Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
5-6
Case Western Reserve
6-2
Bucknell Uses Big Second Half to Race Past Case Western Reserve, 88-65
12/19/2014 9:55:00 PM | Men's Basketball
LEWISBURG, Pa. – On the ropes into the early stages of the second half against a strong Case Western Reserve team, Bucknell turned to a more-focused defensive effort and some hot 3-point shooting from John Azzinaro and Chris Hass to pull away for an 88-65 victory on Friday night at Sojka Pavilion. Hass led four players in double figures with 19 points and Azzinaro had 15, all from the 3-point arc, to help the Bison to their second straight win leading into a trip to Wake Forest on Monday.
Hass and Azzinaro canned five 3-pointers apiece, and Bucknell was 13-for-27 from long distance against Case Western Reserve's zone defense. The Bison also had success scoring inside, with center Nana Foulland contributing 13 points and nine rebounds despite some foul trouble, and reserve forward D.J. MacLeay added a career-high 12 points along with seven rebounds and five assists.
The Bison worked the ball well against the zone, finishing with 26 assists on 33 made field goals. Bigs Cory Starkey (6), MacLeay (5), Foulland (2) and Ben Oberfeld (1), combined for 14 of those assists, primarily on kick-outs to 3-point shooters and some high-low feeds for layups.
The Bison shot 50.8 percent on the night, but the trouble was Case Western Reserve was matching them blow-for-blow for the 22 minutes. The Spartans, who came in with a 6-1 record while averaging 82.6 points per game, went 7-for-12 from 3-point range in the first half and erased a nine-point deficit with a 10-0 run during one two-minute stretch.
Dane McLoughlin, who led Case Western with 13 points and eight rebounds, hit a short runner along the baseline to give the Spartans a 28-27 advantage. The lead would change hands twice more, but a 3-pointer from Steven Kaspar in the final minute of the half helped the Bison stay in front at the break, but only by a 38-36 margin.
McLoughlin's 3-point play tied the game at 41 in the opening minute of the second period, but four straight points from Foulland, including a dunk in traffic after a nice feed from Ryan Frazier, followed by a Hass trey finally gave Bucknell some breathing room at 48-41.
It was still just a six-point game with 16 minutes to play, but the Bison ratcheted up the defense from there. The effort was epitomized by Frazier and Starkey both diving on the floor to force a tie-up, and then Frazier drove the lane for a layup on the next possession. Then MacLeay jumped a passing lane for a steal. His 1-on-1 layup fell off the rim, but Oberfeld sprinted down the floor to grab the rebound, got fouled going back up, and hit both free throws to make it 57-45 with 15:08 left.
The Spartans got as close as eight, but another Frazier came up with another steal and hit a 3-pointer to spark a 10-0 run that gave the Bison a comfortable lead at 70-52. Azzinaro, Hass and Joshea Singleton all hit threes, and Foulland and Zach Thomas threw down dunks in the closing minutes to help see out a 50-point second half.
“We played against a very good basketball team tonight,” said head coach Dave Paulsen afterward. “Case Western Reserve was not at all intimidated, they ran great offense and gave us everything we could handle in the first half. From our perspective, I was not happy with our defense in the first half, but the good news is that we picked it up defensively in the second half. We got good contributions from across the board and were able to come out of here with a win after an 11-day layoff. Now we have to keep getting better.”
Bucknell finished with a 45-31 rebounding advantage, including 14 offensive rebounds that led to 18 second-chance points. The Bison came up with all six of their steals in the second half and held the Spartans to 35.5 percent shooting after the break and 38.1 percent on the night.
Starkey, making his first career start in place of the injured Dom Hoffman, tallied six points, six rebounds, six assists and three blocked shots. Kaspar was a big contributor off the bench with nine points and three assists in 14 minutes.
Julien Person tallied 11 points and David Black had 15 off the bench for the Spartans, who were 10-for-21 from 3-point distance on the night.
The Bison won their first game coming out of the exam break for the fifth time in seven years under Paulsen, and now they travel to Winston-Salem for a game against Wake Forest on Monday at 7 p.m. The contest will air on ESPN3.
