Bucknell University Athletics
Women's Basketball Hosts Army on Saturday Night
1/17/2014 3:20:00 PM | Women's Basketball
What: Bucknell Bison (8-7, 3-2 PL) vs. Army Black Knights (12-4, 4-1 PL)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa.
When: Saturday, Jan. 18, 2014, 7 p.m.
Internet Video: Bison Vision on the Patriot League Network
Radio: WVBU 90.5 FM
Internet Radio: BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com
Tickets: 570-577-1000 or buy online
With a Victory Over Army, Bucknell Would...
• Improve to 9-7 overall and 4-2 in the Patriot League.
• Improve to 5-2 overall and 2-1 in league action at home this season.
• Improve to 81-61 all-time at Sojka Pavilion.
• Earn its 32nd win over the Black Knights in the 53rd meeting between the two teams, and its first since March 5, 2011.
Last Meeting with Army - Feb. 9, 2013
• Army 44, Bucknell 35 (Sojka Pavilion)
• Shelby Romine became the 20th Bison to score 1,000 career points, but it was Army's Anna Simmers that was the game changer as the Black Knights took a 44-35 win at Sojka Pavilion in the last meeting between the two teams.
• Offensive execution was not in either team's favor in the Patriot League matchup with both Bucknell, which fell to 13-10 and 4-4 in the Patriot League, and Army, which improved to 17-6 and 6-2 in conference action, shooting 26 percent from the field.
• Bucknell had the 19-17 lead and Romine was up to 10 points at the break. The score didn't change much when play resumed. Nine minutes into the second stanza and the two squads had combined for a mere seven points.
• Romine found a way to put some more points on the board as she drove to the hoop and was fouled on the play with 5:46 remaining in the game. That sent the junior to the line where she collected her 1,000th point on her first free throw attempt.
• Romine shot 5-for-15 from the field and 5-for-6 from the free throw line. That clip exceeded the percentages put up by the team at 12-fof-45 (.267) overall and 10-for-16 (.625) from the line. Bucknell had just six field goals in each half.
• Army had similar struggles throughout, shooting 16-for-61 (.262) from the field. That percentage stood at just .200 at halftime. Simmers had two points on 1-for-11 shooting at the break before finishing the game with 14. Of that team high, 10 came in the game's final 5:28. Only she and Kelsey Minato, who also had 14 points on the night, scored for the Black Knights during that stretch. The duo took Army from a 28-28 tie after Romine's milestone free throws to the nine-point win.
• After finishing the game with 16 points, Romine improved her career total to 1,005. That ranks her 20th in program history and makes her the first Bison to register 1,000 since Lauren Schober during the 2008-09 season.
About the Black Knights
Army, which sits in a tie with American for second-place in the Patriot League, has played to a 12-4 record thus far, with its only losses coming at the hands of St. Francis N.Y. (56-53), Penn (67-57), Ohio State (59-56) and Navy (74-64). The team is 4-1 in conference play, having earned victories over Lafayette (66-49), Loyola (66-62 OT), Lehigh (74-63) and, most recently, Holy Cross (70-57). Interestingly, each of the Black Knights' four defeats have been handed to them on the road.
Kelsey Minato, last season's Patriot League Player and Rookie of the Year, currently leads the conference in scoring, averaging 20.4 points per game, including 23.0 in Army's first five league match-ups, and is also contributing 3.1 assists in each game. Jen Hazlett is also averaging in double-digits, scoring 14.0 points per game for the Black Knights, which Olivia Schretzman's 7.4 boards per contest leads the team on the glass.
History vs. Army
• Bucknell has a 31-21 advantage in the all-time series against Army. Most of those wins have come in Lewisburg, where the Bison have an 18-7 advantage. The Black Knights hold a 14-13 edge when the two teams play at West Point.
• The 79 combined points scored in the last meeting between the two teams is the fewest in Bucknell-Army series history, breaking the previous mark of 88, set when the Bison won 44-40 at West Point on Feb. 16, 2011.
• Three of the last four games between Bucknell and Army have seen unusually high scoring totals, with the exception being last February's contest. In the three prior games, at least one team reached the 60-point mark. Prior to this stretch, neither team had scored 60 points since Feb. 24, 2007 when Army won 61-57. Bucknell is 1-6 against Army since 2004 when it scores 60 points or more.
• The last time the Bison defeated the Black Knights was in the Patriot League Tournament Quarterfinals on March 3, 2011. Hosting the first women's basketball postseason game in program history, fourth-seeded Bucknell knocked off Army 54-40 at Davis Gym. Shelby Romine, the only current Bison to earn a win over the Black Knights, had 19 points as Bucknell shot .472 from the field and held the Army to a .232 field goal percentage.
Last Time Out
Co-captains Audrey Dotson and Shelby Romine each threw up buzzer-beating shots to keep their squad alive through two overtime periods, but the Bucknell women's basketball team couldn't outlast Navy on Wednesday night, dropping a heart-breaking 94-92 decision after 50 minutes of toe-to-toe action at Sojka Pavilion. The Bison, who played to an overtime win at Holy Cross on Saturday, fall to 8-7 overall and 3-2 in Patriot League action with the loss. The Midshipmen, who maintain sole possession of first place in the conference standings with the victory, improve to 13-3 overall and 5-0 in league play.
Dotson led a quartet of Bison who scored in double-figures, tallying a career-high 28 points on 12-of-23 (.522) shooting from the field and 4-of-6 (.667) from the line. The junior also grabbed seven rebounds in 47 minutes of playing time. Romine scored 17 points, 12 of which came in the two overtime periods, and dished out six assists, while freshmen Megan McGurk and Claire DeBoer each contributed 15 points. DeBoer, who shot 5-of-12 (.417) from the field and hit all five of her free throws, also collected ten rebounds for her fourth career double-double.
Some of the most exciting basketball of the night occurred in the second 20 minutes of the contest, as the evenly-matched squads battled for each and every bucket, with neither team able to build more than a five-point advantage. While Navy owned the edge for the first six minutes, the remainder of the stanza told a different story, as the Bison and the Mids played to nine ties and exchanged leads on sixteen occasions during that time frame.
Bucknell found itself up 71-70 with 1:25 on the clock in regulation, but Navy went 3-for-4 from the line over the course of the next minute, reclaiming a two-point edge with just nine seconds to play. With the game on the line the Bison exhibited both their heart and their offensive prowess, as McGurk sent the ball down the court to Romine, who feed it to Dotson in the paint. Fighting through traffic, she spun to her left and threw up a shot, connecting on the layup to tie the score at 73-73 and send the game into overtime.
At the end of the first overtime Navy held an 82-80 lead but with just eight seconds on the clock, the ball was in Bucknell's possession. In an eerily similar play that spoke volumes about the fortitude and heart of the young Bison squad, Romine raced up the court, drove down the lane and tossed up a layup that went in just as the buzzer sounded, putting five more minutes of overtime on the clock.
Bucknell was within one with five seconds remaining in the second overtime, but Alix Membreno hit her last shot from the charity stripe and Romine's desperation heave was just short, giving the Mids a hard-earned 94-92 win over the Bison.
Looking Ahead
Bucknell hits the road again on Wednesday, traveling to Baltimore, Md. for a 7 p.m. game against Patriot League newcomer Loyola. The contest will be available free of charge on the Patriot League Network.
