Men's Basketball Home Sunday vs. Lafayette on WQMY-TV

What: Lafayette (10-16, 7-8 PL) at Bucknell (17-10, 11-4 PL)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa. | BUY TICKETS
When: Sunday, Feb. 23, 2 p.m.
TV: WQMY
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 (8.4 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 5.9 apg)
G: Kimbal Mackenzie (17.0 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 3.0 apg)
G: Avi Toomer (9.0 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 1.9 apg)
F: Bruce Moore (9.9 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 0.8 apg)
C: Nate Sestina (16.2 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 1.1 apg)

Happenings

Hero Appreciation Day

With a Win over Lafayette, Bucknell Would ...

... improve to 18-10 overall and 12-4 in the Patriot League.
... avoid its first three-game losing streak of the season, and its first in Patriot League play since 2009.
... maintain at least a share of the lead in the Patriot League.
... win its ninth straight home game and improve to 9-3 at home this season.
... win its 18th straight home game against Patriot League opponents.
... improve to 293-121 all-time in Patriot League play and 118-30 in the PL over the last nine seasons.
... defeat the Leopards for the eighth straight time and improve to 20-2 against them at Sojka Pavilion.

Headlines

Bucknell hosts red-hot Lafayette on Sunday at Sojka Pavilion. The Bison will be celebrating Hero Appreciation Day, with a number of activities and remembrances taking place to honor the men and women who serve our nation and local communities. Of note, the Bison have partnered with Memories of Honor to recognize fallen service members. During pregame warmups and on the bench, each member of the team will wear a special shooting shirt with the name of a fallen hero on the back. In addition, there will be free admission for all veterans, active-duty servicemen and servicewomen, Gold Star families, and all first responders (police, fire, EMS). Bucknell will also be coordinating a care-package drive to collect personal items that will be sent to soldiers overseas.
After beating Lehigh on Feb. 11 to take a two-game lead atop the Patriot League standings, Bucknell dropped its next two games on the road against Holy Cross and Colgate, creating an interesting three-team race for the regular-season title. Bucknell (11-4), Lehigh (11-4) and Colgate (10-5) are all separated by one game with three to play, while Army, Lafayette and American are well back in a tie for fourth at 7-8.

Team Remaining Schedule Record vs. Other Leaders
Bucknell (11-4) Lafayette (H), Navy (A), Army (H) 2-0 vs. Lehigh, 1-1 vs. Colgate
Lehigh (11-4) Holy Cross (H), American (A), Loyola (A) 0-2 vs. Bucknell, 0-2 vs. Colgate
Colgate (10-5) Navy (H), Holy Cross (H), Lafayette (A) 2-0 vs. Lehigh, 1-1 vs. Bucknell

Bucknell has clinched a home game for the Patriot League Tournament quarterfinal round on March 7. Tickets go on sale Feb. 27 at the Campus Box Office.
A Patriot League losing streak is a rare sight for Bucknell fans. The Bison had not lost back-to-back conference games in just over three years, since falling to Lehigh and Colgate in succession in February of 2016. They have not lost three in a row in league play since 2009.
Senior Nate Jones picked up a nice honor this week when he was named to the five-man Google Cloud Academic All-District Team. Jones is now eligible for the national Google Cloud Academic All-America ballot.
The March 2 Bucknell-Army game has been picked up by CBS Sports Network. The game tips off at noon, with Senior Day festivities beforehand.
Kimbal Mackenzie is averaging 21.8 points per game over his last six. That includes a career-high 31 points in the earlier meeting with Lafayette.
Nate Sestina has lived up to his Preseason All-Patriot League billing thus far. The Bison are 17-8 this season with Sestina in the lineup — he missed the Fairfield and Canisius games with an injury — and he is averaging 16.2 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 against Holy Cross.
Sestina is currently one of just eight Division I players shooting at least 50% from the field (min. 100 att.), 40% from 3-point range (min. 60. att.), and 80% from the free-throw line (min. 60 att.).

50/40/80 Players, Division I FG%   3FG%   FT%
Jordan Cohen (Lehigh) .543   .527   .851
Robert Franks (Washington State) .514   .403   .813
Matt Morgan (Cornell) .521   .453   .839
Nate Sestina (Bucknell) .554   .402   .855
Jake Toolson (Utah Valley) .586   .487   .857
Quinndary Weatherspoon (Mississippi State) .509   .410   .822
Dylan Windler (Belmont) .540   .417   .829
Justin Wright-Foreman (Hofstra) .510   .424   .880

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.
On Feb. 2, Bucknell walloped Lafayette 94-66 in Easton. Since then, the Leopards have rattled off five straight wins. The most recent of those was a come-from-behind 70-68 win over American on Wednesday, as Alex Petrie scored the game's final seven points, including a driving layup with 0:03 to play. Justin Jaworski leads the team in scoring at 14.4 points per game, boosted by 48.7-percent shooting from the arc. Petrie (14.3) and Paulius Zalys (10.0) also score in double figures for the Leopards, who have vaulted all the way up to a tie for fourth place.

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Lafayette game will be televised locally by WQMY in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre market, and it will be streamed on the Patriot League Network at PatriotLeague.tv. Joe Vasile and former Bison point guard Abe Badmus have the call on WQMY.
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

Rapolas Ivanauskas scored 21 points to help Colgate to a 75-64 victory over Bucknell on Tuesday night at Cotterell Court. Avi Toomer scored 16 points to lead the Bison.
Kimbal Mackenzie added 13 points, Nate Sestina had 10, and Jimmy Sotos tallied nine points and a career-high six steals. The six steals were the most by a Bucknell player since Charles Lee had six against Army on Feb. 1, 2006.
Bucknell cut a 14-point deficit down to four late in the second half but could not get over the hump.
Tucker Richardson had 11 points and Malcolm Regisford 10 for Colgate, which avenged an 84-81 loss at Bucknell earlier in the year and is now 10-1 at home this season.
Bucknell shot 36.9% on the night, including an 8-for-29 showing from the 3-point arc. The Bison also had a hard time finishing at the rim, going 9-for-23 on layups, with Colgate blocking six shots. Meanwhile, Colgate shot 49.1%, boosted by a 10-for-19 performance from long distance (4-for-5 in second half).

Bucknell vs. Lafayette

Bucknell and Lafayette have met 166 times previously, making the Leopards Bucknell's second most-played opponent (the Bison have played Lehigh 172 times). Since the series began in 1915, Lafayette leads 89-77.
Since the start of Patriot League play in 1990-91, however, Bucknell has won 48 of 65 meetings.
Lafayette won 33 of the first 37 meetings and led the series 60-14 at one point.
Bucknell had been 15-0 all-time against Lafayette in Sojka Pavilion until the Leopards posted their first win there in 2013-14. The Bison are now 19-2 against Lafayette in Sojka Pavilion and 27-5 against the Leopards in Lewisburg going back to the Patriot League's first season.
The Bison and Leopards have met in a conference championship game four times, with Bucknell winning three of those. The Bison defeated Lafayette 71-65 in the 1989 East Coast Conference final in Towson, Md., and they also won Patriot League championship games in Sojka Pavilion in 2011 (72-57) and 2013 (64-56). Lafayette claimed the 1999 Patriot League title with a 67-63 win over the Bison in Easton.
Bucknell has won the last seven in the series, including sweeps in each of the last three seasons. Lafayette's last win over the Bison was an 80-74 verdict in the 2015 Patriot League semifinals.
Last season, Stephen Brown hit the tiebreaking 3-pointer with 1:17 remaining in overtime — the shot put him over 1,000 points for his career — and Bucknell escaped Easton with an 80-75 win. Brown finished with 19 points, 15 coming after halftime, to help the Bison erase a double-digit deficit. Alex Petrie scored 26 points for Lafayette, including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer that sent the game to overtime. In the rematch at Sojka Pavilion, Bucknell prevailed 74-59 behind 20 points from Zach Thomas. The Bison forced 17 turnovers while committing only seven. Petrie had another big night against the Bison, tallying 19 points.
This season's first meeting was tied at 26 late in the first half, but the Bison closed the half on a 14-3 run and then won going away, 94-66. Kimbal Mackenzie produced a career-high 31 points, Nate Sestina had 22, and Andrew Funk added a career-high 15 for the Bison. Petrie paced Lafayette with 16 points.

Numbers Worth Noting

Bucknell has had a knack for coming from behind this season. The Bison have won a game after trailing by 10 or more points seven different times this season, including on four occasions in Patriot League play. The most recent comeback came on Feb. 11 against Lehigh, when Bucknell trailed by as many as 11 points in the first half. The Bison are 8-8 this season when trailing at halftime.
Head coach Nathan Davis is now in the top 10 in career winning percentage among all active Division I head coaches with at least three years of experience. At 226-82 (.734), Davis finds himself in some elite company.

ACTIVE HEAD COACH WINNING PERCENTAGE Pct. W L
1. Mark Few (Gonzaga) .824   561   120
2. Roy Williams (Kansas/North Carolina) .788   863   232
3. Rick Croy (Cal Baptist) .785   146 40
4. John Calipari (UMass/Memphis/Kentucky) .773   700   206
5. Eric Musselman (Nevada) .772   105 31
6. Mike Kyrzyzewski (Army/Duke) .767 1123   341
7. Chris Jans (Bowling Green/New Mexico St.) .766 72 22
8. Bill Self (Oral Roberts/Tulsa/Illinois/Kansas) .765   674   207
9. Sean Miller (Xavier/Arizona) .742   382   133
10. Nathan Davis (Randolph-Macon/Bucknell) .734   226 82
11. Chris Beard (McMurry/Angelo St./UALR/Texas Tech) .733   162 59
12. Steve Forbes (East Tennessee St.) .731 98 36
13. Ray Harper (KY Wesleyan/Oklahoma City/Western KY/J'ville St.)   .724   397   151
14. Dave Rose (BYU) .723   347   133
15. Tom Izzo (Michigan State) .722   596   230

Bucknell has held seven of its last nine opponents under 30% shooting from 3-point distance.
Rebounding has been a major key to success for the Bison this season. They are 10-2 when outrebounding their opponent, but 6-8 when losing the battle on the glass.
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 11 games since then, Bucknell is +64 on the boards.
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.
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 19 drawn charges this season.
Sophomore Jimmy Sotos struggled in the turnover category early in the season, but over his last 18 games, he has 111 assists with only 46 turnovers. Sotos averages 6.6 assists per game in Bucknell's victories and 4.8 in the losses.
As a team, the Bison rank 34th nationally in assists per made field goal (.585).
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 fourth in the league with 1.2 blocks per game, even though he plays just 13.9 minutes per game.
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.

NCAA LEADERS, MOST FIELD GOALS WITHOUT A MISS IN 2018-19
Levi Bradley (Northern Illinois) 13   11/25 vs. Oakland
Raasean Davis (North Carolina Central   12   1/14 vs. Delaware State
Connor MacDougall (Utah Valley) 12   12/19 vs. Idaho State
Darius Brown II (Cal-State Northridge) 12   11/27 vs. Washington State
Xavier Hill-Mais (Oakland) 12   11/19 vs. Defiance
Nate Sestina (Bucknell) 11   1/14 vs. Holy Cross
Obi Toppin (Dayton) 11   12/19 vs. Western Michigan
Matt Wilson (Army) 11   11/17 vs. 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.
Sestina is now hitting on 85.5% of his free-throw attempts this season. Sestina ranks 27th nationally in free-throw percentage and No. 2 among all players 6'9" or taller.

NCAA LEADERS, FREE-THROW PERCENTAGE AMONG PLAYERS 6-9 OR TALLER
1. Nick Mayo (Eastern Kentucky) 6-9   .864
2. Nate Sestina (Bucknell) 6-9   .855
3. Luka Garza (Iowa) 6-11   .838
4. Mike Daum (South Dakota State) 6-9   .831
5. Robert Franks (Washington State) 6-9   .813

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 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 281 of a possible 300 minutes in the second halves of Patriot League games thus far.

Who's Got Next?

Bucknell plays its final road game of the regular season on Wednesday at Navy at 7 p.m. The contest can be seen on the Patriot League Network.
Bucknell defeated Navy 69-57 at Sojka Pavilion on Jan. 30.

Men's Basketball Home Sunday vs. Lafayette on WQMY-TV

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Stephen Brown

Nana Foulland

Andrew Funk

Nate Jones

Kimbal Mackenzie

Bruce Moore

Paul Newman

Nate Sestina

Jimmy Sotos

Zach Thomas

Avi Toomer

Men's Basketball Home Sunday vs. Lafayette on WQMY-TV

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Stephen Brown

Nana Foulland

Andrew Funk

Nate Jones

Kimbal Mackenzie

Bruce Moore

Paul Newman

Nate Sestina

Jimmy Sotos

Zach Thomas

Avi Toomer

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