Women's Basketball Prepped for 6 p.m. Contest at Navy on Wednesday

What: Bucknell Bison (13-9, 8-4 PL) vs. Navy Midshipmen (18-5, 10-2 PL)
Where: Alumni Hall, Annapolis, Md.
When: Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2014, 6 p.m.
Internet Video: Patriot League Network
Internet Radio: BucknellBison.com
Radio: WVBU 90.5 FM
Live Stats: navysports.com

With a Victory Over Navy, Bucknell Would...
• Improve to 14-9 overall and 9-4 in the Patriot League.
• Improve to 6-7 overall and 4-3 in league action on the road this season.
• Improve to 70-93 in Patriot League road games.
• Earn its 29th win over Navy in the 55th meeting between the two teams.
• Defeat the Mids in Annapolis for the first time since Feb. 7, 2009.

Last Meeting with Navy - Jan. 15, 2014
• Audrey Dotson and Shelby Romine each threw up buzzer-beating shots to keep their squad alive through two overtime periods, but the Bucknell women's basketball team couldn't outlast Navy in the last meeting between the two teams, dropping a heart-breaking 94-92 decision after 50 minutes of toe-to-toe action at Sojka Pavilion.
• Dotson led a quartet of Bison who scored in double-figures, tallying a career-high 28 points on 12-of-23 (.522) shooting from the field and 4-of-6 (.667) from the line. Romine scored 17 points, 12 of which came in the two overtime periods, and dished out six assists, while Megan McGurk and Claire DeBoer each contributed 15 points. DeBoer, also collected ten rebounds for her fourth career double-double.
• Alix Membreno scored an impressive 34 points to lead the Mids, who also had four players scoring in double-digits, while Jade Geif tallied 13 points and a game-high 17 rebounds, including 11 boards on the offensive glass.
• Bucknell found itself up 71-70 with 1:25 on the clock in regulation, as DeBoer converted a traditional three-point play to swing momentum in the home team's favor. Navy went 3-for-4 from the line over the course of the next minute however, reclaiming a two-point edge with just nine seconds to play. With the game on the line McGurk sent the ball down the court to Romine, who feed it to Dotson in the paint. Fighting through traffic, she spun to her left and threw up a shot, connecting on the layup to tie the score at 73-73 and send the game into overtime.
• Membreno hit two from the line to extend the Mids' lead to three with 18 seconds to play in the first overtime, but McGurk executed a perfect jumper to snap it back to one. Fouled again, Membreno went 1-for-1 at the line, giving Navy an 82-80 lead but putting the ball in Bucknell's possession with just eight seconds on the clock. Romine raced up the court, drove down the lane and tossed up a layup that went in just as the buzzer sounded, putting five more minutes of overtime on the clock.
• Bucknell was within one point with five seconds remaining, but Membreno hit her last shot from the charity stripe and Romine's desperation heave was just short, giving the Mids a hard-earned 94-92 win over the Bison.
• Bucknell out shot Navy in the contest, hitting 44.4 percent (32-of-72) of its shots to the visitors' 41.3 percent (31-of-75). While the Bison held a significant advantage from the line, hitting 22-of-27 (.815) in comparison to the Mids' 23-of-45 (.511), Navy owned the boards, holding a 55-37 advantage, including a 20-7 edge in offensive rebounds.

About the Mids
Navy, which currently sits in first place in the Patriot League, had played to a perfect 8-0 record through the end of Jan., but Feb. has exposed some areas of weakness in an extremely tough squad. While the Mids are currently 18-5 overall and 10-2 in the conference, that were defeated by Lafayette (70-69) on Feb. 1 and dropped a 54-48 decision to Army on Wednesday night.

Kara Pollinger currently leads the team's offense with 14.1 points per game, but Jade Geif and Alix Membreno are tossing in 11.8 and 11.0 points per contest, respectively. Geif leads the squad on the glass, pulling down 8.9 rebounds per contest, while Pollinger is Navy's top helper, dishing out 4.4 assists in each outing.

History vs. Navy
• Bucknell holds a 28-26 lead in the all-time series with Navy. The Bison snapped a nine-game losing streak to the Midshipmen with a 55-48 win on March 2, 2013.
• Navy's nine-game winning streak from March 7, 2009 to Feb. 2, 2013 was its longest of the series. Bucknell's longest winning streak in the series is 13 games from Jan. 30, 1990 to Jan. 17, 2004.
• Bucknell is 11-14 when playing Navy in Annapolis.
• Bucknell and Navy are tied 3-3 when playing each other in the Patriot League Tournament.
• Bucknell is 24-5 against Navy when it scores at least 60 points. The Bison are just 4-21 in the series when scoring fewer than 60. Prior to Jan., the last time Bucknell scored 60 points against Navy was Feb. 9, 2009. The Bison won that contest 66-54. It was also their last win in the series until March 2 of the 2012-13 campaign.

Bison in the Patriot League
• Bucknell is 163-158 (.508) all-time in Patriot League games.
• Bucknell has registered 16 Patriot League seasons at .500 or better. The last was in 2010-11 when the Bison finished with a 7-7 record. The last season at better than .500 was 2008-09 when they went 8-6 in conference action.
• Bucknell has won two Patriot League regular-season titles (1995-96, 2006-07) and two tournament titles (2001-02, 2007-08).
• Bucknell is 94-65 (.591) in Patriot League regular-season games played at home. It is 46-36 (.561) in league games at Sojka Pavilion.
• The Bison hold a 69-93 (.426) record when playing conference games on the road.

Last Time Out
The Bucknell women's basketball team trailed by 14 with ten minutes left on the clock, but Shelby Romine came alive down the stretch and the Bison defense buckled down, lifting the squad to an 82-79 win over Holy Cross at Sojka Pavilion on Saturday afternoon. The Bison, who defeated the Crusaders in overtime when the two teams met on Jan. 11, completed the series sweep of Holy Cross for the first time since 2007, improving to 13-9 overall and 8-4 in conference play with the victory. The Crusaders fell to 14-9 and 6-6 in the Patriot League with the loss.

Romine scored a game-high 19 points, 17 of which game in the second 20 minutes of action, and completed the double-double with 11 rebounds, also a game-high. The senior guard added six assists to her stat line, threating the triple-double for the second time this season. Three additional Bison also scored in double-digits, led by another remarkable effort from Claire Maree O'Bryan, who came off the bench to score 16 points on 5-of-7 (.714) from the field, including 3-of-4 (.750) from long-range. Claire DeBoer had 13 points and seven rebounds, while Audrey Dotson chipped in 11 points, four rebounds, two assists, two steals and a career-high seven blocks.

A Romine feed to Micki Impellizeri at the rim on a fastbreak gave Bucknell its first lead of the afternoon with 8:34 to play in the first stanza, and the teams proceeded to exchange leads for the next six minutes, finally knotting the score at 40-40. Holy Cross scored the final four points of the half, however, giving the visitors the slightest, 44-40 edge at the halftime break.

The first ten minutes of the second half were a struggle for the Bison, as the Crusaders opened the stanza with a 19-9 run that put them up 63-49. Never a team to be counted out, Bucknell came charging back, shifting the momentum in its favor with a 15-5 run of its own and coming within two points of Holy Cross a layup by Tyler Craig.

A Romine three-pointer put the Bison up 77-70, giving them their biggest advantage of the contest with 3:55 on the clock. The teams exchanged baskets as the intensity of the battle ramped up, but crucial defensive stops by Bucknell kept it just one step ahead of Holy Cross.

The Crusaders came within one when Mifsud hit a three-pointer with 21 seconds remaining, but Romine drained two from the line ten ticks later, giving the Bison a three-point cushion. With the game on the line, Dotson made an incredible block on a tough three by Holy Cross' Christine Ganser, but Parker came up with the offensive board, giving her team one last opportunity. She sent the ball out to Mifsud at the left corner, but her shot at the buzzer clanged off the rim, giving Bucknell the 82-79 victory.

Bison on Twitter
In addition to the Bucknell women's basketball account (@BucknellWBB) and the Bucknell Athletics account (@BisonSports), head coach Aaron Roussell (@CoachRous), assistant coach Christian Stefanopoulos (@CStef23), assistant coach Katie Adams (@CoachKAdams12) and assistant coach Mike Lane (@MLane417) are all on Twitter.

Looking Ahead
Bucknell will complete its tour of the service academies on Saturday, traveling to West Point for a 1 p.m. contest against Army. Heading into Wednesday, Army sits in second place in the conference with a 9-2 record, but the Black Knights will take on the Crusaders before squaring off against the Bison. Back in January, Bucknell earned a 56-55 win over Army in a nail-biting finish, and the Bison will look to sweep the Black Knights for the first time since the 2011 season on Saturday. The game will be video streamed and available free of charge on the Patriot League Network.