Men's Basketball Clashes with Vermont Sunday

What: Bucknell (1-2) at Vermont (3-2)
Where: Patrick Gym, Burlington, Vt.
When: Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018, 2 p.m. (ET)
TV/Internet: ESPN3 and WatchESPN App
Local Radio: Eagle 107 (107.3 FM WEGH)
Listen Live: BucknellBison.com and Eagle107.com
Live Stats: UVMAthletics.com

• COMPLETE GAME NOTES

Bucknell Probable Starters
G: Jimmy Sotos (14.3 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 4.3 apg)
G: Kimbal Mackenzie (19.7 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 3.3 apg)
G: Avi Toomer (7.0 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 1.3 apg)
F: Bruce Moore (5.7 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 1.3 apg)
C: Paul Newman (11.7 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 3.0 bpg)

With a Win over Vermont, Bucknell Would ...

... snap a two-game losing streak and level its season record at 2-2.
... improve to 2-0 on the road this season and improve to 11-1 in its last 12 true road games dating back to last season.
... improve to 70-35 under head coach Nathan Davis.
... defeat the Catamounts for the second year in a row and improve to 2-2 in the all-time series.

Headlines

Two of the top mid-major programs in the East meet on Sunday when Bucknell travels to Vermont. The Bison won a close game in Lewisburg last season, and now they will play their very first game in the state of Vermont.
Bucknell is back in action after a 12-day layoff. Last time out, the Bison dropped an 82-73 decision to Canisius, which is one of the favorites in the MAAC this year. After beating St. Bonaventure in overtime on opening night, Bucknell has since suffered losses to Fairfield and Canisius.
The Bison have spent most of their first three games trying to come from behind. They have held the lead for a total of only 11:58 in the first three games, with 11:48 of that coming at St. Bonaventure. Bucknell came from 13 points down to win that game. The Bison came from 15 down to tie the game in the final seconds against Fairfield, only to see the Stags win it on a shot with 0:03 left. And then last time out against Canisius, Bucknell cut a 20-point second-half deficit down to six before the rally stalled.
Bucknell is looking to continue its run of success following the graduation of one of its all-time great senior classes. The trio of point guard Stephen Brown, forward Zach Thomas and center Nana Foulland were all First Team All-Patriot League selections last year, and they accounted for 4,801 career points. Despite the heavy graduation hit, four of Bucknell's five opening-night starters managed to start at least 10 games last season. And the only one that didn't — senior center Nate Sestina — was a Preseason All-Patriot League selection.
Bucknell was picked a close second to Lehigh in the Patriot League Preseason Poll. The Bison did pick up one more first-place vote (8) than the Mountain Hawks (7).
Bucknell has another difficult non-conference schedule this season. Not including the field at the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic in December, Bucknell's nine non-league foes combined for a 193-108 (.641) overall record and a 112-48 (.700) mark within their respective leagues last year. Six of the nine teams won at least 21 games, and seven of the nine had winning records. And then Bucknell's first-round opponent in Hawaii will be Rhode Island, which went 26-8 overall and 15-3 in the A-10 last season.
Last season, Bucknell finished 25-10 overall and 16-2 in the Patriot League. The Bison swept Loyola, Boston University and Colgate — with the latter two wins coming by a combined 60 points — to win the Patriot League Tournament crown. Bucknell's eighth NCAA Tournament appearance resulted in a narrow 82-78 first-round loss to third-seeded Michigan State in Detroit.
Bucknell sophomore point guard Jimmy Sotos, who is coming off a career-best 23-point game against Canisius, will be going up against his former Conant High School teammate in Vermont freshman forward Ryan Davis.
Vermont is 3-2 on the season, including a 79-70 home win over Yale in its most recent outing on Wednesday. The Catamounts' two losses came at Kansas and Louisville. Preseason All-America East selection Anthony Lamb is coming off a career-best 34-point night against Yale, and he leads the team in scoring (21.8) and rebounding (7.8). Stef Smith (17.8) and Ernie Duncan (14.0) also score in double figures. Last season, the Catamounts went 27-8 overall and 15-1 in the America East, but they lost a heartbreaker to UMBC on a buzzer-beater in the conference championship game. UMBC then went on to make history as the first No. 16 seed to win an NCAA Tournament game when the Retrievers stunned Virginia in the first round.

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Vermont game will be streamed on ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app.
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.
Live statistics can be accessed via UVMathletics.com.
The audio feed is available online free of charge via BucknellBison.com.
Follow @Bucknell_MBB for in-game updates on Twitter.

Last Time Out

Bucknell fell to Canisius 82-73 in its most recent outing on Nov. 13. The Golden Griffins went 15-3 in MAAC play last season and were the No. 2 preseason pick in that league.
Canisius was red hot in the first half, hitting on 8 of 12 3-point attempts en route to a 48-32 halftime edge. The margin went up to 20 at 59-39 in the second half, but Bucknell stormed back within six via an 18-4 run. The rally stalled after the under-8 media timeout, however, as the Golden Griffins used a put-back of a missed free throw to end a six-minute field-goal drought. They eventually eased the lead back to 15 before winning by nine.
Jimmy Sotos had a big night with a career-high 23 points along with six rebounds. Sotos went 9-for-12 from the field and 5-for-7 from 3-point range.
Nate Sestina missed his second straight game with an injury, and Paul Newman responded with another strong performance in his place. Newman tallied 13 points, seven rebounds and four blocked shots, nearly identical to his 12-7-4 line in his previous start against Fairfield. Newman, who scored 14 points all of last season as the team's No. 3 center, has scored in double figures in all three games thus far.
Ben Robertson gave the Bison a big lift off the bench with 10 points and a career-high four assists in 22 minutes. He had eight points and two assists in that 18-4 second-half run that got Bucknell back in the game.
Takal Molson, last year's MAAC Rookie of the Year, led all players with 25 points for Canisius.

Bucknell vs. Vermont Series Notes

The Bison and Catamounts have meet on three previous occasions, with Vermont winning two of them. The first two came in opening-weekend, neutral-site tournaments, and then last year Bucknell won 81-77 at Sojka Pavilion.
In last year's game, Zach Thomas recorded 24 points and nine rebounds, Stephen Brown had 17 points, and Nana Foulland recorded 14 in Bucknell's victory. With the game tied at 58 in the second half, the Bison went on an 8-0 run keyed by 3-pointers from Bruce Moore and Nate Sestina to take control. Sestina hit two second-half treys and scored all 10 of Bucknell's bench points in the game.
The previous meeting came on Nov. 17, 2001, when Vermont won 77-60 in the consolation game of the Mohegan Sun Classic, hosted by Central Connecticut State. Bryan Bailey had 17 points and Boakai Lalugba had 13 points and nine rebounds for the Bison. T.J. Sorrentine led the Catamounts with 23 points, and Taylor Coppenrath had 16.
The only other meeting between the two squads came in the 1994-95 season-opener at the Pepsi-Marist Classic. That was Pat Flannery's very first game as head coach of the Bison. Vermont prevailed 67-66 behind 19 points from high-scoring guard Eddie Benton. The Bison trailed by 10 at the half and by six with a minute to play, but they nearly pulled it out anyway. Sekou Hamer's driving layup rimmed out at the final buzzer after Vermont missed two free throws at the other end. Kihlon Golden led the Bison with 14 points and 12 rebounds.

Bucknell vs. The America East

Bucknell does not have a long history with the America East Conference, but has had some success. The Bison are 20-10 against the nine teams that currently comprise the America East: 6-2 vs. Albany, 6-2 vs. UMBC, 3-1 vs. Binghamton, 2-2 vs. Maine, 1-0 vs. Stony Brook, 1-1 vs. Hartford, and 1-2 vs. Vermont. Bucknell has never played New Hampshire or UMass-Lowell.

Who's Got Next?

After returning from Vermont, the Bison will be home twice next week, hosting Northeastern on Wednesday and Monmouth the following Saturday.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Stephen Brown

Nana Foulland

Kimbal Mackenzie

Bruce Moore

Paul Newman

Ben Robertson

Nate Sestina

Jimmy Sotos

Zach Thomas

Avi Toomer