Men's Basketball Back Home vs. Princeton Saturday Afternoon

Saturday, November 30

Lewisburg, Pa.

2 p.m.

Bucknell University

Princeton

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Photo by: Jon Lambert

Men's Basketball Back Home vs. Princeton Saturday Afternoon

11/29/2019 5:02:00 PM | Men's Basketball

What: Princeton (0-5) at Bucknell (3-5)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa. | BUY TICKETS
When: Saturday, Nov. 30, 2 p.m.
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:

Halftime Mascot Game, presented by Red Robin
First 1,500 fans receive a hot & cold pack, presented by Geisinger Gold

Bucknell Probable Starters
G: Jimmy Sotos (11.5 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 4.0 apg)
G: Andrew Funk (10.3 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 1.5 apg)
G: Avi Toomer (10.8 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 1.2 apg)
F: Bruce Moore (11.6 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 0.9 apg)
C: Kahliel Spear (4.5 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 0.9 bpg)

With a Win over Princeton, Bucknell Would ...

... close out the month of November with a 4-5 record.
... snap a four-game series losing streak to the Tigers and improve to 5-14 all-time against them.
... snap a four-game losing streak against Ivy League teams.
... improve to 2-1 at home this season and 184-57 all-time at Sojka Pavilion.
... give head coach Nathan Davis his 93rd win as Bucknell's head coach.

Headlines

Bucknell plays its first home game in 17 days on Saturday when Princeton visits Sojka Pavilion for the first meeting between the two teams in three years.
Both teams are looking to get rolling after playing difficult early season schedules. The Bison have dropped four of their last five, while Princeton is off to an 0-5 start for the first time since 1979-80.
Bucknell is coming off a stretch where it played three games in four days. The Bison fell at Syracuse last Saturday, then went 1-1 at the NIT Season Tip-Off in Orlando on Monday and Tuesday. Bucknell used a big second half to turn back Seattle 77-70 before falling to Yale 81-61 in the championship game. Princeton has also been idle since Tuesday, when it lost a 67-65 heartbreaker to Arizona State at Jadwin Gymnasium.
Bucknell currently has five players averaging at least 10 points per game, led by Bruce Moore at 11.6 ppg. He is followed by Jimmy Sotos (11.5), Avi Toomer (10.8), John Meeks (10.6) and Andrew Funk (10.3). All five have led the team in scoring at least once this season.
The Bison will be looking to get back to their defensive form from the first three games of the season, when they went 2-1 with wins over Fairfield and Hofstra and a three-point loss to a very good Vermont team.

Bucknell Defense First Three Games Bucknell Defense Last Five Games
PPG Allowed 67.0 85.8
Opponent FG% .376 .545
Opponent 3FG% .214 .380

Sophomore Kahliel Spear has played well as a backup center thus far, and Spear is slated to make his first career start on Saturday with Paul Newman day-to-day with an upper body injury. If Newman is unable to go, his team-leading streak of 44 straight games played would come to an end.
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).
Princeton is 0-5 with road losses at Duquesne, San Francisco and Indiana and home setbacks against Lafayette and Arizona State. The Tigers had a 12-point lead on Arizona State on Tuesday, but the Sun Devils hit a 3-pointer in the final few seconds to win 67-65. Princeton's top scorer is Jaelin Llewellyn with 15.4 ppg. Richmond Aririguzoh scores 14.4 ppg and also grabs 9.6 rpg, boosted by an 18-rebound game against Arizona State. That was the most rebounds by a Princeton player in 20 years. The Tigers shoot 43.2% from the field, 28.7% from 3-point range and 58.0% from the foul line.

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Princeton game will not be televised, however a live internet stream will be available 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). Doug Birdsong handles the play-by-play duties. The pregame show begins 30 minutes before tip-off.
Live statistics can be accessed at 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

Paul Atkinson and Azar Swain scored 15 points apiece to lead hot-shooting Yale to an 81-61 win over Bucknell on Tuesday afternoon in the championship game of the Orlando Region of the NIT Season Tip-Off. A day earlier, Bucknell defeated Seattle, while Yale routed Western Michigan.
Jimmy Sotos scored 14 points, and Avi Toomer and John Meeks added 11 each for the Bison.
Bucknell started the game with five straight defensive stops but could only manage a 2-0 lead in that opening three minutes. Both teams got off to 2-for-8 shooting starts, and while the Bison's offensive struggles continued throughout much of the first half, Yale heated up once it started looking inside. The Bulldogs hit eight straight shots, five of them from Atkinson, to stretch a 17-9 lead all the way up to 35-14.
The Bison received some strong play late in the game from freshmen Xander Rice and Jake van der Heijden. Rice finished the game with five points, six assists and no turnovers, while van der Heijden hit a pair of 3-pointers for six points.
Bucknell shot 35.6% for the game and hit 13 of 34 from 3-point range. Yale shot 58.5% overall despite a 4-for-16 showing from downtown. The Bulldogs compensated with a 42-12 edge in points in the paint and a 36-21 advantage on the glass. Yale also hit 15 of 17 from the foul line.

Bucknell vs. Princeton Series History

The Bison are 4-14 all-time against Princeton, with the Tigers claiming the last four series clashes.
The most recent meeting came on Dec. 22, 2016 at Sojka Pavilion. Princeton won that one 72-70 despite 21 points and 11 rebounds from Zach Thomas. Devin Cannady paced the Tigers with 19 points. Only five active players saw action in that game, all of them seniors who were freshmen at the time. For Bucknell, Avi Toomer tallied 3 pts. in 11 min.; Bruce Moore was scoreless in 7 min.; and Ben Robertson was scoreless in 2 min. For Princeton, Richmond Aririguzoh had 2 pts. in 6 min., and Will Gladson was scoreless in 13 min.
Bucknell's most recent series win came in 2010-11 at Sojka Pavilion as part of the TicketCity Legends Classic. Bucknell triumphed 62-56 behind 25 points and 12 rebounds from Mike Muscala. That snapped a five-game series losing streak and was Bucknell's first win over Princeton since a 74-62 overtime decision at Jadwin Gym in December 1996, a game in which the Bison rallied from 19 points down. That loss was one of only four all season for the Tigers (the others were Indiana, North Carolina and California).
These two teams first met on Feb. 12, 1902. Princeton won a 19-18 thriller on its home floor. That was one of only two losses in a 12-2 season for Bucknell.

Bucknell vs. The Ivy League

The Bison are playing a member of the Ivy League for the second straight game and for the 100th time in team history.
Bucknell is 48-51 (.485) all-time against the Ivy League. The Bison have played 48 games against Cornell, but only 51 combined against the other seven Ivy teams. In addition to its 25-23 record against Cornell, Bucknell is 4-3 against Yale, 3-1 vs. Brown, 3-4 vs. Penn, 4-1 vs. Dartmouth, 4-4 vs. Columbia, 4-14 vs. Princeton and 1-1 vs. Harvard.
The Bison are 10-8 against the Ivy League since the start of the 2010-11 season but have lost four straight.

Notable Numbers

Center Paul Newman is averaging 7.6 rebounds per game, fifth-best in the Patriot League despite playing just 18.7 minutes per game. He averages 0.4 rebounds per minute, and 16.5 rebounds per 40 minutes. Newman has grabbed 23.3% of all available rebounds during his time on the floor thus far.
Turnovers have been an issue for the Bison in the early going. Their 24 turnovers at Canisius were their most since committing 24 at Army in February 2008. Bucknell has logged 123 turnovers thus far compared to just 95 for their opponents, although the Bison did make some strides in that area in Orlando with just six turnovers against Seattle and 13 against Yale.
Another trend the Bison are looking to correct is a free-throw disparity. Opponents have attempted 168 free throws to just 128 for Bucknell through eight games. In the Nathan Davis era the Bison are 58-16 when attempting more free throws than their opponent, but just 28-32 when attempting fewer.
Bucknell's bench has been a big story in the early going. The Bison reserve unit has combined for 195 of the team's 552 points (35.3%) so far. Junior forward John Meeks has been the catalyst. Meeks is averaging 10.6 ppg coming off the bench, highlighted by a career-high 19 points against Fairfield. Meeks is averaging 19.4 points per 40 minutes.
Bucknell is averaging 12.3 offensive rebounds over its last six games. Bruce Moore has a team-high 20 offensive rebounds. The Bison rebound 29.3% of their own misses, the second-best mark in the Patriot League behind Navy at a whopping 38.4%.
It has been feast or famine for the Bison from 3-point distance this season. They have shot 38% or better four times and 26% or worse four times. Bucknell endured a stretch of 25 straight missed threes from the first half of the Syracuse game into the second half of the Seattle game, but the Bison also had a run of seven straight makes (and 11 of 14) against Hofstra on Nov. 13.

Who's Got Next?

Bucknell heads back on the road to play Rider on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. It will be the first meeting between the two teams since the 2005-06 season opener.