Bison Look to Keep Pace in Patriot League with Road Test at Navy Wednesday

1/14/2014 3:13:00 PM | Men's Basketball

By: TBD

What: Bucknell (8-7, 3-1 PL) at Navy (6-9, 1-3 PL)
Where: Alumni Hall, Annapolis, Md.
When: Wednesday, Jan. 15, 7 p.m.
Internet Video: Patriot League Network
Radio: Eagle 107 (107.3 WEGH)
Internet Radio: BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: NavySports.com

With a Win over Navy, Bucknell Would ...
• ... extend its winning streak to a season-best four straight and improve to 9-7 overall, 4-1 in the Patriot League.
• ... improve to 5-4 on the road this season.
• ... defeat the Midshipmen for the ninth straight time overall and fourth straight time at Alumni Hall.
• ... even the all-time series with the Midshipmen at 34-34.

Headlines
• Bucknell rallied from a 13-point first-half deficit and defeated Holy Cross 61-57 at Sojka Pavilion on Saturday. The victory kept the Bison one game off the Patriot League lead, as American, Army and Boston University all won over the weekend to improve to 4-0 in league play.
• Bucknell played three of its first four Patriot League games at home, and now the Bison play four of their next six on the road, including two this week against the service academies. Sunday's game at Army will be televised on CBS Sports Network.
• Bucknell led the nation in 3-point field-goal percentage after a 12-for-15 showing at Lafayette last week. The Bison went 4-for-14 from the arc against Holy Cross on Saturday and dropped to No. 2 nationally at 43.1%. The national leader is now Creighton at 43.7%.
• Senior Cameron Ayers continues to lead the team in scoring at 14.1 ppg. Chris Hass (10.5 ppg) has emerged as a scorer in league play, where he ranks fourth in the PL with an 18.5 ppg average. That total includes a career-high 26-point performance against Colgate. Ben Brackney broke out of a recent shooting slump with a career-high 25 points at Lafayette. He also led the team with 13 points in the win over Holy Cross, shot 8-for-12 from 3-point range in those two games, and was named Patriot League Player of the Week on Monday.
• 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.
• Bucknell returned 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.
• Navy continues to improve under third-year head coach Ed DeChellis and comes into Wednesday's game 6-9 overall and 1-3 in the Patriot League. The Midshipmen fell 60-55 to arch-rival Army on Saturday. Their Patriot League win was a 79-71 verdict over Lafayette at Alumni Hall on Jan. 5. Navy has played the last five games without point guard and leading scorer Tilman Dunbar (11.9 ppg). Brandon Venturini, who went 8-for-9 from 3-point range against Lafayette, also scores in double figures at 10.4 ppg.

How to Get the Game
• The Bucknell-Navy game will not be televised, however a free live webcast will be available on the Patriot League Network.
• 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 NavySports.com.

Bucknell vs. Navy
• This will be the 68th all-time meeting between the Bison and Midshipmen, with Navy owning a 34-33 series lead.
• The Midshipmen had won four straight over the Bison until Bucknell bounced back with eight straight wins over the last three seasons. Navy swept the season series from Bucknell in both 2009 and 2010, winning by 4, 2 (in OT), 2 and 2 points. Since then, Bucknell has won eight in a row, including an 58-42 win in last season's Patriot League Tournament quarterfinals.
• The Mids won 12 of 16 from the Bison prior to joining the Patriot League in 1991-92.
• As conference rivals, Bucknell leads 29-22, with the home team winning most of the time. Since Navy joined the league, Bucknell is 20-5 against the Mids at home but is only 9-17 against Navy in Alumni Hall.
• Bucknell went 3-0 against Navy last season, including that quarterfinal win at Sojka Pavilion. In last season's first meeting, the Bison won 69-54 at Sojka Pavilion. Bryson Johnson hit six 3-pointers and scored 20 points, and Mike Muscala had 11 points and a career-high-tying 19 rebounds to lead Bucknell. Kevin Alter led Navy with 15 points off the bench. In the regular-season finale at Alumni Hall before the largest non-Army crowd in Alumni Hall history (4,833), Bucknell won 62-46 behind 14 points from Cameron Ayers and 12 from Johnson. That guard duo combined to made 7 of 11 3-point tries, including four from Johnson in the first half alone. Johnson's triple at the halftime buzzer was big, as it gave the Bison a nine-point lead at the break. Brandon Venturini led Navy with 13 points. In the Patriot League Tournament quarterfinals, Muscala recorded 15 points and 13 rebounds while becoming Bucknell's all-time leading scorer, and the Bison prevailed 58-42. Tilman Dunbar was Navy's high scorer with nine points.

Patriot League Success
• Bucknell is 214-97 (.688) all-time in Patriot League regular-season games, the best record of any league team. They have finished at least .500 in PL play in 19 of 23 seasons.
• Bucknell won the last three outright Patriot League regular-season titles, becoming the first team in league history to accomplish that feat.
• The Bison went 13-1 in the league in 2011 and 12-2 in each of the last two seasons, making them 37-5 over the previous three campaigns. Dating back to mid-2010, Bucknell has won 47 of its last 55 league games.
• Bucknell won Patriot League Tournament titles in 2005, 2006, 2011 and 2013. The Bison have made it to the semifinals 18 times and to the championship game 10 times in the 23-year history of the league.
• The Bison are the only team to go unbeaten in league play in a season (14-0 in 2006).

Last Time Out
• Down 26-13 with six minutes remaining in the first half, Bucknell stormed back to get the game tied at halftime, and then they gutted out a back-and-forth second half and held off Holy Cross 61-57 on Saturday at Sojka Pavilion. The Bison led by two in the final seconds when Justin Burrell launched a potential go-ahead 3-pointer from deep on the right wing. The shot was off the mark, Cameron Ayers rebounded and made two cliniching free throws with nine-tenths of a second left.
• Ben Brackney led the Bison in scoring for the second straight game with 13 points (3-5 FG, 2-4 3FG, 5-5- FT). Brackney scored eight points in Bucknell's 16-3 run to end the first half.
• Ayers was the only other Bison in double figures with nine points. Chris Hass had nine, Ryan Frazier eight and Ryan Hill seven.
• Steven Kaspar recorded six assists, his third straight game with six or more.
• Bucknell was 13-for-15 from the free-throw line and shot 44.9% overall. One game after making 12 of 15 3-point attempts at Lafayette, the Bison were 4-for-14 against Holy Cross.
• A big key to the game was holding Holy Cross' leading scorer Dave Dudzinski to seven points on 2-for-9 shooting.
• Bucknell's bench outscored the Crusaders' reserves 21-2.
• The Bison allowed a season-high 14 offensive rebounds to Holy Cross.

Numbers Worth Noting
• This season Bucknell is 7-3 coming off three or fewer days off, but is just 1-3 following four or more days of rest.
• Bucknell ranks No. 2 in the nation in 3-point percentage (.431), but if the season ended today that would only be the fourth-best mark in program history. The Bison shot over 45% from the arc in three straight years from 1986-87 to 1988-89, including an incredible 47.0% in 1987-88.
• The Bison have similar shooting percentages from 2-point distance (.454) and 3-point distance (.431).
• Oddly, Bucknell has shot much better on the road (46.6 FG%, 48.6 3FG%, 78.5 FT%) this season than at home (42.3 FG%, 36.1 3FG%, 73.9 FT%).
• In each of the last two seasons, Bucknell led the nation in defensive rebounding percentage (i.e. percentage of opponents' missed shots that Bucknell has rebounded). This year, despite playing almost exclusively with a four-guard lineup, the Bison still rank a respectable 7th out of 351 Division I teams in DR%. Last year, led by senior big men Mike Muscala and Joe Willman, Bucknell grabbed 79.0% of its opponents' misses. This year that figure is still a solid 77.4%. Bucknell had conceded only 14 offensive rebounds in its previous three games before Holy Cross grabbed 14 on Saturday.
• Bucknell has typically ranked among the very best in the nation in fewest turnovers under coach Dave Paulsen, and this year has been no different. The Bison are averaging only 9.6 turnovers per game to rank eighth nationally.
• Last season Bucknell featured one of the nation's most prolific shot-blockers in Mike Muscala, but so far this season the Bison have blocked only 14 shots in 15 games, compared to 66 by their opponents. Bucknell ranks last nationally in blocks per game (0.8). Muscala alone had 37 blocks through 15 games last season.

Who's Got Next?
• Bucknell heads to West Point on Sunday for a 3 p.m. game. The contest will air live on CBS Sports Network with Jason Knapp and Chris Spatola on the call.
• Army has gotten out to a 4-0 start in the Patriot League, including Saturday's win at Navy. The Black Knights host Holy Cross on Wednesday.