Bison Visit Lehigh in First-Place Showdown Saturday at Noon

What: Bucknell (10-7, 4-1 PL) at Lehigh (11-5, 4-1 PL)
Where: Stabler Arena, Bethlehem, Pa.
When: Saturday, Jan. 19, 2019, 12 p.m. ET (*note change in game time*)
TV: Service Electric 50 in Lehigh Valley
Webcast: Patriot League Network
Local Radio: Eagle 107 (107.3 FM WEGH)
Listen Live: BucknellBison.com and Eagle107.com
Live Stats: LehighSports.com

• COMPLETE GAME NOTES

Bucknell Probable Starters
G: Kimbal Mackenzie (15.5 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 3.2 apg)
G: Jimmy Sotos (9.5 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 6.2 apg)
G: Avi Toomer (9.4 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 1.8 apg)
F: Bruce Moore (9.7 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 0.8 apg)
C: Nate Sestina (17.1 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 1.1 apg)

With a Win over Lehigh, Bucknell Would ...

Win its season-high fourth straight game and improve to 11-7 overall and 5-1 in the Patriot League.
Take over sole possession of first place in the Patriot League.
Improve to 5-3 in true road games and 7-4 in road/neutral games this season.
Snap a two-game losing streak against Lehigh at Stabler Arena.
Improve to 286-118 all-time in Patriot League play and 111-27 in the PL over the last nine seasons.

Headlines

Bucknell and Lehigh clash on Saturday in a showdown for first place in the Patriot League. Both teams come in with 4-1 conference records. The Bison just completed a perfect three-game homestand with wins over Colgate, American and Holy Cross. The Mountain Hawks bounced back from a loss at Colgate with an 83-76 home win over American on Wednesday. Army and Navy sit one game off the lead at 3-2, and those two teams will also meet on Saturday at West Point.
Bucknell has been idle since Monday, when it outran Holy Cross 93-78 at Sojka Pavilion. It was a record-setting night for senior center Nate Sestina, who scored a career-high 32 points on perfect 11-for-11 shooting from the field and 9-for-10 from the foul line. Sestina broke the Bucknell record and tied the Patriot League mark for most field goals without a miss. It was also a milestone night for senior guard Kimbal Mackenzie, who became the 43rd Bucknell player to score 1,000 career points.
Bucknell has had a knack for coming from behind this season. The Bison have won a game after trailing by 10 or more points six different times this season, including their first three Patriot League wins. Monday's game against Holy Cross was an exception, as Bucknell led for 38 of the 40 minutes, and by as many as 26 in the second half.
Nate Sestina has lived up to his Preseason All-Patriot League billing thus far. The Bison are 10-5 this season with Sestina in the lineup — he missed the Fairfield and Canisius games with an injury — and he is averaging a team-best 17.1 points and 8.0 rebounds per game. Sestina, who served as the backup center behind former Patriot League Player of the Year Nana Foulland for the last three seasons, was named to the All-Tournament Team at the Diamond Head Classic. Sestina was last week's Patriot League Player of the Week after averaging 24.5 points and 10.5 rebounds against Army and Boston University. His 27 points against the Terriers was a career high, until he surpassed it with 32 against Holy Cross.
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 — Nate Sestina — was a Preseason All-Patriot League selection.
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.
Saturday's game will feature a matchup of the Patriot League's two highest-scoring teams in Lehigh (80.0 ppg) and Bucknell (74.8). The Mountain Hawks have been an offensive juggernaut for much of the season, and they continue to lead the nation in 3-point percentage (.460). In league play, Lehigh scores 87.0 ppg while shooting 53.6% from the field and 49.0% from the 3-point line. Lehigh has the league's top three 3-point shooters in Jordan Cohen (.513), Pat Andree (.479) and Lance Tejada (.474), while Kyle Leufroy (.446) ranks seventh. Andree leads four double-digit scorers at 15.0 ppg, followed by Tejada (13.9), Leufroy (13.7) and Cohen (11.9).

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Lehigh game will be televised on Service Electric cable systems in the Lehigh Valley. It will also stream live 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.
The audio feed is available online free of charge via BucknellBison.com.
Live statistics can be accessed at LehighSports.com.
Follow @Bucknell_MBB for in-game updates on Twitter.

Last Time Out

A record-setting performance from senior Nate Sestina and two critical 3-pointers down the stretch from classmate Kimbal Mackenzie led the Bison men's basketball team to a 93-78 victory over Holy Cross on Monday night at Sojka Pavilion.
Sestina made all 11 of his field goal attempts without a miss, setting the Bucknell single-game record and tying the Patriot League mark on his way to a career-high 32 points. Sestina made his lone 3-point field goal attempt and all 10 of his two-point field goals, while also making nine out of 10 free throw attempts. Donald Brown held the previous Bucknell mark of made field goals in a game without a miss, making all 10 of his shots against Lehigh, exactly 15 years earlier, Jan. 14, 2004. Army's Matt Wilson is the only other Patriot League player to go 11-for-11 in a game. He did so back in November against UMass-Lowell.
Sestina's 32 points tied the Sojka Pavilion record for points scored by a Bison player, matching the output by Chris Hass, on March 5, 2015, against Holy Cross, and Zach Thomas, on Jan. 31, 2018, against Army. Sestina also had seven rebounds in the victory.
The Bison rode a dominant first-half performance to the victory, making 62.5% (20-for-32) of their shots, including eight 3-pointers, en route to 51 first-half points and a 16-point lead. Bucknell's lead grew to as large as 26 in the second half following a Nate Jones three that made the score 75-49 with 13:25 on the clock.
With Sestina on the bench with four fouls and backup center Paul Newman already having fouled out, the Crusaders went on a 17-2 run to cut the score to 77-66 with 7:17 left. Mackenzie, who scored 17 points on the night and went over 1,000 for his career, made a 3-pointer on the next possession to push the Bison lead back to 14 and end a six-minute plus stretch without a field goal. The Crusaders would get as close as nine, 84-75, with 5:18 remaining on a 3-point play by Jehvye Floyd.
Jones was responsible for perhaps the biggest play of the game just under the four-minute mark. He pulled down an offensive rebound in the lane and kicked the ball out for another Mackenzie three that pushed the lead back into double-digits.
Avi Toomer added 13 points, six rebounds and three steals for the Bison. He was one of the ringleaders of that big first-half flurry with three 3-pointers. Sotos scored 10 points, handed out eight assists and grabbed five rebounds, while Bruce Moore had eight points and a team-high 10 rebounds. A week ago, Moore's career high for rebounds in a game was seven, but he has now pulled down 15 and 10 in the last two games.

Bucknell vs. Lehigh

Bucknell has played more games (171) and won more games (103) against Lehigh than any other school. The Bison have a 103-68 lead in a series that originated in 1902.
Since the start of Patriot League play in 1990-91, Bucknell holds a 43-22 advantage, including a 24-8 mark at home.
Lehigh owns the most wins of any team over Bucknell in Sojka Pavilion (7).
Lehigh is responsible for snapping Bucknell's 35-game home winning streak against Patriot League foes. The Bison had not lost to a conference opponent at Sojka Pavilion in nearly five years, until the Mountain Hawks won 56-54 in Lewisburg on Jan. 30, 2008.
Lehigh also won the first game ever played in Sojka Pavilion, a 60-56 decision on Jan. 15, 2003. Including that game, Bucknell is 12-7 against the Mountain Hawks in Sojka.
Bucknell is 6-3 against Lehigh in Patriot League Tournament action, including an 81-65 win in the 2017 championship game.
Bucknell and Lehigh split a pair of games last season, with the home team winning each time. Stephen Brown logged 23 points to lift the Bison to a 78-65 verdict at Sojka Pavilion. Both teams struggled in the first half, with Bucknell leading 28-26 at the break, but the Bison poured in 50 points in the second half to pull away. At Stabler Arena later in the year, the Mountain Hawks prevailed 92-89 in overtime. Zach Thomas piled up 36 points and 13 rebounds for the Bison, but they saw their 10-game winning streak snapped as Pat Andree went 5-for-6 from 3-point range en route to 24 points for Lehigh.

Numbers Worth Noting

In Monday's 93-78 win over Holy Cross, Bucknell snapped a 24-game losing streak when the opponent shoots 50% or better from the field. The last time it happened was Jan. 14, 2014, when Bucknell won at Lafayette 96-86 despite the Leopards shooting an even 50%.
When Nate Sestina went 11-for-11 against Holy Cross, he raised his career field-goal percentage from .529 to .540.
Senior Kimbal Mackenzie has a knack for taking charges. He drew four offensive fouls in the La Salle game on Dec. 4, and he has a team-high 13 drawn charges this season.
Sophomore Jimmy Sotos struggled in the turnover category early in the season, but over the last 10 games, he has 69 assists with only 22 turnovers. Sotos averages 7.1 assists per game in Bucknell's victories and 4.9 in the losses.
As a team, the Bison rank 27th nationally in assists per made field goal (.599).
Sotos has given the Bison a lift on the boards as well. He ranks 13th overall and second among Patriot League guards in defensive rebounds with 4.2 per game.
Sophomore Paul Newman has played well in the first extended action of his career, and he has emerged as one of the Patriot League's top shot-blockers. Newman ranks third in the league with 1.5 blocks per game, even though he plays just 14.9 minutes per game. Newman averages 4.0 blocks per 40 minutes.
Sophomore John Meeks has provided a big lift since returning from injury at Ohio State on Dec. 15. In 10 games since coming back, Meeks has totaled 57 points (22-37 FG) and 19 rebounds in 109 minutes. He averages 20.9 ppg 40 minutes.
Bucknell's shot chart from the La Salle game was a statistical analyst's dream. In a game in which the Bison scored 92 points, all 29 made field goals were either dunks (6), layups (12), or 3-pointers (11). In fact, Bucknell did not attempt a 2-point shot outside the paint all night.
Bucknell's non-conference schedule was ranked as the 77th-hardest in the nation, according to statistical analyst Ken Pomeroy. Bucknell's 12 non-league foes combined for a 260-141 (.648) overall record and a 144-70 (.673) mark within their respective leagues last year. Nine of the 12 teams won at least 20 games, and 10 of the 12 had winning records.
Bucknell went 3-0 against the Atlantic 10 this season. The Bison averaged 88 points per game in wins over St. Bonaventure, La Salle and Rhode Island.
Mackenzie has played 97 of a possible 100 minutes in the second halves of Patriot League games thus far.

Who's Got Next?

Bucknell returns home next Wednesday to face Loyola at 7 p.m.

Bison Visit Lehigh in First-Place Showdown Saturday at Noon

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Stephen Brown

Nana Foulland

Nate Jones

Kimbal Mackenzie

John Meeks

Bruce Moore

Paul Newman

Nate Sestina

Jimmy Sotos

Zach Thomas

Avi Toomer

Bison Visit Lehigh in First-Place Showdown Saturday at Noon

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Stephen Brown

Nana Foulland

Nate Jones

Kimbal Mackenzie

John Meeks

Bruce Moore

Paul Newman

Nate Sestina

Jimmy Sotos

Zach Thomas

Avi Toomer

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