Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
Holy Cross
Foulland, Bench Lead Bucknell to 77-52 Road Rout of Holy Cross
2/6/2016 4:15:00 PM | Men's Basketball
WORCESTER, Mass. – Nana Foulland scored a career-high 22 points, and Zach Thomas led a big effort from the Bucknell bench with 14 points and 10 rebounds to send the Bison to a 77-52 victory over Holy Cross at the Hart Center on Saturday afternoon. The first-place Bison bounced back nicely from a road loss at American on Wednesday, and they improved to 13-10 overall and 10-2 in the Patriot League.
D.J. MacLeay added 13 points as part of a 35-point, 17-rebound afternoon from the Bison reserves, and Chris Hass was Bucknell's fourth double-digit scorer with 12 points. Stephen Brown sparked a late run that put the game away and finished with four points, six assists and no turnovers.
After Bucknell posted its largest win ever over the Crusaders at the Hart Center, Foulland was the recipient of the Martin O'Malley Award as MVP of Holy Cross' Winter Homecoming game. He was 9-for-14 from the field and 4-for-6 from the foul line, and he also had four rebounds, two assists and a steal.
Foulland also drew a bucketload of fouls on the Crusader big men. Starting center Matt Husek and reserve Jehyve Floyd both picked up their fourth fouls early in the second half. Husek ended up scoreless in 13 minutes, while Floyd, who was effective off the bench with six points and three blocks, also had his second-half minutes curtailed by foul trouble.
Karl Charles led Holy Cross (9-14, 4-8 PL) with 13 points, followed by Anthony Thompson and Eric Green with 11 each.
This is the ninth time in 22 years in the Patriot League that Bucknell has been 10-2 or better after 12 conference games. The Bison beat the Crusaders for the fourth time in a row and improved to 5-1 on the road in league play. They will have at least a two-game lead in the Patriot League, pending Navy's result against Colgate later in the day.
“It's always great to win on the road, especially the second time through the league,” said head coach Nathan Davis. “I thought we defended really hard. It's tough to hold a team to 32-percent shooting on their home floor. Offensively, we were able to get Nana the ball deep in the paint, and he had a big game. That opened some things up on the perimeter and it was great to see some jump shots go down again.”
There were eight lead changes and two ties over the first 12 minutes of the contest, before Bucknell opened up some breathing room. In what proved to be the key stretch of the game, the Bison outscored Holy Cross 20-8 over the final 8:16 of the half to go up by double digits.
MacLeay ignited the run with seven straight points, including a 3-point play. Thomas' third 3-pointer of the half stretched the margin to 34-24, and Bucknell took its largest lead of the half at 39-26 on a Hass trey with 1:22 to play.
Charles scored on a layup for Holy Cross, and the Bison settled for an 11-point halftime lead after missing a couple of shots at the rim in the final seconds.
The Bison lead ballooned to 19 at 59-40 after a tip-dunk by Foulland and a baseline jumper by Hass capped an 11-2 run. Holy Cross scored eight of the next 10 to pull within 13, but then Brown took over for Bucknell. He assisted on two buckets by MacLeay and a 3-pointer by Thomas, then he scored himself on nifty little scoop shot in the lane. Foulland followed with another jam to make it 11 straight Bison points, and it was 72-48 with 2:48 to go.
After going 0-for-15 from 3-point distance at American on Wednesday, the Bison hit eight treys in 20 attempts in this one. Thomas was the catalyst. After his three triples in the first half, he finished 4-for-5 from the arc and recorded his fifth career double-double. The Bison shot 50.9 percent overall and also did well at the foul line (13-16). Bucknell had 17 assists on 28 field goals with only nine turnovers.
Defensively, John Azzinaro and Dom Hoffman had three steals each as the Bison forced 12 Holy Cross turnovers and held the Crusaders to 32.1 percent shooting (28.6 in the second half). Bucknell finished with a 37-32 rebounding advantage.
Next up for the Bison is a home game against Lehigh on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The game will be televised by the American Sports Network, with local distribution to WQMY-53 in Scranton-Wilkes-Barre.
