Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
15-12, 10-4PL
Army
14-11, 5-9PL
Bison Men Capture Sole Possession of First Place after 78-75 Win at Army
2/15/2015 7:03:00 PM | Men's Basketball
WEST POINT, N.Y. – Chris Hass scored 26 points and freshmen Zach Thomas and Nana Foulland combined for 33 more to lead hot-shooting Bucknell to a 78-75 win over Army on Sunday afternoon at Christl Arena. The Bison canned 13 of 17 shots from 3-point range and moved into sole possession of first place in the Patriot League at 10-4.
Now 15-12 overall, the Bison won their third straight contest and swept the season series from the Black Knights (14-11, 5-9 PL). Hass and Thomas both went 5-for-7 from 3-point range, and Bucknell hit 13 treys in a game for the third time this season. Thomas finished with 17 points, and Foulland had 16 points and six rebounds.
Colgate fell at home to Navy on Saturday, and the Bison now have a one-game lead over the Raiders and a two-game lead over third-place Lehigh with four regular-season contests remaining.
Bucknell shot 57.1 percent from the field and knocked down 7 of 8 attempts from the arc in the first half. The Bison were held back by nine turnovers, however, and led 34-29 at the break. Bucknell got out to a slow start in the second half, missing its first five field-goal attempts, and Army regained the lead at 35-34 on a transition three by Nathan Dodge.
The Bison went back in front with a four-point possession. Dom Hoffman hit 1 of 2 at the line, but J.C. Show rebounded the miss on the second try. That led to a John Azzinaro 3-pointer and a 40-37 lead. The Bison held the advantage the rest of the way, although the outcome was very much in doubt until the final seconds.
After a Dylan Cox transition layup cut Bucknell's lead to 56-54 with 7:31 left, Thomas and Hass countered with back-to-back treys to give the Bison their largest lead to that point, eight points at 62-54. The teams traded buckets over the next two minutes, with Hass making a pretty dish to Ben Oberfeld for a layup and then driving to the rim himself to maintain the eight-point cushions.
Cox scored back-to-back layups for Army, the latter two coming on a steal in the backcourt, to make it a 66-62 game with 4:25 left. With the shot clock winding down, Thomas slipped a pass into the lane for a Foulland dunk, and then Foulland had another late shot-clock bucket with 1:37 left to make it 70-64.
Bucknell got two straight critical defensive stops, with Thomas blocking Wilson's 3-point attempt on one of them, and Hass' free throws gave Bucknell a 73-64 lead with 59 seconds left.
Things got a little dicey for the Bison against Army's full-court press in the final minute, but twice Hass got loose behind the defense for breakaway dunks. The Black Knights' last points came on a tip-in at the buzzer to make it a three-point final margin.
“This is a hard place to play, and Army really puts you under pressure defensively,” said head coach Dave Paulsen. “To win here you really need to make the extra-effort toughness plays, and I thought we did that for most of the night. You have to make some tough choices on how to guard them, but to hold them to four 3-pointers was big. They got some points in the paint, but we got some key stops when we needed them.”
The teams traded runs throughout the opening 20 minutes. A 9-2 spurt gave Army a 17-13 lead, but the Bison shot back with an 11-2 surge, keyed by a pair of 3-pointers from Thomas. Army scored five straight points to tie the game at 24, but the Bison outscored the Black Knights 7-2 over the final 4:21 to take the five-point lead into intermission.
Bucknell shot 52.9 percent from the field – 13-for-17 on threes and 14-for-34 on twos. Hass broke out of a recent shooting slump with a 9-for-13 performance. Tanner Plumb led Army with 19 points, while Wilson had 18 and Cox 15.
“Offensively we played fairly efficiently and had a nice balance between inside and outside,” said Paulsen. “It was obviously great to get Chris going, but I thought Nana Foulland and Ben Oberfeld had some big buckets inside when we needed them.”
Bucknell returns home on Wednesday to face Loyola Maryland at 7 p.m. at Sojka Pavilion.
