Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
3-8
Fairfield
6-5
Fairfield Outruns Bucknell 101-91 Behind 17 3-Pointers
12/27/2015 6:01:00 PM | Men's Basketball
LEWISBURG, Pa. – Bucknell and Fairfield raced up and down the floor at a dizzying pace on Sunday at Sojka Pavilion, and in the end it was the Stags' 17 made 3-point field goals that proved to be the difference in a 101-91 verdict. Both teams had five players score in double-figures. Tyler Nelson led all players with 25 for Fairfield, while Ryan Frazier had 20 points and eight rebounds for the Bison, who dropped their seventh straight game heading into Wednesday's Patriot League opener against Navy.
Chris Hass added 19 points and eight rebounds, Nana Foulland had 15 points and eight boards, Stephen Brown tallied 10 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, and freshman Nate Sestina had a career-high 10 points in his first extensive action for the Bison (3-8).
Fairfield (6-5) also received 16 points from Marcus Gilbert, 14 points and nine assists from Jerome Segura, 12 points from Jerry Johnson and 11 from Curtis Cobb. The Stags were 17-for-32 (.531) from 3-point range, compared to 14-for-32 (.438) from inside the arc.
“We clearly didn't get the job done today,” said head coach Nathan Davis. “We have to come back and play better so that we can try to get our first league win on Wednesday. We can score, but we have to get better on the defensive end. We have to make things harder for our opponent.”
The key stretch of the contest came in the opening moments of the second half. After the Bison had trailed by as many as 14 points in the first period, Sestina's 3-pointer on the opening possession of the second gave them a 45-43 lead. Bucknell got a defensive stop but was thwarted on a 2-on-1 break, and then the Stags proceeded to hit four straight 3-pointers in 90 seconds to surge back in front. A breakaway dunk by Gilbert capped a 14-0 run, and the Bison were in catchup mode the rest of the way.
Gilbert, Fairfield's leading scorer at over 19 points per game coming in, had just two points in the first half while sitting all but seven minutes due to foul trouble. He hit three of the four 3-pointers and scored 11 of Fairfield's 14 points in that key run.
The Bison crept back within seven at 61-54 after two free throws by Frazier, but the Stags responded with a 10-2 run, capped by back-to-back treys by Nelson. The margin ballooned to as many as 19 at 86-67 on Nelson's breakaway layup.
Bucknell scored nine in a row, capped by a Matt O'Reilly trey, to get within 86-76, and things got interesting down the stretch when Hass tipped in his own miss, Gilbert missed two free throws, and then Frazier hit a 3-pointer to make it a five-point game at 96-91 with 24 seconds left.
Nelson made 1 of 2 at the line to keep it a two-possession game, but Frazier's 3-point try rimmed out, and Jonathan Kasibabu rebounded and hit two free throws at the other end to ice the game.
Bucknell shot 46.2 percent overall and finished with a whopping 51-24 rebounding advantage. The Bison set a Sojka Pavilion record with 21 offensive boards, which led to a 21-2 edge in second-chance points.
Bucknell was 5-for-11 from 3-point range and 26-for-38 from the foul line, but it was slowed by 23 turnovers, which the Stags directly turned into 30 points. Fairfield had 14 steals and 21 fastbreak points.
Sestina's 3-point play gave Bucknell a 16-14 lead seven minutes into the contest, but that would be the team's last field goal for a span of five minutes. The Stags scored 10 straight points as part of an 18-4 run that gave them a 32-18 lead with 8:30 left in the half.
But the Bison outscored Fairfield 25-13 the rest of the way, with Hass scoring eight of those points. Brown's layup pulled them within 43-42 with 1:23 to go. Jerry Johnson converted a layup the other way, and then Kimbal Mackenzie made 1 of 2 at the line to make it a 45-43 game at the break.
The marathon affair featured a combined 55 fouls and 68 free throws. Fairfield tied the Sojka Pavilion record for made 3-pointers in a game with 17, and it was the most ever by a Bucknell opponent. The Bison hit 17 treys against West Alabama in 2011. Fairfield's 56-point second half was also a Sojka Pavilion record, and Segura's nine assists was a facility record for a Bucknell opponent.
Sestina made 4 of 5 shots from the field and his only free-throw attempt to give him 10 points in 16 minutes. He saw extensive time at the power forward position after starter Zach Thomas left after playing just four minutes due to an injury.
Frazier recorded his second career 20-point game. Hass, who was honored prior the contest for scoring his 1,000th point in the previous home game against Columbia on Dec. 2, moved past Chris Seneca and tied current assistant coach John Griffin for 30th place on Bucknell's all-time scoring list with 1,084 points.
Bucknell kicks off Patriot League play on Wednesday against Navy at 7 p.m. at Sojka Pavilion.
