Bison Men Visit Army Sunday on CBS Sports Network

2/13/2015 5:33:00 PM | Men's Basketball

By: TBD

What: Bucknell (14-12, 9-4 PL) at Army (14-10, 5-8 PL)
Where: Christl Arena, West Point, N.Y.
When: Sunday, Feb. 15, 2015, 4 p.m.
TV: CBS Sports Network
Radio: Eagle 107 (WEGH 107.3 FM)
Internet Radio: BucknellBison.com
Live Statistics: GoArmySports.com

With a Win over Army, Bucknell Would ...
• ... improve to 10-4 in the Patriot League and 15-12 overall.
• ... win its third game in a row and move three games over .500 for the first time this season.
• ... maintain at least a share of the Patriot League lead.
• ... improve to 233-107 all-time in Patriot League games.
• ... sweep the season series from the Black Knights and improve to 49-21 all-time against them.
• ... improve to 5-9 on the road this season.

Headlines
• Bucknell has rebounded from a frustrating two-game losing streak with back-to-back wins over Holy Cross and Navy to stay even with Colgate atop the Patriot League standings.
• The Patriot League regular season is down to five games remaining for each team. Bucknell and Colgate are tied for first at 9-4, with red-hot Lehigh lurking one game back at 8-5. The remaining seven teams are clumped together at 6-7 or 5-8. Three of Bucknell's five remaining games are on the road, including a tough finish at Lehigh and at defending-champion American at the end of the month.
• 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 Chris Hass (30.3) is the only player on the team averaging more than 24.0 minutes per game. But 11 Bison play at least 11.2 minutes per game.
• Junior co-captain Ryan Frazier, known primarily for his work on the defensive end of the floor, has stepped up his offensive game in recent weeks. Including his career-best 19-point performance in Wednesday's 52-51 win at Navy, Frazier has averaged 12.3 ppg while shooting 13-for-21 (.619) from the field, 4-for-5 (.800) from 3-point range and 19-for-21 (.905) from the foul line. Frazier had gone 25 straight games dating back to last season without scoring in double figures, but now he has done it in three of his last four games.
• Bucknell scoring leader Chris Hass (15.9 ppg) 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.
• Hass is currently trying to shake a shooting drought, however. He has gone back-to-back games without a 3-pointer for the first time since the first two games of last season at Stanford and Penn State. In his last three games he is 2-for-20 from 3-point range. Hass had a similar rough stretch in January, but then busted out with a 14-for-22 streak at the arc over a three-game period, starting with a 23-point performance against Army on Jan. 17.
• Freshman center Nana Foulland has been the Lids Team Sports Patriot League Rookie of the Week twice this season. 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 10.4 ppg, 5.6 rpg and shooting 55.8% in 20 contests. Foulland set a career high with six blocked shots in the first meeting with Lafayette, the most by a Bucknell freshman since Mike Muscala had seven against Navy in 2009-10, and he had his first 10-rebound game against Lehigh.
• 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 10 contests, Kaspar has recorded 75 points and 50 assists with only 14 turnovers. He ranks second in the league in assist-turnover ratio (3.7) in PL games, and he just moved past Abe Badmus into sixth place on Bucknell's all-time assists list with 378. Azzinaro is 17-for-33 from 3-point range in his last nine games, and he was Bucknell's top scorer with 14 points in the win over Holy Cross last Sunday.
• 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.
• After a promising start, Army has fallen on hard times of late. The Black Knights have dropped four straight games to fall to 14-10 overall and 5-8 in the Patriot League. Still, Army features two of the top offensive players in the conference in Kyle Wilson (18.0 ppg) and Tanner Plomb (15.2 ppg). The Black Knights lead the league in scoring at 74.0 ppg, but they also rank last in scoring defense allowing 72.7 ppg.

How to Get the Game
• The Bucknell-Army game be televised live on CBS Sports Network. Jason Knapp and former Army star Chris Spatola 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 GoArmySports.com.

Last Time Out
• In a tight game dominated by the defenses, Bucknell prevailed 52-51 over Navy at Alumni Hall on Wednesday. The Bison made only 14 field goals and shot just 28.6%, but they went 22-for-28 from the foul line and limited Navy to 32.1% shooting.
• Starting at the 15:02 mark of the second half, it was a one-possession game either way until Ryan Frazier's free throw gave Bucknell a 52-48 lead with 0:04 remaining.
• Frazier was the star of the night for the Bison. He scored 19 points — six better than his previous career high — including some critical buckets down the stretch. Frazier snapped a 44-44 tie with a 3-pointer from the right corner with 2:53 left in the game. With 19.2 seconds left he made two big free throws to stretch a one-point lead up to three. He then skied for a defensive rebound, got fouled, and knocked down the free throw that made it a four-point game with 4.2 seconds to go. Frazier finished 11-for-13 from the line and made Bucknell's only two 3-pointers of the night.
• Nana Foulland joined Frazier in double figures with 10 points, to with six rebounds. Foulland's biggest board of the night was a tip-out of a missed free throw that led to Frazier's tiebreaking trey with 2:53 left. Foulland also made two key free throws to put the Bison up 49-46 with 46 seconds to go.
• Freshman Zach Thomas made his first career start in place of the injured Cory Starkey. He tallied three points and five rebounds in 22 minutes. Along with Foulland and Stephen Brown, Bucknell started three freshmen in the game. Thomas also became the fourth freshman to start a game at any point this season. The last time that happened was in 2003-04, when Chris McNaughton, Abe Badmus, John Clark and Donald Brown all started games.
• Despite the absence of Starkey, Bucknell's No. 2 rebounder, the Bison finished with a 46-36 edge on the glass. The Bison nabbed 14 offensive boards, leading to 18 second-chance points.
• It was a long evening for the two teams' leading scorers. Navy's Worth Smith (15.5 ppg) was held to six points on 3-for-16 shooting, while Bucknell's Chris Hass (16.4 ppg) was limited to five points on 2-for-13 shooting.

Bucknell vs. Army
• The Bison hold a 48-21 lead in a series that dates back to 1929. Bucknell had its seven-game series winning streak come to an end with a 74-67 loss at West Point last season.
• The Bison are 28-5 all-time at home against Army.
• Army won the first 10 series showdowns, nine of them coming prior to 1966.
• As Patriot League rivals, Bucknell has won 47 of 58 meetings.
• In Patriot League Tournament action, Bucknell is 7-2 against Army. Seven of those nine postseason meetings have come in the quarterfinals, including Army's 72-71 win at Sojka Pavilion last season.
• Last year, Bucknell and Army split their regular-season games, with the home team winning both, before the fifth-seeded Black Knights knocked off the fourth-seeded Bison in the postseason. In the first meeting at Christl Arena, Kyle Wilson scored 28 points and Josh Herbeck went 6-for-6 from the 3-point arc to lift Army to a 74-67 win. Brian Fitzpatrick scored 17 points on 8-for-8 shooting to lead the Bison. In the rematch at Sojka Pavilion, Cameron Ayers (22 points) and Fitzpatrick (15 points) celebrated their Senior Night with big performances and the Bison won 73-61. Bucknell held Wilson to two points, both on free throws, in that game, but three weeks later Wilson would score all of Army's points in a game-ending 9-1 run in the Patriot League Tournament. Wilson hit the go-ahead jumper with 12.5 seconds left in the game and the Bison could not match it at the other end. Chris Hass had 18 points and seven rebounds.
• Hass registered 23 points and Nana Foulland had 17 points and nine rebounds to lead the Bison to an 81-75 win over Army back on Jan. 17 at Sojka Pavilion. Tanner Plomb had 18 points and Wilson 17 for the Black Knights. Bucknell was clinging to a one-point lead until Hass converted a 4-point play with 53 seconds remaining.

Patriot League Success
• Bucknell is 232-107 (.684) 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 64 of its last 82 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 106 offensive boards in 13 Patriot League games.
• Rebounding has been a key for the Bison. They are 11-3 this season when outrebounding their opponent but 3-9 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 46.0% from the field and 43.7% from 3-point distance. In road games those numbers drop to 41.7% from the field and 33.9% from the arc. Bucknell is averaging 71.8 points at home, where it is 9-3 this season, and 64.2 on the road, where it is 4-9.
• Zach Thomas is 9-for-14 from 3-point range this season — 9-for-9 at home and 0-for-5 on the road.
• Bench scoring has been a major positive for Bucknell this season. Bison reserves are averaging 26.2 points per game, compared to 16.3 for their opponents. In the last 14 games, Bucknell has piled up a 399-212 edge in bench scoring.
• Bucknell's leader in individual +/- (scoring differential while that player was on the floor) is J.C. Show at +55. Steven Kaspar and Nana Foulland are next at +19.
• Bucknell has a 200-146 assist-turnover ratio in its victories this season and a 140-151 ratio in its losses.
• Kaspar was a career 49.4% free-throw shooter entering the season, but he is 73.9% this season, including 35-45 (.778) in Patriot League play. The latter figure is 10th-best in the conference.

Who's Got Next?
• Bucknell returns home to face Loyola Maryland on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Sojka Pavilion. That game will feature a Campus Insiders exclusive webcast for the Patriot League Network.
• The Bison defeated the Greyhounds 75-61 on Jan. 21 in Baltimore.