Bison Men Clash with Colgate Saturday in Hamilton

1/31/2014 4:12:00 PM | Men's Basketball

By: TBD

What: Bucknell (9-11, 4-5 PL) at Colgtae (8-12, 2-7 PL)
Where: Cotterell Court, Hamilton, N.Y.
When: Saturday, Feb. 1, 2 p.m.
Webcast: Patriot League Network
Radio: Eagle 107 (107.3 WEGH)
Internet Radio: BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: GoColgateRaiders.com

With a Win over Colgate, Bucknell Would ...
• ... improve to 10-11 overall, 5-5 in the Patriot League.
• ... improve to 5-7 on the road this season.
• ... sweep the season series from the Raiders and defeat them for the 10th time in a row.
• ... win in Hamilton for the fifth time in a row.

Headlines
• Bucknell looks to shake off two tough losses in a row when it travels to Colgate on Saturday to begin the second half of the Patriot League schedule. The Bison defeated the Raiders 68-57 at Sojka Pavilion back on Jan. 5.
• The Bison now find themselves in a three-way tie for fifth place in the Patriot League standings. Lehigh and Loyola are knotted up with Bucknell at 4-5, two games behind third-place Holy Cross and Army at 6-3. Two key mileposts that teams are striving for are to finish at least sixth (to avoid playing a Patriot League Tournament first-round game) and then to finish at least fourth (to guarantee hosting a semifinal game).
• Senior Cameron Ayers is working on a streak of 14 straight double-figure scoring games and two straight 20-point games. Ayers continues to lead the team in scoring at 14.9 ppg. Ayers scored a team-high 23 points against both Boston University and Lehigh last week. Brian Fitzpatrick has taken over the league lead in field-goal percentage (.626), thanks to a 31-for-39 (.795) stretch over his last seven games. Fitzpatrick is shooting 70.2% in Patriot League play.
• Chris Hass (10.9 ppg) has emerged as a scorer in league play, where he ranks fourth in the PL with a 15.5 ppg league average. That total includes a career-high 26-point performance against Colgate in the first meeting between the two teams. Hass missed the Jan. 22 Loyola game with a knee injury, but he returned against Boston University and scored 17 points off the bench, all of them coming during Bucknell's late comeback attempt. Hass added 13 points off the bench against Lehigh.
• 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) and are all playing professionally overseas. Three Bucknell players made their first career starts on opening night 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.
• Colgate is 8-12 overall and 2-7 in the Patriot League, tied for eighth place with Navy in the league standings. The Raiders should be well-rested after a 75-68 win at Lafayette on Monday. Murphy Burnatowski leads the team in scoring at 13.9 ppg, followed closely by Austin Tillotson (13.2), Damon Sherman-Newsome (11.6) and Ethan Jacobs (11.4). Colgate is typically an outstanding long-range shooting team. The Raiders have made 38.2% of their 3-point attempts, and five players have hit at least 20 treys on the season.

How to Get the Game
• The Bucknell-Colgate game will not be televised, however a live webcast will be available free of charge on the Patriot League Network at PatriotLeague.tv.
• 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 GoColgateRaiders.com.

Bucknell vs. Colgate
• This will be the 102nd all-time meeting between Bucknell and Colgate in a series that dates back to 1920. The Bison have a 61-40 series lead. The only other opponents that Bucknell has played at least 100 times are Lehigh (161), Lafayette (155), Gettysburg (126) and Penn State (101).
• As Patriot League rivals, Bucknell has won 40 of the 53 meetings, including 21 of 24 in Lewisburg.
• Bucknell is 11-1 against Colgate at Sojka Pavilion. The Raiders won there in the arena's inaugural season (2002-03), but since then the Bison have won 11 in a row, including a 68-57 verdict earlier this year.
• Bucknell is 12-4 in its last 16 games in Hamilton, including at 73-59 win there last season.
• Bucknell has won nine straight over Colgate, sweeping the season series in each of the last four seasons. The Raiders last win over the Bison was 68-57 decision at Cotterell Court on Feb. 4, 2009.
• Back on Jan. 5 in Lewisburg, Chris Hass scored a career-high 26 points and Bucknell held the nation's No. 1 3-point shooting team at the time to just a single trey in 12 attempts in a 68-57 victory. Dom Hoffman chipped in 12 points and eight rebounds off the bench, point guard Steven Kaspar had seven assists and a career-high 10 rebounds, and Cameron Ayers tallied 10 points while spearheading the strong defensive effort. Bucknell canned five of their first six 3-pointers of the night and shot 53.8% overall en route to a 40-24 halftime lead. Austin Tillotson paced Colgate with 15 points.

Patriot League Success
• Bucknell is 215-101 (.680) 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 48 of its last 60 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
• It was a night of major momemtum swings on Wednesday at Stabler Arena, and Lehigh had just enough at the end to hold off the Bison 66-63. Bucknell led by as many as 10 early in the game and by seven at the half. Lehigh quickly scored the first seven points of the second period to erase that deficit, and they stretched that run to 18-3 to take a 46-38 lead. Bucknell struck back with nine straight points to reclaim the lead, but then Lehigh got hot from 3-point range. The Mountain Hawks went 7-for-8 from the arc in the second half, including three in a three-minute stretch that flipped a one-point deficit into an eight point lead. Bucknell fought back and had two possessions down by three in the final two minutes but could not convert, and Lehigh held on despite some shaky free-throw shooting.
• Cameron Ayers pocketed 23 points for the Bison, hitting on 9 of 20 attempts from the field and 3 of 7 from 3-point range. It was his second straight game with 23 points, marking the first time in his career posting back-to-back 20-point performances.
• Chris Hass came off the bench to score 13 points, including five straight late in the contest to cut an eight-point deficit down to three. Hass went 3-for-7 from the 3-point arc.
• Brian Fitzpatrick hit double digits for the fourth game in a row with 13 points on 5-for-9 shooting. Fitzpatrick scored 10 of the team's first 21 points and had 12 at the half. He also pulled down six rebounds.
• Freshman D.J. MacLeay continues to give the Bison quality minutes in the frontcourt. MacLeay played a career-high 15 points at Lehigh and tallied four points, two assists and a personal-best six rebounds.
• Lehigh finished the night 9-for-16 from 3-point range and 9-for-22 from the foul line.

Numbers Worth Noting
• After shooting 12-for-15 from 3-point range at Lafayette on Jan. 8, Bucknell ranked No. 1 in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage (.440). In the six games since then, however, the Bison have gone 37-for-117 (.316) from the arc, lowering their season percentage to .398. That is still the 16th-best mark in the nation.
• Oddly, Bucknell has shot much better on the road (45.1 FG%, 43.5 3FG%, 76.7 FT%) this season than at home (41.3 FG%, 34.9 3FG%, 73.8 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 10th 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 76.8%.
• 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, although the team's turnovers have been up a bit in recent games. The Bison are averaging 10.3 turnovers per game to rank 17th nationally. However, in the last five games, they are averaging 12.3 miscues per game.
• 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 24 shots in 20 games, compared to 87 by their opponents. Bucknell ranked last nationally in blocks per game, before climbing out of the cellar with a season-high six rejections against Loyola on Jan. 22. At 1.2 blocks per game, the Bison are now ahead of Central Michigan.
• Brian Fitzpatrick is now shooting 70.2% in Patriot League games, and he is 31-for-39 (.795) in his last seven contests. His 62.6% accuracy for the season is now No. 1 among all Patriot League players.

Who's Got Next?
• After two straight road games, Bucknell returns home to face Lafayette on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
• The Bison defeated the Leopards 96-86 in a high-scoring shootout in Easton back on Jan. 8. Ben Brackney hit six 3-pointers and scored a career-high 25 points, and Chris Hass scored 21 for the Bison, who went 12-for-15 from 3-point range in the game. Dan Trist led Lafayette with 21 points.
• Lafayette hosts Navy on Saturday afternoon before coming to Lewisburg.