the Patriot League in FG% and 3FG%.
• Bucknell has 44 assists on 87 field goals, with only 26 turnovers, so far this season.
Who's Got Next?
• Bucknell continues its three-game road trip on Saturday at Albany at 7 p.m.
• The Bison and Great Danes will be meeting for the first time since the 2007-08 season opener (a 55-52 Bucknell win). Bucknell leads the all-time series 4-2.
• Albany is 2-1 on the season. The Great Danes opened with wins over Siena and NJIT, then lost 79-69 at Quinnipiac on Saturday. Albany travels to Duquesne on Wednesday before hosting the Bison.
