Women's Basketball to Challenge Army at West Point on Saturday

What: Bucknell Bison (13-10, 8-5 PL) vs. Army Black Knights (17-6, 9-3 PL)
Where: Christl Arena, West Point, N.Y.
When: Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, 1 p.m.
Internet Video: Patriot League Network
Internet Radio: BucknellBison.com
Radio: WVBU 90.5 FM
Live Stats: goARMYsports.com

With a Victory Over Army, Bucknell Would...
• Improve to 14-10 overall and 9-5 in the Patriot League.
• Improve to 6-8 overall and 4-4 in league action on the road this season.
• Improve to 70-94 in Patriot League road games.
• Earn its 33rd win over Army in the 54th meeting between the two teams, sweeping the Black Knights for the first time since 2011.
• Earn its first win at West Point since Feb. 16, 2011.

Last Meeting with Army - Jan. 18, 2014
• Down by 14 with 13:49 to play in the second half, Bucknell battled its way back and Shelby Romine hit a jumper at the buzzer to seal a thrilling 56-55 win over Army at Sojka Pavilion in the last meeting between the two teams.
• Romine led all players in the contest with 19 points scored on 5-of-8 (.625) shooting from the field, 3-of-4 (.750) from three-point range and 6-of-9 (.667) from the free throw line. The senior also collected seven rebounds and handed out three assists. Audrey Dotson also had a strong night for the Bison, collecting her fourth double-double of the season with 11 points and a game-high 11 boards, while Claire Maree O'Bryan provided a spark off the bench for the Bison, tallying all 11 points of her points in the second half of the contest.
• Kelsey Minato lead the Black Knights in scoring, but was held to just 13 points in 40 minutes by the Bison, her second-lowest scoring output of the season. Olivia Schretzman contributed 10 points for Army, while Danielle Failor and Jen Hazlett each gathered six rebounds.
• The first half of the contest was a low-scoring affair, with Bucknell playing to just a 9-8 lead after the first ten minutes of action. The defensive battle continued for the remainder of the stanza, but the Black Knights used a 10-4 run in the final minutes of the half to take a 24-21 lead into the locker room at the break.
• The Black Knights took control of the game early in the second half, opening with a 15-4 run that gave them a 39-25 edge with 13:49 to play. O'Bryan provided the spark that lit a fire under the Bison however, and a series of crucial rebounds and crafty layups capped a 17-4 run that brought Bucknell within one.
• A Romine three-pointer from the top of the key gave Bucknell a 54-53 lead with 24 seconds remaining, but the visitors capitalized on their final possession of the night to take back the one-point edge with four seconds on the clock. Romine raced down the right side of the court, drove the baseline and fired off a jumper over two Army defenders, beating the buzzer to give Bucknell the 56-55 win.
• The Bison's shooting improved drastically in the final minutes of the game, and they shot 41.9 percent (18-of-43) in the contest, including 47.8 percent (11-of-23) in the second half. The squad, which held the Black Knights to 33.3 percent (21-of-63), was also 50 percent (5-of-10) from three and finished with a 39-34 advantage on the boards.

About the Black Knights
Army, which currently sits in third place in the Patriot League, enters the weekend after suffering a 92-85 defeat at the hands of Holy Cross in a game that featured a 49-point effort from Kelsey Minato. The Black Knights are currently 17-6 overall and 9-3 in the conference, having also fallen to both Navy and Bucknell this season. The team plays well at Christl Arena however, as Wednesday's contest was its first home loss this season.

Minato, the reigning Patriot League Player of the Year, leads Army and the Patriot League in scoring, averaging 21.6 points per contest. Jen Hazlett, who leads the Black Knights with 6.9 rebounds per outing, is also averaging in double-digits, contributing 13.3 points per game. Olivia Schretzman provides a strong post presence, gathering 6.5 rebounds a game, while Minato dishes out a team-high 3.2 steals in each contest.

History vs. Army
• Bucknell has a 32-21 advantage in the all-time series against Army. Most of those wins have come in Lewisburg, where the Bison have a 19-7 advantage. The Black Knights hold a 14-13 edge when the two teams play at West Point.
• The 79 combined points scored in the Feb. 9, 2013 meeting between the two teams is the fewest in Bucknell-Army series history, breaking the previous mark of 88, set when the Bison won 44-40 at West Point on Feb. 16, 2011.
• Three of the last five games between Bucknell and Army have seen unusually high scoring totals, with the exception being last February's contest and the Bison's one-point victory in January. In the three prior games, at least one team reached the 60-point mark. Before this stretch, neither team had scored 60 points since Feb. 24, 2007 when Army won 61-57. Bucknell is 1-6 against Army since 2004 when it scores 60 points or more.
• Before January's win, the last time the Bison defeated the Black Knights was in the Patriot League Tournament Quarterfinals on March 3, 2011. Hosting the first women's basketball postseason game in program history, fourth-seeded Bucknell knocked off Army 54-40 at Davis Gym. Shelby Romine had 19 points, as Bucknell shot .472 from the field and held the Army to a .232 field goal percentage.
• Bucknell last swept Army in the 2011 season, winning both regular season contests and the tournament game.

Bison in the Patriot League
• Bucknell is 163-159 (.506) 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 69-94 (.423) record when playing conference games on the road.

Last Time Out
The Bucknell women's basketball team looked to earn its second consecutive comeback victory on Wednesday night, drawing within a point of Navy with slightly over two minutes to play, but the rally fell just short, and the squad dropped a 70-61 decision at Alumni Hall. The Bison fell to 13-10 overall and 8-5 in conference action with the loss, while the Mids improved to 19-5 overall and 11-2 in Patriot League play with the victory.

Shelby Romine and Megan McGurk both scored 14 points in the contest to lead the Bison, while Claire Maree O'Bryan also finished in double-digits, contributing 11 points. Claire DeBoer had six points and a team-high seven rebounds, while Audrey Dotson contributed another well-rounded effort, collecting seven points, five rebounds, five assists, two blocks and two steals.

The Bison hit the ground running, jumping out to an 11-2 lead in the first four minutes of the contest on red-hot shooting and solid rebounding, and McGurk's jump shot with 16:02 on the clock forced the Mids to call a timeout. Bucknell's tough interior defense held Navy without a field goal for the first 4:23, but the home team responded to a line-up change after the media break, scoring seven quick points to cut the visitors' lead to two.

Navy tied things up with 7:51 to play, setting up a grueling struggle for control that would take the teams into halftime. Two good free throws from O'Bryan knotted the score at 21-21 with 2:53 on the clock, and a fastbreak layup by McGurk put the Bison up by one. Kara Pollinger came alive from long-range in the final minutes of the stanza however, hitting two in the last two minutes, including one at the buzzer that send the Mids into the break with a 27-25 edge.

The Mids opened the second half with a 14-0 run that spanned four minutes, taking a commanding lead over the Bison. O'Bryan halted the streak, draining a three to reinvigorate Bucknell's offense, but Navy preserved the double-digit edge for the next eight minutes, due in large part to the efforts of Jade Geif and Pollinger.

Geif hit two from the line to give the Mids a 14-point advantage with 8:02 remaining, but O'Bryan hit her second three-pointer of the night and McGurk drained one of her own on the next possession, slicing Navy's lead to five with 5:28 on the clock.

McGurk made both parts of a one-and-one to bring the Bison within a point, and Dotson had a good look from three to tie the game 30 seconds later, but it fell just short. The Mids drained one final three and were accurate from the line as the clock wound down however, squeezing out a 70-61 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 returns to Sojka Pavilion for two games next week, welcoming Loyola to Lewisburg for a 7 p.m. contest on Wednesday, Feb. 19 and squaring off against Boston University at 12 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 22. Heading into Saturday, Loyola sits in ninth place in the conference with a 2-11 record, but the Greyhounds will take on the Terriers before squaring off against the Bison. Bucknell earned a 67-60 win over Loyola back in January, led by Audrey Dotson's 28-point effort. The game, and all of Bucknell's home contests, will be video streamed and available free of charge on the Patriot League Network.