Bucknell Men Host Navy on Wednesday Night

What: Navy (6-13, 3-5 PL) at Bucknell (12-8, 6-2 PL)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa. | BUY TICKETS
When: Wednesday, Jan. 30, 7 p.m.
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 (9.1 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 6.0 apg) or Nate Jones (2.6 ppg, 0.8 rpg, 0.6 apg)
G: Kimbal Mackenzie (15.7 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 3.3 apg)
G: Avi Toomer (9.1 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 1.6 apg)
F: Bruce Moore (10.3 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 0.7 apg)
C: Nate Sestina (15.8 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 1.1 apg)

With a Win over Navy, Bucknell Would ...

... improve to 13-8 overall and 7-2 in the Patriot League.
... maintain at least a share of first place in the Patriot League.
... improve to 6-3 at home and 5-0 in home Patriot League games this season.
... win its 15th straight home game against a league foe.
... improve to 288-119 all-time in Patriot League play and 113-28 in the PL over the last nine seasons.
... win its 11th straight game against the Midshipmen and improve to 19-1 against them since 2010-11.
... win its 12th straight against the Midshipmen at Sojka Pavilion.

Headlines

Bucknell looks to bounce back from Saturday's loss at American when Navy visits Sojka Pavilion on Wednesday night. After the 76-68 setback in D.C., the Bison dropped back into a three-way tie for first place in the Patriot League alongside Army and Lehigh. Colgate, American, and Loyola are all two games off the pace at 4-4. Navy is tied for seventh at 3-5.
Bucknell's season-best five-game winning streak came to an end on Saturday, as the Bison shot just 33.3% from the field and were outscored 32-18 from the foul line at American.
Bucknell head coach Nathan Davis will be going up against his old team. Davis was an assistant coach under Don DeVoe at Navy from 1998-2003. He also spent one season (2008-09) working under current Navy assistant Emmett Davis when he was head coach at Colgate.
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.
Close games have also been the norm for the Bison. Five of Bucknell's six Patriot League wins, and seven of its 12 overall victories, have been decided by three points or fewer. Nine of the team's 20 games have been decided by three points or fewer, and the Bison are 7-2 in those games.
Nate Sestina has lived up to his Preseason All-Patriot League billing thus far. The Bison are 12-6 this season with Sestina in the lineup — he missed the Fairfield and Canisius games with an injury — and he is averaging a team-best 15.8 points and 7.9 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 the Patriot League Player of the Week on Jan. 7 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 on perfect 11-for-11 shooting 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.
Navy comes in with a 6-13 overall record and a 3-5 mark in Patriot League play. The Midshipmen are looking to shake a three-game losing streak, with the most recent setback coming by a 69-64 count at Holy Cross on Saturday. George Kiernan, who connected on seven 3-pointers in that game, leads the team in scoring at 12.8 points per game. Cam Davis also scores in double figures (10.8), and veteran point guard Hasan Abdullah is having a good year with 9.7 points and 4.2 assists per game. The Bison will have to be mindful of Navy's offensive rebounding prowess. The Midshipmen shoot 39.7% as a team, but they rebound 32.9% of their own misses, leading to 12.3 offensive rebounds per game. Both of those offensive rebounding figures are tops in the Patriot League.

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Navy game will be streamed 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 BucknellBison.com.
Follow @Bucknell_MBB for in-game updates on Twitter.

Last Time Out

Bucknell struggled to get shots to fall for much of the day and fell 76-68 at American on Saturday at Bender Arena. Nate Sestina scored 13 points, and Bruce Moore recorded his second double-double of the year with 11 points and 11 rebounds, but the Bison saw their five-game winning streak come to an end.
Andrew Funk also scored in double figures, logging 10 of Bucknell's 25 bench points.
The Bison were able to finish just 33.3% of their shot attempts and went 8-for-27 from 3-point distance.
Sa'eed Nelson scored 20 points to lead American, which shot 48.8% overall despite hitting just four 3-pointers in 14 attempts. The Eagles went 32-for-45 from the free-throw line, piling up a 14-point edge at the stripe. Bucknell was whistled for 28 fouls and had three players foul out.
Bucknell trailed by as many as 16 during a first half in which it went 6-for-26 from the field. The Bison were able to whittle that deficit to four in the final minute but could get no closer.

Bucknell vs. Navy

This will be the 79th all-time meeting between the Bison and Midshipmen, with Bucknell holding a 43-35 edge in the series.
Bucknell has won 10 straight and 18 of the last 19 meetings, including a sweep in each of the last four seasons. Navy's last win over the Bison was 62-61 verdict in Annapolis on Jan. 15, 2014.
The Mids won 12 of 16 from the Bison prior to joining the Patriot League in 1991-92.
As conference rivals, Bucknell leads 39-23, with the home team winning most of the time. Since Navy joined the league, Bucknell is 26-5 against the Mids at home but is only 13-18 against Navy in Alumni Hall, although the Bison have won seven of their last eight there.
Bucknell is 5-3 all-time against Navy in the Patriot League Tournament, including the Midshipmen's 76-75 win in the 1997 championship game. Navy won the first three postseason clashes, but the Bison have won the last five, including a 70-65 decision in the 2017 semifinal round.
Bucknell managed a rare one-sided win at Alumni Hall in last season's first meeting. Led by a career-high 27 points on 7-for-9 3-point shooting from Stephen Brown, the Bison rolled to an 87-67 verdict. Bryce Dulin led Navy with 14 points. In the rematch at Sojka Pavilion on Senior Day, the Bison senior class of Brown, Nana Foulland and Zach Thomas combined to score 60 points in Bucknell's 85-61 win. Brown tallied 25, giving him 52 in the two games against Navy last season. Hasan Abdullah paced the Midshipmen with 19 points.

Numbers Worth Noting

Senior Nate Jones started the season 0-for-7 from the 3-point arc. Since then, he is 13-for-21 (.619), including 6-for-7 over his last three games.
After getting dominated on the glass in back-to-back games against Boston University and Colgate earlier this month, the Bison have made a concerted effort to improve their rebounding margin. In the five games since then, Bucknell is +19 on the boards.
Junior Bruce Moore has been a big key to that rebounding improvement. He posted a career-high 15 rebounds against American on Jan. 12, starting a five-game stretch where he is averaging 9.4 boards per game. Moore has upped his season rebounding average from 3.3 to 4.9 per game. Moore is also averaging 11.8 points per game over the same five-game stretch.
Bucknell had lost 24 straight games dating back five years when the opponent shot 50% or better from the field. The Bison broke that streak in the Jan. 14 home win over Holy Cross, when the Crusaders hit on an even 50%, and now Bucknell has won two straight in that circumstance after Lehigh shot 51.7% on Jan. 19.
When Nate Sestina went 11-for-11 against Holy Cross, he raised his career field-goal percentage from .529 to .540. Sestina set the Bucknell single-game record and tied the Patriot League mark on his way to a career-high 32 points. He 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.
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.
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 15 drawn charges this season.
Sophomore Jimmy Sotos struggled in the turnover category early in the season, but over the last 13 games, he has 84 assists with only 28 turnovers. Sotos averages 6.7 assists per game in Bucknell's victories and 4.9 in the losses.
As a team, the Bison rank 29th nationally in assists per made field goal (.595).
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 1.3 blocks per game, even though he plays just 14.3 minutes per game.
Sophomore John Meeks has provided a big lift since returning from injury at Ohio State on Dec. 15. In 11 games since coming back, Meeks has totaled 66 points on 52.0% shooting and 23 rebounds. He averages 18.1 ppg per 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 151 of a possible 160 minutes in the second halves of Patriot League games thus far.

Who's Got Next?

After the Navy game, Lafayette remains the only Patriot League team the Bison have yet to face this season. That changes on Saturday, when Bucknell visits Kirby Sports Center for a 2 p.m. game.
Bucknell has won six straight against Lafayette, but three of the last four trips to Easton have resulted in overtime games.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Stephen Brown

Nana Foulland

Andrew Funk

Nate Jones

Kimbal Mackenzie

John Meeks

Bruce Moore

Paul Newman

Nate Sestina

Jimmy Sotos

Zach Thomas

Avi Toomer