Bison Visit Lafayette Wednesday Night; Backcourt Club Luncheon Thursday

1/7/2014 3:27:00 PM | Men's Basketball

By: TBD

NOTE: The next Backcourt Club Men's Basketball Luncheon will be held on Thursday at La Primavera Restaurant in Lewisburg. The restaurant is located on Rt. 45, west of Rt. 15, and doors open at 11:45 a.m. The buffet lunch is $9 per person, and Coach Paulsen and select players will be in attendance to talk about the season thus far.

What: Bucknell (6-7, 1-1 PL) at Lafayette (4-9, 0-2 PL)
Where: Kirby Sports Center, Easton, Pa.
When: Wednesday, Jan. 8, 7 p.m.
Internet Video: Patriot League Network
Radio: Eagle 107 (107.3 WEGH)
Internet Radio: BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: goLeopards.com

With a Win over Lafayette, Bucknell Would ...
• ... improve to 7-7 overall, 2-1 in the Patriot League.
• ... improve to 4-4 on the road this season.
• ... improve to 40-14 against Lafayette since the start of Patriot League play in 1990-91.

Headlines
• Bucknell snapped a three-game losing streak and leveled its Patriot League record at 1-1 with a 68-57 home win over Colgate on Sunday. The Bison raced out to an 18-point lead in the first half and then finished the game on a 13-4 run after the Raiders had closed within two. The much-needed victory kept the Bison one game off the league lead early in the conference slate.
• Wednesday's game is a rematch of the 2011 and 2013 Patriot League championship games, both won by the Bison at Sojka Pavilion. These two teams also met in the 2012 PL semifinals and have played nine times in the last three seasons.
• Senior Cameron Ayers continues to lead the team in scoring at 14.2 ppg. Chris Hass (9.8 ppg) has emerged as a scorer in league play, setting new career highs with 18 points against American and then 26 against Colgate on Sunday. Hass ranks second in the Patriot League in conference scoring at 22.0 points per game, trailing only Loyola's Dylon Cormier (23.5).
• 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.
• Lafayette has experienced a streaky season thus far. The Leopards started the year 0-5, then won four straight games before dropping their last four to fall to 4-9. Lafayette has played the last three games without top scorer Seth Hinrichs (20.2 ppg) due to injury, but the Leopards still feature a formidable backcourt in Bryce Scott (15.4 ppg), Joey Ptasinski (10.2 ppg) and Nick Lindner (9.6 ppg, 4.0 apg). Dan Trist (12.3 ppg, 6.1 rpg) is one of the league's top post players.

How to Get the Game
• The Bucknell-Lafayette game will not be televised, however a free live webcast will be available on the Patriot League Network. Campus Insiders will be producing the coverage for the PLN, with Ray Crawford calling the action.
• 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 goLeopards.com.

Bucknell vs. Lafayette
• Bucknell and Lafayette have met 154 times previously, making the Leopards Bucknell's second most-played opponent (the Bison have played Lehigh 160 times). Since the series began in 1915, Lafayette leads 86-68.
• Since the start of Patriot League play in 1990-91, however, Bucknell has won 39 of 53 meetings.
• Bucknell has won all 15 matchups in Sojka Pavilion and is 24-3 against the Leopards in Lewisburg going back to the Patriot League's first season. Lafayette is actually 0-16 all-time in Sojka, including a neutral-site loss to American in the 2006 PL Tournament quarterfinals.
• The Bison and Leopards have met in each of the last three Patriot League Tournaments, including the 2011 and 2013 championship games. Bucknell won 72-57 in the 2011 title game, 79-52 in the 2012 semifinals and 64-56 in the 2013 final.
• These two teams split a pair of regular-season matchups last year, with the home team winning each time. At Sojka Pavilion, Mike Muscala recorded 27 points and 15 rebounds and the Bison defeated Lafayette 66-51. Bucknell limited Lafayette to 1-for-13 3-point shooting and 34.5% overall. Seth Hinrichs led Lafayette with 12 points. In the rematch at Kirby Sports Center, Tony Johnson hit a pull-up in the lane with 4.5 seconds left to send Lafayette to a 63-62 win. Muscala finished with 29 points and 15 rebounds (he had 21/10 at halftime), and Cameron Ayers tallied 20 points for the Bison, who would not lose again until the NCAA Tournament.
• In last year's PL championship game, Muscala recorded 20 points and 11 rebounds and Joe Willman added 14 points and eight boards to lead the Bison to the 64-56 win. Ben Brackney made a key contribution off the bench with eight points, including a pair of 3-pointers and two big free throws late in the contest. Joey Ptasinski led the Leopards with 15 points.
• In the three meetings last year, the Bison limited Lafayette to 12-for-45 (.267) shooting from 3-point distance.

Patriot League Success
• Bucknell is 212-97 (.686) 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 45 of its last 53 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
• Strong defense and a 26-point performance from Chris Hass sparked the Bison to a 68-57 win over Colgate on Sunday at Sojka Pavilion. The Raiders came into the game ranked No. 1 in the nation in 3-point shooting percentage, but Bucknell held the league's highest-scoring team to 1-for-12 shooting from the arc. The only other teams this season to hold Colgate under 60 points were Georgetown and Syracuse.
• Bucknell led by as many as 18 points (40-22) in the first half and by 16 (40-24) at the break. Colgate reduced that margin all the way to two points at 55-53 with 3:57 to play, but Hass' strong take to the basket started an 8-0 run that quickly pushed Bucknell's lead back to 10.
• Hass went 10-for-15 from the field and 4-for-8 from 3-point distance in the best offensive performance of his young career. The 26 points are the most in a game by any active Bison player.
• Cameron Ayers played an important role at both ends of the floor. He chipped in 10 points, including three big free throws late in the game, and defensively he helped limit All-Patriot Leaguer Murphy Burnatowski to eight points on 3-for-9 shooting.
• Dom Hoffman had a terrific game off the bench with 12 points, eight rebounds and two assists in 21 minutes.
• Bucknell shot 49.0% for the game and went 7-for-18 from 3-point range. The Bison made five of their first six 3-point attempts of the day.
• The victory was Bucknell's ninth straight over Colgate and 11th in a row over the Raiders at Sojka Pavilion.

Numbers Worth Noting
• This season Bucknell is 5-3 coming off three or fewer days off, but is just 1-3 following four or more days of rest.
• Through six games Bucknell was shooting 50.6% as a team, but in the last seven games the Bison have shot just 38.0%, bringing their season mark down to 44.0%.
• Oddly, Bucknell has shot much better on the road (45.8 FG%, 44.7 3FG%, 78.8 FT%) this season than at home (41.9 FG%, 37.2 3FG%, 72.0 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 77.6%.
• 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 9.8 turnovers per game to rank 13th nationally.
• Last season Bucknell featured one of the nation's most prolific shot-blockers in Mike Muscala. So far this season the Bison have blocked only nine shots in 13 games, compared to 59 by their opponents.
• Through 12 games the Bison are shooting 44.0% from the field and 41.5% from 3-point range. They rank 11th nationally in 3FG%.
• Bucknell has upped its steal totals in recent games. The Bison recorded 30 steals in their first nine games (3.3 spg), but now they have 22 thefts in their last four contests (5.5 spg), including a season-high eight against American last Thursday.

Who's Got Next?
• Bucknell will be back home on Saturday to face Holy Cross at 2 p.m. at Sojka Pavilion. That contest will be immediately followed by the team's annual Alumni Game.
• Holy Cross is 6-8 overall and 0-2 in the Patriot League heading into Wednesday's game against Colgate at the Hart Center.