Men's Basketball Hosts Northeastern Wednesday Evening

What: Northeastern (2-4) vs. Bucknell (2-2)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa. | BUY TICKETS
When: Wednesday, Nov. 28, 7 p.m.
TV/Internet: Patriot League Network
Local Radio: Eagle 107 (107.3 FM WEGH)
Listen Live: BucknellBison.com and Eagle107.com
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com

• COMPLETE GAME NOTES

Bucknell Probable Starters
G: Jimmy Sotos (12.3 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 4.3 apg)
G: Kimbal Mackenzie (18.0 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 4.0 apg)
G: Avi Toomer (6.5 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 1.0 apg)
F: Bruce Moore (8.3 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 1.0 apg)
C: Nate Sestina (17.5 ppg, 13.0 rpg, 1.0 apg)

With a Win over Northeastern, Bucknell Would ...

... improve to 3-2 overall and 1-2 at home this season.
... avenge last season's loss to the Huskies and improve to 1-1 all-time against them.
... improve to 71-35 under head coach Nathan Davis.
... improve to 171-55 all-time at Sojka Pavilion.

Headlines

Bucknell brings a 2-2 mark into Wednesday's home affair with Northeastern. The Bison are 2-0 on the road but 0-2 at home to start the season.
The Bison came out of a 12-day layoff with a 69-61 win at Vermont on Sunday afternoon. The Bison have now beaten the Catamounts two years in a row.
Bucknell benefitted from the return of senior Preseason All-Patriot League center Nate Sestina at Vermont. After missing the previous two games with a lower-body injury, Sestina scored a career-high 20 points to go along with 10 rebounds in the win over the Catamounts. The Bison are now 2-0 with Sestina in the lineup and 0-2 without him. He is averaging 17.5 points and 13.0 rebounds in his two appearances.
The Bison have spent most of their first four games trying to come from behind, and they have overcome 13-point second-half deficits in both of their victories. Bucknell has held the lead for a total of only 23:35 in the first four games. In addition to the two big rallies in wins over St. Bonaventure and Vermont, 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. Against Canisius, Bucknell cut a 20-point second-half deficit down to six before the rally stalled.

	First Half	Second Half
Points per game	24.3	37.8
FG%	.382	.486
3FG%	.273	.377
FT%	.571	.707
Opponent PPG	33.0	30.0
Opponent FG%	.461	.363
Opponent 3FG%	.457	.216
Opponent FT%	.895	.769

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.
Northeastern, the preseason favorite in the Colonial Athletic Association, is off to a 2-4 start against a difficult schedule. The Huskies have a road win over Harvard and a neutral-site win over Alabama at the Gildan Charleston Classic. They have fallen to Boston University, No. 16/17 Virginia Tech, and twice in a row to a Davidson team that is receiving votes in the national polls. Northeastern won the CAA regular-season title before falling to Charleston in the tournament final last season. The Huskies were slated to return all five starters from that team, but they have experienced some injury troubles early in the year. Jordan Roland, who scored 35 points in the win over Harvard, leads the team in scoring at 14.3 ppg. Vasa Pusica, a First Team All-CAA pick last season, puts up 14.2 ppg, although he missed the most recent game with an injury.

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Northeastern game will be streamed on the Patriot League Network at PatriotLeague.tv.
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 BucknellBison.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 handed Vermont a rare home loss on Sunday, rallying from 13 points down to beat the Catamounts 69-61 at Patrick Gym. The Bison got out to a frigid start coming off a 12-day layoff, but they outscored the Catamounts 49-29 in the second half and overcame a 13-point deficit to win a game for the second time this season.
Nate Sestina recorded a career-high 20 points with 10 rebounds in his return from a two-game injury absence, and Bruce Moore scored 14 of his 16 points in Bucknell's huge second half. Moore was 4-for-4 from the 3-point arc in the second half, including the tiebreaking 3-pointer that gave the Bison the lead for good with 4:22 remaining.
Kimbal Mackenzie handed out six assists and scored 13 points, the last three coming on a dagger from long range at the end of the shot clock to give Bucknell a 64-58 lead with 51 seconds remaining.
Bucknell shot just 28.0% from the field (1-9 3FG) in the first half, but it improved to 57.1% (7-14 3FG) in the second half. Meanwhile, the defense was strong throughout, as Vermont shot just 31.7% for the game (5-20 3FG). The Bison were especially tough on Anthony Lamb, Vermont's scoring leader at 21.8 ppg who had already logged 24 points against Kansas and 34 against Yale this season. The Bison held him to 13 points on 2-for-14 shooting from the field, along with five turnovers.
Vermont had been 66-12 at home over the last six years. Bucknell improved to 2-2 in the all-time series, with both wins coming over the last two seasons.

Bucknell vs. Northeastern

Bucknell and Northeastern met for the first time last season, with the Huskies winning 82-64 in Boston. It was Bucknell's second-most lopsided loss of the season, behind only a 28-point setback at Arkansas.
Not much went right for the Bison that night, as Northeastern shot 53.2% for the game and 60.7% in the second half. When the Huskies did miss, they parlayed eight offensive rebounds into 18 second-chance points. Vasa Pusica paced Northeastern with 17 points, while Zach Thomas led the Bison with 15. Nate Sestina had a good game off the bench with 12 points (5-7 FG) in 20 minutes.

Bucknell vs. The CAA

Bucknell is 103-71 all-time against teams currently comprising the Colonial Athletic Association. Four CAA teams were longtime rivals of the Bison in the East Coast Conference and/or Middle Atlantic Conference: Delaware (52-34), Hofstra (19-10), Towson (17-8) and Drexel (15-15). Bucknell is also 0-2 against James Madison and 0-1 against both Northeastern and Charleston.

Who's Got Next?

Bucknell is home again on Saturday against Monmouth at 2 p.m. The game will be televised on Stadium TV and streamed on the Patriot League Network.

Men's Basketball Hosts Northeastern Wednesday Evening

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Stephen Brown

Nana Foulland

Kimbal Mackenzie

Bruce Moore

Nate Sestina

Jimmy Sotos

Zach Thomas

Avi Toomer

Men's Basketball Hosts Northeastern Wednesday Evening

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Stephen Brown

Nana Foulland

Kimbal Mackenzie

Bruce Moore

Nate Sestina

Jimmy Sotos

Zach Thomas

Avi Toomer

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