Men's Basketball Renews Series with Hofstra in Nightcap of Wednesday Hoops Doubleheader

Wednesday, November 13

Lewisburg, Pa.

7 p.m.

Bucknell University

Hofstra

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Photo by: Marc Hagemeier

Men's Basketball Renews Series with Hofstra in Nightcap of Wednesday Hoops Doubleheader

11/12/2019 5:41:00 PM | Men's Basketball

What: Hofstra (1-1) at Bucknell (1-1)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa. | BUY TICKETS
When: Wednesday, Nov. 12, 7 p.m.
TV: Stadium OTA affiliates (How to Watch)
Webcast: 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

Happenings:

Doubleheader with Bucknell women's basketball (vs. St. Bonaventure at 4 p.m.)
SAAC Canned Food Drive -- bring a canned item and receive a free game program

Bucknell Probable Starters
G: Jimmy Sotos (9.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 4.0 apg)
G: Andrew Funk (7.0 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 1.5 apg)
F: Ben Robertson (1.0 ppg, 1.0 rpg, 1.0 apg)
F: Bruce Moore (15.5 ppg, 1.5 rpg, 0.5 apg)
C: Paul Newman (3.0 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 1.0 bpg)

With a Win over Hofstra, Bucknell Would ...

... improve to 2-1 overall and 1-1 at home this season.
... improve to 183-57 all-time at Sojka Pavilion.
... improve to 20-10 all-time against the Pride, 11-2 against them in Lewisburg, and 1-0 in Sojka Pavilion.
... improve to 104-72 against the current members of the Colonial Athletic Association but snap a three-game losing streak against CAA teams.
... give head coach Nathan Davis his 91st win as Bucknell's head coach.

Headlines

Bucknell and Hofstra, former rivals in the East Coast Conference, meet for the 30th time overall but for the first time since December 29, 2001.
Both teams come in with 1-1 records. The Bison have played two close, low-scoring games to start the season. They opened with a 68-64 win at Fairfield before falling 66-63 at home to Vermont on Sunday. This will be Hofstra's first road game of the season. The Pride bounced back from a 79-71 season-opening loss to San Jose State with a 94-74 rout of Monmouth on Saturday.
For the second game in a row, Bucknell will be facing a team that won 27 games last season. Vermont hit that number on the way to America East regular-season and tournament titles. Hofstra set a school record with 27 victories a year ago. The Pride won the CAA regular-season title but fell to Northeastern in the league championship game.
Bucknell's bench has been a big story in the early going. The Bison reserve unit has combined for 60 of the team's 131 points (45.8%) so far. Junior forward John Meeks has been the catalyst. Meeks is averaging 17.5 ppg coming off the bench. He tallied a career-high 19 points against Fairfield and then added 16 against Vermont.
Bucknell got off to a great start from the newly extended 3-point line, hitting 10 of 23 at Fairfield last week. However, the Bison could not buy a 3-point shot in the loss to Vermont. They went 3-for-22 and ended the game with nine straight misses, including a potential tying shot in the final seconds.
Meanwhile, Bucknell's 3-point defense has been terrific through two games. Opponents are just 6-for-37 (.162) from downtown, and Bucknell ranks 11th nationally in 3FG defense.
Bucknell will be looking to start a new streak after seeing its 12-game home winning streak come to an end on Sunday.
Bucknell was picked second to Colgate in the Patriot League preseason poll. Those two teams played in the 2019 Patriot League Tournament final, with the Raiders prevailing 94-80 to thwart Bucknell's hopes of a third straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
Bucknell and Colgate shared the 2019 Patriot League regular-season title with 13-5 conference records. It was Bucknell's fifth straight PL regular-season crown and eighth in the last nine years. The run of five regular-season titles in a row is the second-longest current streak in the nation, behind only Gonzaga (7).
The Bison return three starters in 2019-20, but the two graduation losses were both All-Patriot League selections. Guard Kimbal Mackenzie was a First Team pick after averaging 17.6 points per game last season, and he is now playing professionally in Spain. Center Nate Sestina (15.8 ppg, 8.5 rpg) was a Second Team all-star last season, and he is using his final year of eligibility as a graduate student at Kentucky.
Senior wing Avi Toomer, senior forward Bruce Moore, and junior point guard Jimmy Sotos all return to their starting posts this year, although Toomer will miss the start of the season due to injury. Senior Ben Robertson, a co-captain along with Moore and Toomer, has made his first two career starts in Toomer's absence.
Despite graduating national scoring leader Justin Wright-Foreman (27.1 ppg) after last season, the Pride are still a veteran, high-scoring outfit averaging 82.5 ppg through two games. Six players scored in double figures in Saturday's win over Monmouth, led by Eli Pemberton and Desure Buie with 17 each. Pemberton also had 23 in the loss to San Jose State. Joe Mihalich's club starts three seniors and two juniors, and they were a narrow choice over Charleston as the preseason favorite in the CAA.

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Hofstra game will be available online via the Patriot League Network at PatriotLeague.tv, and it can also be seen through Stadium's over-the-air affiliates. Joe Vasile and Bucknell Athletics Hall of Famer Pat Flannery '80 will have the call for PLN/Stadium.
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 and Eagle107.com.
Follow @Bucknell_MBB for in-game updates on Twitter.

Last Time Out

Bucknell went toe-to-toe with defending America East champion Vermont on Sunday, but some frosty 3-point shooting doomed the Bison in a 66-63 loss to the Catamounts in the home opener.
Bucknell went 20-for-32 (.625) on 2-point shots but just 3-for-22 (.136) from outside the arc. The Catamounts were not much better, going 4-for-25 (.160) from downtown, making the two teams a combined 7-for-47 (.149).
The Bison trailed 56-48 with 6:19 to play but tied the game at 57 on a runner by Andrew Funk with 2:53 left. Anthony Lamb, Vermont's All-American, followed with a tiebreaking 3-pointer, and Vermont went 6-for-6 at the foul line to stretch one-point leads up to three in the final minute. The Bison had a potential tying 3-pointer from Jimmy Sotos rim out in the final seconds.
Bruce Moore and John Meeks led the Bison with 16 points each, and Sotos hit double figures with 12. Paul Newman nabbed a career-high 11 rebounds.
In addition to the 3-point shooting, rebounding was a factor in game. Vermont collected 13 offensive boards to just four for Bucknell, which led to a 13-8 edge in second-chance points.
Lamb was only able to play 18 minutes due to foul trouble, but he was quite productive with 20 points in that span, 18 of which came in the second half.
The Bison played without senior Avi Toomer, a projected starter on the wing, for the second straight game.

Bucknell vs. Hofstra Series Notes

Bucknell and Hofstra are playing for the first time since Dec. 29, 2001, when most of the current players were infants. That game resulted in a 68-60 Bison victory at the South Florida Shootout. Boakai Lalugba and Brian Werner scored 13 points each, while Matt Quinn had 11 off the bench in the victory.
The meeting prior to that one was a 69-55 Hofstra victory at the Fairfield Tournament on Nov. 21, 1997. That Hofstra team was coached by Bucknell alum Jay Wright '83, who has gone on to win two national championships at Villanova.
Bucknell and Hofstra kicked off their series with three straight meetings from 1955-57, and then throughout the 1970s and 80s they were rivals in the East Coast Conference. They met five times in the ECC Tournament, with Bucknell winning three of those. One of Bucknell's most memorable wins was an 89-84 overtime verdict in the 1989 ECC semifinals. The Bison followed with a win over Lafayette to get to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three years. The two teams also met in the final ECC Tournament in 1990, with the Bison winning 72-67 in the quarterfinal round.
Bucknell leads the all-time series 19-10, including a 10-2 mark at home. The Bison have beaten the Pride eight straight times in Lewisburg, although all of those wins came in Davis Gym.
This will not be Bucknell's first game against Hofstra coach Joe Mihalich. The Bison went 3-2 against Mihalich during his 15-year tenure at Niagara. The most recent of those contests was an 88-71 win for the Mike Muscala-led Bison in Buffalo early in the 2012-13 season, which was Mihalich's last at Niagara before departing for Hofstra.

Bucknell vs. The CAA

Bucknell is 103-72 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 Northeastern, and 0-1 against Charleston.

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