Bucknell Men's Basketball Visits Recent Nemesis Colgate Saturday Afternoon

1/13/2017 11:46:00 AM | Men's Basketball

By: TBD

What: Bucknell (12-6, 4-1 PL) at Colgate (4-14, 2-3 PL)
Where: Cotterell Court, Hamilton, N.Y.
When: Saturday, Jan. 14, 2017, 2 p.m.
Webcast: Patriot League Network
Radio: Eagle 107 (107.3 FM WEGH)
Internet Radio: BucknellBison.com
Live Statistics: GoColgateRaiders.com

• COMPLETE GAME NOTES

Bucknell Probable Starters
G: Stephen Brown (9.7 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 4.7 apg)
G: Kimbal Mackenzie (10.3 ppg, 2.0 rpg, 2.0 apg)
G: Avi Toomer (2.6 ppg, 1.4 rpg, 0.6 apg)
F: Zach Thomas (15.4 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 2.8 apg)
C: Nana Foulland (14.9 ppg, 8.2 rpg, 1.9 bpg)

With a Win over Colgate, Bucknell Would ...
• ... improve to 13-6 overall, 5-1 in the Patriot League, and 6-4 on the road this season.
• ... snap a four-game losing streak to the Raiders.
• ... avoid suffering back-to-back losses for the first time all season.
• ... improve to 255-113 all-time in Patriot League regular-season games.

Headlines
• Bucknell is looking to bounce back from its first Patriot League loss of the season when it travels to recent nemesis Colgate on Saturday at Cotterell Court. Seniors John Azzinaro and D.J. MacLeay are the only active Bison who have participated in a victory over Colgate. The Raiders have won four straight over Bucknell, sweeping the season series in each of the past two seasons.
• Bucknell slipped into second place, one game behind 5-0 Boston University, after falling 82-71 to Lehigh on Wednesday at Sojka Pavilion. The loss snapped a four-game winning streak. Meanwhile, Colgate is one of four teams entering the weekend at 2-3 in league play, good for a share of fifth place.
• After Saturday's game in Hamilton, the Bison will have played four of their first six Patriot League games on the road. Bucknell will then begin a stretch with four of the next six at home.
• The Bison have gotten terrific play from junior center Nana Foulland of late. Foulland is coming off a 20-point game against Lehigh, matching the output of reigning Patriot League Player of the Year Tim Kempton. Foulland is 27-for-36 (.750) from the field in his last four games and 30-for-43 (.698) in the five league games. For the season, his 63.9 FG% leads the Patriot League and ranks 11th nationally. He also leads the conference in blocked shots (1.9) and ranks second in rebounding (8.2) and eighth in scoring (14.9).
• Foulland is on 1,000-point watch. He needs 21 points to become the 40th member of the 1,000-point club at Bucknell.
• Sophomore guard Kimbal Mackenzie is averaging 14.6 points per game in Patriot League play, the 11th-best mark in the league, and he was named the Bison Athlete of the Week on Monday. He has three 20-point games this season, two of them coming against PL foes Navy (22) and American (24). In both games, Mackenzie was the catalyst in big comebacks on the road. He had 19 second-half points to help the Bison rally from 11 points down to beat Navy, and last Thursday he scored 18 after halftime as Bucknell came from seven points down to defeat American. Mackenzie takes a streak of 21 straight made free throws into the Colgate game.
• Junior forward Zach Thomas leads the team and ranks No. 5 in the Patriot League in scoring at 15.4 points per game. Thomas also ranks second on the team in assists and rebounds from his power forward position. Thomas had 25 points against Manhattan in the season opener, and he has been on triple-double watch on two occasions. He registered 19 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists against Robert Morris on Nov. 16, and he had 16 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, four blocks and three steals the win over Mount St. Mary's. Thomas had scored in double figures in 15 straight games before being held to five at Navy, but he came up with two critical buckets in the final three minutes to key Bucknell's comeback. He bounced back with four more double-digit games since then.
• Bucknell had used the same starting lineup in each of the first 13 games this season, but a left foot injury to sophomore guard Nate Jones necessitated a lineup change in the Navy game. Freshman Avi Toomer made his first career start. After a quiet night statistically against the Midshipmen, Toomer broke out with 11 points, five rebounds and three steals — all career highs — in the victory over Army.
• Bucknell went 8-5 against a tough non-conference schedule, including a 4-1 mark at home. This was Bucknell's most successful pre-conference slate since 2012-13, when the Bison went 13-3 before the start of Patriot League action.
• Bucknell closed the month of November with a four-game winning streak that consisted of victories over Vanderbilt, Norfolk State, Northern Colorado and Richmond. The middle two came in Las Vegas, where the Bison claimed the “Upper Division” title at the Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational. The 75-72 victory over Vanderbilt was the team's first win over a Southeastern Conference team since 2006, when it took down Arkansas in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. It was the first victory over a “major conference” team since 2013-14, when Bucknell won at Penn State.
• The Bison were picked to finish third (behind Lehigh and Boston University) in the Patriot League in a preseason poll of the league's head coaches and sports information directors. Foulland was named to the Preseason All-Patriot League Team.
• Colgate snapped a three-game losing streak with a 79-76 victory at Army West Point on Wednesday. The Raiders opened league play with a 10-point win at Lafayette, then fell to American, Holy Cross, and Navy before bouncing back with their first win at West Point since 2011. Freshman Will Rayman leads the team in scoring at 14.9 ppg, followed by point guard Season O'Brien at 12.4 ppg and 4.6 apg.
• Bucknell head coach Nathan Davis worked as an assistant coach at Colgate for one season (2008-09) under Emmitt Davis.

How to Get the Game
• The Bucknell-Colgate game will not be televised, however a free webcast will be available on the Patriot League Network at PatriotLeague.TV.
• The game can be heard in the Susquehanna Valley on the radio on Eagle 107 (107.3 WEGH), with Doug Birdsong calling the action. The pregame show begins 30 minutes before tip-off.
• The audio feed is also available online via BucknellBison.com (personal computers) and the official Bucknell Athletics app (iPhone and Android devices).
• Live stats can be found at GoColgateRaiders.com.
• Follow @Bucknell_MBB for in-game updates on Twitter.

Bucknell vs. Colgate
• This will be the 107th all-time meeting between Bucknell and Colgate in a series that dates back to 1920. The Bison have a 62-44 series lead. The only other opponents that Bucknell has played at least 100 times are Lehigh (167), Lafayette (161), Gettysburg (126) and Penn State (103).
• As Patriot League rivals, Bucknell has won 41 of the 58 meetings, including 21 of 26 in Lewisburg.
• Bucknell is 11-3 against Colgate at Sojka Pavilion. The Raiders won there in the arena's inaugural season (2002-03), then Bucknell won 11 in a row before Colgate won in Sojka in each of the last two seasons.
• Bucknell is 13-6 in its last 19 games in Hamilton.
• Bucknell entered the 2014-15 season with a 10-game series winning streak over Colgate, but the Raiders swept the Bison for the first time since 1997-98, and then they repeated the feat last year to run their win streak over Bucknell to four games.
• Last year, Colgate won 84-73 in Lewisburg and 91-81 in Hamilton. The Raiders went 20-for-46 (.435) from 3-point distance in the two games, and forward Tom Rivard had 23 and 24 points in the sweep. Chris Hass was Bucknell's top scorer in both games with 18 and 17.

Patriot League Success
• Bucknell is 254-113 (.692) 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 22 of the 26 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 have now won five of the last six, after claiming titles in 2015 and 2016 as well.
• Bucknell has won 10 Patriot League regular-season titles in 26 years. No other team has more than five.
• Last year Bucknell made its seventh Patriot League Tournament appearance as the No. 1 seed.
• 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 86 of its last 110 league games.
• Bucknell won Patriot League Tournament titles in 2005, 2006, 2011 and 2013. The Bison have made it to the semifinals 19 times and to the championship game 10 times in the 25-year history of the league.
• The Bison are the only team to go unbeaten in league play in a season (14-0 in 2006).

Last Time Out
• In a game of wild momentum swings, it was Lehigh that made the final surge in an 82-71 defeat of Bucknell on Wednesday night at Sojka Pavilion. The Bison stormed back from 18 points down in the second half to tie the game, but the Mountain Hawks finished the game on a 16-5 run over the final 5:45 to snap Bucknell's four-game winning streak.
• Bucknell trailed by as many as 14 in the first half before cutting the deficit to six by halftime. But the Mountain Hawks used a 12-0 run in a span of just four possessions — three 3-pointers and a 3-point play — to go up by 18 at the 17:52 mark. But only nine minutes later the Bison had tied the game with a 26-8 run. The game was tied at 60, 62, 64 and 66, but the Bison went cold down the stretch with one field goal in the last seven minutes, and Lehigh pulled away again.
• The battle of All-Patriot League centers was a wash, as Bucknell's Nana Foulland and Lehigh's Tim Kempton both finished with 20 points. Foulland was 7-for-9 from the field and 6-for-8 from the foul line to go with seven rebounds. Kempton had eight boards and went 8-for-13 from the field, including a 3-pointer, and 3-for-3 from the line.
• Stephen Brown added 12 points, and Zach Thomas had 11 with five rebounds and five assists for Bucknell.
• Lehigh received 16 points each from Austin Price and Pat Andree, and 11 from Kahron Ross. The Mountain Hawks came into the game leading the Patriot League in all three shooting categories, and they backed it up in this one by connecting on 50.0% of their shots from the field, including 10 of 17 from the 3-point arc after a 9-for-11 start.
• Bucknell shot 44.6% for the game but could not match Lehigh from the 3-point arc. While Lehigh was 10-for-17, the Bison hit 6 of 23. The Bison were strong at the foul line (15-18) and committed only 11 turnovers, but they were outrebounded 35-29.

Numbers Worth Noting
• Bucknell has allowed 81.3 points per game in its five losses and 62.9 ppg in its 12 victories.
• Bucknell has posted its three biggest comeback victories on the road this season. They overcame deficits of 13 (Navy), 11 (Vanderbilt) and seven (American) to pull out good wins away from home.
• Bucknell's starting frontcourt of Zach Thomas (15.4 ppg) and Nana Foulland (14.9 ppg) have scored 41.7% of the team's points on the season.
• Bucknell's transition defense has been strong thus far. The Bison have given up only 63 fastbreak points through 18 games. They went three straight contests (Vanderbilt, Norfolk State, Northern Colorado) without giving up any fastbreak points. Meanwhile, Bucknell has scored 106 fastbreak points on the season.
• Matt O'Reilly has attempted 110 shots during his career at Bucknell. Of those, 105 have come from beyond the 3-point arc. He is 2-for-5 in his career on 2-point shots, with his first make coming against Richmond earlier this season.
• Stephen Brown leads the Bison in +/- with a +131 on the season. Foulland is next at +94.
• Bison opponents have shot 50% or better from the field four times this season, and Bucknell is 0-4 in those games (Wake Forest, Butler, La Salle, Lehigh).
• Bucknell is averaging a solid 1.04 points per possession this season, while opponents are averaging 0.98.
• D.J. MacLeay leads the team with a total rebounding percentage of 23.9. In other words, MacLeay pulls down 23.9% of all missed shots (offensive and defensive) when he is on the floor. MacLeay has 10 rebounds in 20 minutes over his last two games.
• Bucknell is 87-for-114 (.763) from the foul line in the last five minutes of games this season, but just 168-for-268 (.627) in the first 35 minutes of games.
• After shooting a season-low 34.0% from the field against Navy, the Bison have shot 50.5% in the next four games combined.
• Foulland recorded his 500th career rebound in the Princeton game, and he needs 21 points to reach 1,000. Only 18 players in Bucknell history have recorded 1,000 points and 500 rebounds.
• Brown needs 19 assists to join the top 10 in Bucknell history. He has 292 in his career.

Who's Got Next?
• Bucknell returns home on Wednesday to face Loyola at 7 p.m. at Sojka Pavilion. The Bison will be looking for their eighth straight win against the Greyhounds.
• The Bucknell-Loyola game will be televised locally on WQMY-TV, and it will stream on the Patriot League Network at PatriotLeague.TV.