Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
17-12, 14-4PL
Navy
18-13, 9-9PL
Bucknell Beats Navy 77-73, Wins 5th Outright PL Regular-Season Title in Last 6 Years
2/27/2016 7:43:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Note:Tickets for Bucknell's March 3 Patriot League Tournament quarterfinal home game will go on sale on Monday, Feb. 29 at 10 a.m. Tickets can be purchased ONLINE or by calling 570-577-1000.
ANNAPOLIS, Md. – After a game-winning steal and free throws by Stephen Brown clinched a 77-73 win over Navy at Alumni Hall on Saturday, Bucknell claimed the outright Patriot League regular-season championship for the fifth time in the last six years. The Bison prevailed in a tense affair to get to 17-12 overall and 14-4 in the Patriot League, and they had to win each of their final four games while protecting a slim one-game lead over red-hot Lehigh.
Not only is this Bucknell's second straight regular-season title and fifth in the last six years, it is the team's 10th crown in the 26-year history of the Patriot League. No other team has more than five. This one was wire-to-wire, as the Bison held at least a share of first place after every round of league play.
The Bison will be the No. 1 seed in the Patriot League Tournament for the seventh time, and they will play the winner of the Loyola-Holy Cross first-round game in the quarterfinals on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Sojka Pavilion.
“I am very proud of this group of guys, especially our seniors who really wanted this victory,” said head coach Nathan Davis. “All year these guys have stuck with it, played very hard and played for each other. It's a great accomplishment to win a regular-season title in a tough, evenly matched league. Now we will turn our attention to the tournament.”
When the game tipped off in Annapolis, Bucknell had already clinched the top seed in the tournament thanks to Boston University's win over Holy Cross earlier in the day, which assured that Bucknell would win a head-to-head tiebreaker with Lehigh. The Mountain Hawks also played early and won at Army West Point for their ninth victory in a row. That meant the Bison had to beat Navy (18-13, 9-9 PL) to finish in sole possession of first place. They did it, but it did not come easily against a Midshipmen squad playing on its Senior Day with major seeding implications of its own on the line.
Bucknell led 34-33 at the break and never relinquished that lead in the second, although every time the Bison seemingly carved out a little breathing room, Zach Fong hit a bomb for Navy. Fong made four of his five treys in the second half, most of them from well behind the arc.
Treys by Chris Hass, Dom Hoffman and D.J. MacLeay sparked an 11-2 run that pushed a one-point lead up to 10 at 53-43 with 12 minutes to go. But the Bison had been called for eight of the nine fouls in the half at that point, and Fong's 3-pointer pulled Navy within 53-51.
Bucknell scored six straight to go back up by eight before Fong hit a deep three from the top of the key, and not long after, Fong swished another one to answer a Ryan Frazier triple.
As the clock dwindled under two minutes, the Bison had the ball and a five-point lead, but Hass' scoop shot rimmed out, and in transition the other way Fong hit his fifth trey to make it 73-71. Bucknell went inside to Nana Foulland on the next possession, and Navy fouled him intentionally to put the 49-percent free-throw shooter on the line. Foulland ruined the strategy by making both with 1:02 to go.
Navy's Will Kelly scored while drawing a foul with 48 seconds left, but he missed the free throw, leaving it a two-point margin. Bucknell ran off most of the shot clock, and Frazier's fallaway jumper in the lane came up short.
Navy called timeout in the frontcourt with 11 seconds left, but Brown came up with the biggest defensive play of the year when he reached in and stole the ball away from Shawn Anderson. Brown tried to break out but was fouled, and he made both at the line with 5.9 seconds left to clinch it.
“I thought we showed great mental and physical toughness today,” said Davis. “Navy is a very good team, there is a reason why they have 18 wins. They are very disciplined and tough to score on. We hung in there and made big plays down the stretch.”
Bucknell led by as many as nine in the first half after a tip-in from Ben Oberfeld capped a bench-fueled 11-0 run and gave the Bison a 15-6 lead. Zach Thomas scored the first four points in the spurt, and then Nate Jones scored five straight with a 3-pointer and fastbreak layup.
Navy chipped away at that margin before finally regaining the lead on a short jumper by Jace Hogan. A beautiful feed by Frazier to Foulland for a jam put the Bison on top 34-32, and the lead was reduced to one after Bryce Dulin hit 1 of 3 free throws with 2.2 seconds left.
Hass led four Bison in double figures with 13 points. Foulland had 12 points and seven rebounds, Hoffman hit two big second-half 3-pointers and finished with 10 points and seven boards, and Frazier also tallied 10 points. Brown had a magnificent all-around game with nine points, six assists, four steals and only one turnover.
The Bison shot 43.6 percent overall and 10-for-19 from 3-point range. They had 21 assists on 24 made field goals while forcing 14 turnovers.
Fong led Navy with 17 points, hitting on five of his nine 3-point tries. Kelly added 14 points and nine rebounds, Jace Hogan had 13 points off the bench, and Anderson and Tilman Dunbar scored 12 points apiece while combining for 12 assists.
Navy shot 46.0 percent from the field and hit 7 of 17 from long range. The Mids were 20-for-31 from the foul line, compared to Bucknell's 19-for-26 in a game that was slowed by 46 foul calls.
At one point this season the Bison led by as many as three games atop the Patriot League standings, but back-to-back losses reduced that margin to one with four games left. With Lehigh piling up victory after victory, Bucknell closed the regular season with home routs of Loyola and Boston University, followed by a pair of hard-fought road wins over Lafayette and Navy this week.
Now 9-6 on the road this season, the Bison also assured themselves of another postseason bid. A Patriot League Tournament title would mean an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, but Bucknell is at least guaranteed a spot in the National Invitation Tournament.
While Bucknell and Lehigh finished the regular-season 1-2, the remaining seeds will be Boston University, Army, Colgate, American, Navy, Loyola, Holy Cross and Lafayette. The bottom four seeds will play first-round games on Tuesday, with Loyola hosting Holy Cross in the 8 vs. 9 game. Bucknell will play the winner of that game in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
Navy would have been the No. 4 seed with a win over the Bison. Instead they will be seeded seventh and host Lafayette in a first-round contest on Tuesday.
