Bison Visit Wake Forest Monday on ESPN3

12/21/2014 11:27:00 AM | Men's Basketball

By: TBD

What:Bucknell (5-6) at Wake Forest (5-6)
Where: Joel Coliseum, Winston-Salem, N.C.
When: Monday, Dec. 22, 2014, 7 p.m.
Webcast: ESPN3
Radio: Eagle 107 (107.3 WEGH)
Internet Radio: BucknellBison.com
Live Statistics:WakeForestSports.com

With a Win over Wake Forest, Bucknell Would ...
• ... win its third game in a row and get back to .500 at 6-6 on the season.
• ... defeat the Demon Deacons for the first time in six all-time meetings.
• ... defeat an ACC team for the first time since the 1960-61 season (Virginia 99-81), and for only the third time ever.
• ... improve to 2-4 in road games this season.
• ... win a game in the state of North Carolina for the first time since 1958-59 (Bucknell went 2-1 at the Carrousel Tournament in Charlotte, defeating South Carolina and Pittsburgh and losing to St. Francis (Pa.)).

Headlines
• A pair of 5-6 teams square off on Monday when Bucknell visits Wake Forest at the Joel Coliseum.
• Bucknell came out of the final exam break with an 88-65 win over Division III Case Western Reserve on Friday night. The Bison led by just two at the half, then outscored the Spartans 50-29 in the second half. Meanwhile, the Demon Deacons lost to Florida 63-50 in Miami on Saturday.
• Bucknell and Wake Forest will be meeting for the first time since the 2008-09 season, which was Dave Paulsen's first at Bucknell. The Demon Deacons, ranked 15th nationally at the time, won that one 81-52 and are 5-0 all-time against the Bison.
• Junior Chris Hass is the team's leading scorer at 17.0 ppg. Hass was terrific in the two games against top-25 opponents earlier in the year. He scored 21 points at Michigan, and then pumped in a career-high 32 at Villanova, which is a program record for points in a game against a ranked opponent. In the two games combined, Hass produced 53 points and hit 16 of 26 from the field, 8 of 14 from 3-point distance and 13 of 14 from the foul line. Hass was named the Lids Team Sports Patriot League Player of the Week on Nov. 24 and again last Monday after a 26-point showing in the win over Albany. Hass ranks fourth in the Patriot League in scoring, third in free-throw percentage (.897), fourth in 3-point percentage (.478) and fourth in 3-pointers made (2.9 per game).
• Freshman center Nana Foulland has played very well in recent weeks. In his last five games Foulland has scored in double figures four times, averaging 11.4 points per game. He is shooting 59.0% from the field in that span and is averaging 4.8 rebounds and 1.6 blocked shots.
• The Bison were picked to finish fifth in the Patriot League in a preseason poll of the league's head coaches and sports information directors.
• Bucknell lost four players to graduation following last season, including 2014 Patriot League Player of the Year Cameron Ayers. Also gone are former starting center Brian Fitzpatrick and experienced role players Ben Brackney and Ryan Hill. The Bison do return 10 lettermen from last year's 16-14 squad, including a 2014 Third Team All-Patriot League selection in Hass.
• Under the direction of first-year head coach Danny Manning, Wake Forest sits at 5-6 after Saturday's loss to Florida. Codi Miller-McIntyre is the team's top scorer at 12.5 points per game. Harrisburg native Devin Thomas averages 11.1 points and a team-high 9.3 rebounds per contest. The big Demon Deacons squad has a +9.7 rebounding margin on the season and average 13.3 offensive boards per game.

How to Get the Game
• The Bucknell-Wake Forest game will be streamed live on ESPN3. Dave Weekley will handle the play-by-play alongside analyst Stan Lewter.
• 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 also available online free of charge via BucknellBison.com.
• Live stats can be accessed at WakeForestSports.com.

Last Time Out
• Bucknell got all it could handle from Case Western Reserve for the first 22 minutes, but improved defense and good 3-point shooting was the difference down the stretch in an 88-65 Bison victory. Bucknell led 38-36 at the break and it was tied at 41 early in the second half, but the Bison would outscore the Spartans 50-29 in the second half.
• Bucknell hit 13 of 27 attempts from 3-point distance and shot 50.8% on the night. Chris Hass and John Azzinaro had five 3-pointers apiece and were two of Bucknell's four double-digit scorers. Hass led all players with 19, followed by Azzinaro with 15, Nana Foulland with 13 and D.J. MacLeay with a career-high 12.
• Senior Cory Starkey made his first career start in place of the injured Dom Hoffman, and Starkey had a strong night with six points, six rebounds, six assists and three blocked shots. Foulland led all players with nine rebounds, and MacLeay added seven boards, five assists and a pair of blocks.
• Bucknell tallied 26 assists on 33 made baskets. The 26 assists tied a Sojka Pavilion record.
• The Bison collected all six of their steals in the second half and limited the Spartans to 35.5% shooting after the break.

Bucknell vs. Wake Forest Series Notes
• This will be the sixth all-time meeting between Bucknell and Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons have won each of the previous five.
• The teams first met on Jan. 2, 1974 in Winston-Salem, an 83-56 Demon Deacons victory.
• On Nov. 14, 2006, Wake Forest played at Sojka Pavilion, making the Demon Deacons the first ACC team ever to play basketball on Bucknell's campus. Wake Forest pulled out an 86-83 victory in overtime in that one behind 26 points from Kyle Visser. Six Bucknell players scored in double figures. Bucknell led virtually the entire way, despite a rash of foul trouble throughout the night. The Bison were whistled for 33 of the 62 fouls in the game, which featured a combined 80 free throws. The Demon Deacons never led by more than two points all night until Ishmael Smith opened the overtime session with a high arcing 3-pointer, snapping a 75-all tie.
• Wake Forest is scheduled to return to Bucknell next season.
• In the last meeting on Dec. 6, 2008 at Joel Coliseum, Jeff Teague scored 26 points to lead 15th-ranked Wake Forest to an 81-52 victory. Darryl Shazier led the Bison with 12 points. Bucknell trailed by 14 at the half but closed within seven with a 7-0 run to start the second half. But the Demon Deacons followed with their own 7-0 run and led by double digits the rest of the way.

Bucknell vs. the ACC
• Bucknell has an 11-48 record against the 15 teams that now make up the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Bison are 9-18 against Pittsburgh, 1-2 vs. Virginia, 1-9 vs. Syracuse, 0-5 vs. Wake Forest, 0-3 vs. Notre Dame, 0-3 vs. Duke, 0-2 vs. Boston College, 0-2 vs. Clemson, 0-2 vs. Miami, 0-1 vs. Virginia Tech and 0-1 vs. Florida State.
• Bucknell has two all-time victories against teams that were in the ACC at the time of the game. The Bison defeated Virginia 99-81 on Jan. 27, 1961 and South Carolina 67-65 on Dec. 30, 1958.

Who's Got Next?
• Bucknell will travel to Siena on Dec. 28 for its final non-league game of the season.
• The Bison and Saints have only met once previously, a Siena win (83-65) in 1985.
• Siena returned all five starters from last year's squad that won the postseason College Basketball Invitational (CBI) tournament. The Saints are 3-6 on the season and will be looking to snap a three-game losing streak on Tuesday at home against Cornell.