Bucknell University Athletics
Men's Basketball Hosts Lehigh Wednesday at 8 p.m. on ASN/PLN
1/27/2015 11:38:00 AM | Men's Basketball
** Fans, a reminder that Wednesday's Bucknell vs. Lehigh game at Sojka Pavilion will tip at 8:00 p.m. due to the American Sports Network broadcast. Come on out, wear orange and cheer on your FIRST PLACE Bison in this nationally televised game against arch-rival Lehigh!
What: Lehigh (10-9, 4-4 PL) at Bucknell (11-10, 6-2 PL)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa.
When: Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2015, 8 p.m.
TV: American Sports Network (Station List)
Internet Video: Bison Vision on the Patriot League Network (free)
Radio: Eagle 107 (107.3 WEGH)
Internet Radio: BucknellBison.com
Live Statistics: BucknellBison.com
Tickets: 570-577-1000 or buy online
With a Win over Lehigh, Bucknell Would ...
• ... win its fifth straight game and improve to 7-2 in the Patriot League and 12-10 overall.
• ... move two games over .500 for the first time this season.
• ... maintain at least a share of first place in the Patriot League.
• ... improve to 230-105 all-time in Patriot League games.
• ... record its 100th all-time victory over the Mountain Hawks. The Bison enter the game leading the series 99-63.
• ... improve to 8-2 at home this season.
• ... improve to 128-41 all-time at Sojka Pavilion and 89-19 against Patriot League opponents at Sojka.
Headlines
• Bucknell is now the Patriot League's hottest team with four straight wins, and the Bison have caught Colgate for a share of first place atop the league standings at 6-2.
• Bucknell had been struggling on the road this season, winning just one of its first nine games on enemy hardwood. But last week the Bison doubled their road victory total with strong performances in wins at Loyola (75-61) and Boston University (92-77).
• The Bison have been rolling offensively in recent games. They just set season highs for points (92), field-goal percentage (.561), 3-point percentage (.650) and free-throw percentage (.938) in the win at Boston University on Saturday. In their last five games, the Bison are shooting 50.8% from the field and 52.5% from the 3-point arc as a team.
• Head coach Dave Paulsen has used his depth this season. The Bison do not have a player in the top 10 in the league in minutes played, and Hass (30.7) is the only player on the team averaging more than 23.2 minutes per game. But 10 Bison play at least 13.6 minutes per game.
• Junior Chris Hass is Bucknell's leading scorer at 16.9 ppg, and he has also been on quite a roll lately. This week's Patriot League Player of the Week has scored 20+ points in each of the last three games: 23 vs. Army, 26 at Loyola and 28 at Boston University. In those three contests, Hass has made 29 of 48 (.604) shots from the field, 14 of 22 (.636) from 3-point range and 5 of 5 from the foul line. He has scored 77 points in 87 minutes without committing a single turnover in the three Bison victories.
• 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. Including a 14-point performance against Penn State and a 26-point showing at Wake Forest, Hass averaged 23.3 ppg in the four games against major-conference opponents this season.
• Freshman center Nana Foulland has been the Lids Team Sports Patriot League Rookie of the Week in two of the last four weeks. Foulland had the best game of his young career at Colgate, when he posted 17 points on 7-for-11 shooting, and then he matched that with 17 points and nine rebounds against Army. Dating back to the Penn State game on Nov. 28, Foulland is averaging 10.5 ppg, 5.6 rpg and shooting 54.7% in 15 contests. Foulland set a career high with six blocked shots against Lafayette, the most by a Bucknell freshman since Mike Muscala had seven against Navy in 2009-10.
• Guards Steven Kaspar and John Azzinaro, both coming off the bench now after starting earlier in the year, have been terrific in reserve roles in recent games. In his last six contests, Kaspar has recorded 51 points and 27 assists with only six turnovers. He leads the league in assist-turnover ratio (4.8) in PL games. Azzinaro is 11-for-16 from 3-point range in his last four games.
• 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 did return 10 lettermen from last year's 16-14 squad, including a 2014 Third Team All-Patriot League selection in Hass.
• Lehigh, the lone remaining Patriot League team that the Bison have yet to face, comes into Sojka Pavilion with a 10-9 overall record and a 4-4 mark with three straight wins in conference play. Tim Kempton leads the team in scoring at 14.3 ppg and leads the Patriot League in rebounding at 8.9 rpg. Austin Price also scores in double figures at 11.4 ppg, and freshman point guard Kahron Ross is the Patriot League assist leader at 5.7 apg. Lehigh recorded two of the Patriot League's best non-conference results, a convincing 86-74 win at DePaul on Nov. 26 and an 84-81 triple-overtime victory at Arizona State on Dec. 20.
How to Get the Game
• The Bucknell-Lehigh game will be televised by the American Sports Network in nearly 100 markets across the country. In Pennsylvania, it will air on My Network TV (WQMY) out of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, WLYH-2 in the Harrisburg area, WJAC-3 in Johnstown-Altoona, WPGH-2 in Pittsburgh, WFMZ 69 in Philadelphia and the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) on cable and satellite systems throughout the state. Click HERE for a complete national clearance list. John Castleberry and former Colgate coach Emmett Davis will call the action for ASN.
• In addition, a free live webcast will be available on the Patriot League Network. Log on to PatriotLeague.TV to access the stream.
• 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 BucknellBison.com.
Last Time Out
• Chris Hass scored 18 of his 28 points in the second half, and he headlined a sensational shooting day by the Bison in a 92-77 victory at Boston University. The Bison broke open a four-point game with a 15-5 run in the second half, and Hass hit three of his six 3-pointers in that surge. He was 6-for-7 from the arc and 10-for-16 from the field in the game.
• Bucknell set season highs for points (92), field-goal percentage (.561), 3-point percentage (.650) and free-throw percentage (.938). The Bison shot 69.6% (16-23) overall and hit 7 of 9 3-point tries in a 50-point second half.
• Freshman point guard Stephen Brown enjoyed his most productive game to date with a season-high 15 points on near-perfect shooting: 4-5 FG, 2-2 3FG, 5-5 FT. Brown also had three assists and three rebounds in 25 minutes of action.
• Seven different Bison scored at least eight points in the game. In addition to the 28 from Hass and 15 from Brown, Steven Kaspar tallied nine points, and John Azzinaro, Nana Foulland, Cory Starkey and J.C. Show added eight each.
• Bucknell finished with a slim 31-30 rebounding edge, with Foulland leading the way with seven boards.
• The Bison had 19 assists on 32 field goals and turned the ball over only seven times.
• Earlier in the week, Terriers star Cedric Hankerson had a school-record nine steals and Boston University forced 13 turnovers against normally sure-handed American. Hankerson, the league's No. 2 scorer, was held to 2-for-12 shooting from the field, but he did go 11-for-14 from the foul line and finished with 15 points.
Bucknell vs. Lehigh
• Bucknell has played more games (162) and won more games (99) against Lehigh than any other school. The Bison have a 99-63 lead in a series that originated in 1902.
• Since the start of Patriot League play in 1990-91, Bucknell holds a 39-17 advantage, including a 21-6 mark at home.
• The road team had captured five straight Bucknell-Lehigh meetings until both teams held serve at home last year.
• Lehigh owns the most wins of any team over Bucknell in Sojka Pavilion (5).
• Lehigh is responsible for snapping Bucknell's 35-game home winning streak against Patriot League foes. The Bison had not lost to a conference opponent at Sojka Pavilion in nearly five years, until the Mountain Hawks won 56-54 in Lewisburg on Jan. 30, 2008.
• Lehigh also won the first game ever played in Sojka Pavilion, a 60-56 decision on Jan. 15, 2003. Including that game, Bucknell is 9-5 against the Mountain Hawks in Sojka.
• Last season, Lehigh won 66-63 in Bethlehem, and then the Bison prevailed 65-61 in Lewisburg. Stefan Cvrkalj hit four second-half 3-pointers and Lehigh went 7-for-8 from the arc in the second half of a see-saw game at Stabler Arena. Corey Schaefer tallied 15 points and Cvrkalj had 14 to lead the Mountain Hawks, while Cameron Ayers posted 23 for the Bison. In the rematch at Sojka, Ayers finished with 17 points, including the game-cliniching free throw with eight seconds to play. Jesse Chuku led Lehigh with 18 points.
Patriot League Success
• Bucknell is 229-105 (.686) all-time in Patriot League regular-season games, the best record of any league team. The Bison have finished at least .500 in PL play in 20 of the 24 Patriot League seasons.
• Bucknell won three straight outright Patriot League regular-season titles from 2011-13, becoming the first team in league history to accomplish that feat.
• The Bison went 13-1 in the league in 2011 and 12-2 in both 2012 and 2013, making them 37-5 over those three campaigns. Dating back to mid-2010, Bucknell has won 61 of its last 77 league games.
• Bucknell won Patriot League Tournament titles in 2005, 2006, 2011 and 2013. The Bison have made it to the semifinals 18 times and to the championship game 10 times in the 24-year history of the league.
• The Bison are the only team to go unbeaten in league play in a season (14-0 in 2006).
Numbers Worth Noting
• Bucknell led the nation in defensive rebounding percentage in both 2011-12 and 2012-13 and ranked in the top 10 last season, but the Bison struggled a bit on the defensive glass in non-league play this season. They have turned that around in league play, however, allowing only 61 offensive boards in eight Patriot League games.
• Rebounding has been a key for the Bison. They are 9-2 this season when outrebounding their opponent but 2-8 when losing the battle on the glass.
• Last season the Bison shot the ball significantly better on the road than at home, but this year those numbers have reversed. At Sojka Pavilion the Bison are shooting 46.6% from the field and 43.9% from 3-point distance. In road games those numbers drop to 42.7% from the field and 35.6% from the arc. Bucknell is averaging 72.8 points at home, where it is 7-2 this season, and 64.5 on the road, where it is 3-8.
• Bench scoring has been a positive for Bucknell this season. Bison reserves are averaging 26.2 points per game, compared to 17.1 for their opponents. In the last nine games, Bucknell has piled up a 267-148 edge in bench scoring.
• Bucknell's leader in individual +/- (scoring differential while that player was on the floor) is J.C. Show at +38. Steven Kaspar is next at +20, followed by Cory Starkey at +18 and D.J. MacLeay at +13.
• Bucknell has a 169-115 assist-turnover ratio in its victories this season and a 113-130 ratio in its losses.
• Nana Foulland has made 18 of his last 27 free throws after starting the season 13-for-33. Steven Kaspar was a career 49.4% free-throw shooter entering the season, but he is 72.2% this season, including 23-30 (.767) in Patriot League play.
Who's Got Next?
• Bucknell starts round two of Patriot League play on Saturday night at home against Colgate at 7 p.m. The Bison and Raiders are currently locked in a tie for first place, so the league lead could be on the line when the two teams square off on Saturday.
• Colgate hosts Lafayette on Wednesday before traveling to Bucknell.
• The Raiders rallied back from a 13-point halftime deficit to beat the Bison 68-62 on Jan. 3 in Hamilton, N.Y.
