Bucknell Visits Columbia Saturday, Watch on ESPN3

12/5/2014 2:08:00 PM | Men's Basketball

By: TBD

What: Bucknell (3-5) at Columbia (4-2)
Where: Levien Gym, New York, N.Y.
When: Saturday, Dec. 6, 2014, 7 p.m.
Webcast: ESPN3, Ivy League Digital Network
Radio: Eagle 107 (107.3 WEGH)
Internet Radio: BucknellBison.com
Live Statistics: GoColumbiaLions.com

With a Win over Columbia, Bucknell Would ...
• ... win its second game in a row and improve to 4-5 on the season.
• ... defeat the Lions for the fourth straight time and improve to 5-2 all-time against them.
• ... improve to 49-46 all-time against the Ivy League and 11-3 since the start of the 2010-11 season.

Headlines
• One team coming off an inspiring victory and another looking to bounce back from a shocking loss meet on Saturday night at Levien Gym. Bucknell is looking to build on Monday's 72-66 overtime win at Fairfield, a victory that included a furious rally from 12 points down with just over 11 minutes to play in regulation. Meanwhile, Columbia saw its four-game winning streak snapped on Tuesday when Loyola's Eric Laster hit a jumper at the buzzer to give the Greyhounds a 64-62 win.
• In terms of results, it has been a mixed bag so far for the Bison. They have pulled out three close wins (Marist, UMES, Fairfield), suffered three close losses to quality opponents (Villanova, Mount St. Mary's, Penn State), and have absorbed two blowout losses (Michigan, Toledo).
• Junior Chris Hass is the team's leading scorer at 16.6 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.
• 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.
• Columbia is off to a 4-2 start after finishing 21-13 and advancing to the College Insider Tournament quarterfinals last season. The Lions have gotten it done with defense so far. They rank sixth nationally in scoring defense at 51.8 ppg, and Loyola is the only team to break the 60-point barrier against them so far. During its recent four-game winning streak, Columbia held Wagner, Lehigh, Fairleigh Dickinson and American to 56, 44, 47 and 43 points. Maodo Lo is the team's lone double-digit scorer at 15.5 ppg.

How to Get the Game
• The Bucknell-Columbia game will not be televised, however a live webcast will be available on both ESPN3 and the Ivy League Digital Network. Jerry Recco and Sal Licata will have the call.
• 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 GoColumbiaLions.com.

Last Time Out
• Strong defense, a late rally, and some key buckets from senior Steven Kaspar in overtime lifted Bucknell to a 72-66 win at Fairfield on Monday night. The Bison shot just 22.2% and scored 18 points in the first half, but they trailed by only six. The Stags stretched the lead to as many as 12 nine minutes into the second half, but Chris Hass got hot late, hitting three key jumpers, including a trey, in the final 5:06. J.C. Show tied the game at 47-47 with a 3-pointer with 1:20 left in regulation, and the defense came up with two big stops to force overtime. The Bison opened the extra session with a 3-pointer from Kaspar and a 3-point play from Nana Foulland, and they would never again trail. Kaspar later hit another 3-pointer to stretch the lead back to six, and the Bison went 13-for-14 from the foul line in overtime to seal the victory.
• Hass, who was scoreless at the half, finished with a team-high 18 points. Dom Hoffman added 14 on 7-for-12 shooting, and Foulland hit double figures for the second straight game with 12. All eight of Kaspar's points came in overtime.
• Bucknell set a program record for most points in an overtime period with 25. The previous record was 20 against Hofstra in 1987. The Bison scored 18 points in the first half and 29 in the second before exploding for 25 in the five-minute OT.
• This was Bucknell's first overtime game since a victory at Lafayette in January of 2011.
• Defensively, the Bison forced a season-high 17 turnovers and limited Fairfield to 42.3% shooting.
• Bucknell shot 36.5%, but of its 40 missed field goals, 11 of those shots were blocked by the Stags.
• The Bison outrebounded Fairfield 37-36, with 13 offensive rebounds leading to a 16-7 edge in second-chance points.

Bucknell vs. Columbia Series Notes
• Bucknell and Columbia have met six times previously, with Bucknell claiming four of those contests, including the last three.
• The first two meetings were neutral-site games as part of in-season tournaments. On Nov. 26, 1994, Columbia defeated Bucknell 63-58 in the consolation game of the Pepsi/Marist Classic. That was the second game of coach Pat Flannery's tenure at Bucknell. On Nov. 29, 2002, the Bison beat the Lions 61-47 in the first round of the Red Auerbach Colonial Classic in Washington, D.C. The Bison went on to drop a three-point game to host George Washington in the championship the following day.
• The 2012 clash at Levien Gymnasium in New York City was a memorable one for the Bison, who rallied from 17 points down to defeat Columbia 65-57. Mike Muscala turned in one of the best games of his career with 29 points and 19 rebounds. Brian Barbour scored 19 to lead the Lions, who went on a 21-0 run in the first half.
• Last year at Sojka Pavilion, Bucknell defeated Columbia 57-52 behind 16 points from Brian Fitzpatrick and 14 from Chris Hass. The Bison trailed 25-22 at the half, but they went to their inside game in the second half with good success. Bucknell trailed 50-48 inside three minutes to play, but two drives to the basket netted Hass four free throws, and he hit the tying and go-ahead charity tosses to give the Bison the lead for good. Cory Osetkowski led Columbia with 12 points.

Bucknell vs. The Ivy League
• Bucknell is 48-46 (.511) all-time against the Ivy League. The Bison have played 48 games against Cornell, but only 46 combined against the other seven Ivy teams. In addition to its 25-23 record against Cornell, Bucknell is 4-2 against Yale, 3-1 vs. Brown, 3-4 vs. Penn, 4-1 vs. Dartmouth, 4-12 vs. Princeton, 4-2 vs. Columbia and 1-1 vs. Harvard.
• The Bison are 10-3 against the Ivy League since the start of the 2010-11 season. This will be Bucknell's lone game vs. an Ivy League squad this season.

Comeback Kids
Bucknell has staged four impressive comebacks this season, two of them resulting in victories:
• On Dec. 1 at Fairfield, the Bison trailed by 12 points (39-27) after Coleman Johnson's 3-point play with 11:24 remaining. A John Azzinaro trey with 11:06 left ignited Bucknell's rally. J.C. Show tied the game at 47 with 1:06 left, and the Bison went on to win 72-66 in overtime.
• On Nov. 28 against Penn State, Bucknell trailed by as many as 12 in the first half before storming back to tie the game at 66-66 on two free throws by Cory Starkey with 6:19 remaining. But just as the Bison drew even, the Nittany Lions answered with a 10-1 run and won the game 88-80.
• On Nov. 25 against Maryland-Eastern Shore at the Progressive Legends Classic in Toledo, the Hawks took a 54-50 lead and had the ball in the final minute of the game. But the Bison forced a shot clock violation and pulled within one on a Chris Hass 3-pointer. After a UMES free throw made it a 55-53 game, Hass was fouled on a 3-point attempt and made all three at the line to give the Bison the lead with 5.3 seconds remaining. Bucknell forced a turnover in the backcourt and added another late bucket for a 58-55 win.
• On Nov. 20 at 12th-ranked Villanova, Bucknell trailed by 14 points on a couple of occasions in the first half, but a 9-0 run early in the second tied the game at 39, and it was tight the rest of the way. The Bison took the lead twice in the final four minutes, the last time on a Hass 3-pointer with 1:51 left, but the Wildcats scored the final nine points of the game to win 72-65.

Who's Got Next?
• Bucknell has one more game before taking a break for final exams. The Bison will host Albany on Monday at 7 p.m. at Sojka Pavilion.
• Albany is the defending America East champion and is off to a 2-4 start this season heading into a Saturday road game at Saint Francis (Pa.).