Men's Basketball Heads to West Point for Brunch-Time Affair on Wednesday

Wednesday, January 29

West Point, N.Y.

11 a.m.

Bucknell University

Army

Photo by: Jon Lambert

Men's Basketball Heads to West Point for Brunch-Time Affair on Wednesday

1/28/2020 3:38:00 PM | Men's Basketball

The Bucknell men's basketball team on Wednesday will have a wakeup call not too long after the cadets of West Point rise every day. The Bison will gather for a 7:30 a.m. pregame meal in advance of an 11 a.m. Education Day game against Army at Christl Arena. It will be the team's first morning tip-off since Feb. 18, 2006, when it played an 11 a.m. local time game at Northern Iowa as part of the ESPN Bracket Busters event.

Not only will it be an opportunity for many school kids to visit West Point, but the game itself carries quite a bit of importance as the Bison and Black Knights both reach the halfway point of Patriot League play. Bucknell is 5-3 in the Patriot League, two games behind first-place Colgate and now a half-game behind 6-3 American, which defeated Lehigh on Monday night. Navy and Boston University are also 5-3 and play bottom-three teams at home on Wednesday night, while Army and Lafayette are lurking just behind at 4-4. The Bison will be tasked with slowing down the league's hottest team, as Army has won four straight on the heels of an 0-4 start in league play.

Here's more info on Wednesday's game at Army:

What: Bucknell (9-12, 5-3 PL) at Army West Point (9-10, 4-4 PL)
Where: Christl Arena, West Point, N.Y.
When: Wednesday, Jan. 29, 11 a.m.
Webcast: Patriot League Network
Local Radio: Eagle 107 (107.3 FM WEGH)
Listen Live: BucknellBison.com and Eagle107.com
Live Stats: GoArmyWestPoint,com

COMPLETE GAME NOTES

Bucknell Probable Starters
G: Jimmy Sotos (12.2 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 4.0 apg)
G: Andrew Funk (11.2 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 1.3 apg)
G: Avi Toomer (11.6 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 1.8 apg)
F: John Meeks (11.9 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 1.0 apg)
F: Bruce Moore (9.3 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 0.8 apg)

With a Win over Army, Bucknell Would ...

... reach the halfway point at 6-3 in Patriot League play and remain in a tie for second place in the Patriot League standings.
... defeat the Black Knights for the 13th straight time dating back to 2014.
... win its sixth straight game at Christl Arena.
... improve to 300-125 all-time in Patriot League play (regular season). The Bison would become the first PL team to reach 300 wins. Holy Cross has the next-most victories with 237.
... give Nathan Davis his 99th win as Bucknell's head coach.

Remembering "Big Al"

The Bison are playing with heavy hearts this week, as Al Yearick, a longtime member of the Bucknell men's basketball program, passed away on Monday at the age of 91. Affectionately known as "Big Al", Yearick attended practice every day and traveled with the team until his health declined in recent years. Big Al served in a support role, handling everything from team security to equipment cleanup to filling water bottles, but his most important function came as an inspirational friend and sounding board to countless Bucknell players and coaches. Big Al will be honored at Saturday's home game against Boston University.

Headlines

uComing off its best offensive performance of the season, Bucknell looks to make it two straight victories when it faces red-hot Army West Point on Wednesday morning. The Bison set season highs in points (98) and field-goal percentage (.541) in Saturday's 98-83 victory over Loyola. They really got going in the second half, when they scored 56 points while shooting 65.5% from the field and 53.8% (7-13) from 3-point distance.
uIt has been a season of stops and starts for the Bison, who have alternated wins and losses over their last seven games. Bucknell has not won more than two straight or lost more than three straight all season. The seven straight games of alternating wins and losses is tied for the fourth-longest streak in team history.

Most Consecutive Games Alternating Wins and Losses
10   1968-69
9   1985-86
8   1931-32
7   2019-20
7   2001-02
7   1929-30
7   1908-09

Unless Bucknell and Army meet in the postseason, this will be the final head-to-head matchup between brothers Andrew and Tommy Funk. Andrew is a sophomore shooting guard for the Bison, while Tommy is a senior point guard for the Black Knights. Both Funks are coming off stellar games on Saturday, where they combined to score 48 points. Andrew scored a career-high 22 points on 8-for-10 shooting in the win over Loyola, while Tommy matched his career high with 26 points in a big road win over arch-rival Navy. Here is how the Funks have fared in their first three head-to-head meetings:

Result Andrew Funk Tommy Funk
1/2/19    Bucknell 64, Army 63   3 pts., 1 reb. 10 pts., 7 reb., 6 asst.
3/2/19    Bucknell 62, Army 61   17 pts., 3 reb.   10 pts., 6 reb., 5 asst.
1/2/20    Bucknell 67, Army 65   11 pts., 3 reb.   19 pts., 5 reb., 8 asst.

The last four Bucknell-Army games have featured some wild comebacks by the Bison, resulting in one overtime win, two one-point wins and a two-point victory. Bucknell held the lead for a total of 22:16 out of a possible 165 minutes (13.5%), but somehow managed to win all four games. A closer look:

Bucknell's Largest Deficit Total Time Bucknell Led Final Result
1/31/18 19 (38-19 w/5:03 left 1st half) 7:52 Bucknell 83, Army 71 (OT)
1/2/19 26* (39-13 w/19:43 left 2nd half) 1:01 Bucknell 64, Army 63
3/2/19 14 (57-43 w/8:53 left 2nd half) 0:37 Bucknell 62, Army 61
1/2/20 9 (19-10 w/10:55 left 1st half) 12:46 Bucknell 67, Army 65
*Tied for 10th-largest comeback in NCAA history; T-7th largest second-half comeback in NCAA history

John Meeks entered the starting lineup just before the start of league play and has been terrific in the month of January. He set career highs with 22 points and nine rebounds in the win over Army, and he ranks eighth in the Patriot League in scoring at 14.5 points per game in conference action. Meeks is shooting 51.2% from the field, 43.3% from 3-point distance and 19-for-20 from the foul line in the eight PL contests, and he has scored in double figures in all eight games.
Army is currently the league's hottest team, with four straight wins to level its conference record at 4-4. The Black Knights fell to 0-4 in PL play after an 81-59 loss at Boston University on Jan. 11, but they are unbeaten since then, with three of the four wins coming on the road. Over the last week, Army routed Lafayette 94-74 in Easton, and then traveled to Annapolis on Saturday and led almost wire-to-wire in a 73-66 win over academy-rival Navy.
Tommy Funk has continued to live up to his reputation as one of the Patriot League's premier point guards. Funk is averaging a career-high 15.5 points per game while leading the league in assists by a wide margin at 6.7 per game. Fellow senior Matt Wilson scores at a 15.2 ppg clip while shooting a league-best 67.2% from the field. Lonnie Grayson is Army's third double-digit scorer at 11.1 ppg. As a team, the Black Knights lead the Patriot League in field goal percentage at 48.3%, even though they rank seventh in 3-point shooting (33.1%) and last in free-throw percentage (57.6%).

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Army game will 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). Doug Birdsong handles the play-by-play duties. The pregame show begins 30 minutes before tip-off.
Live statistics can be accessed at GoArmyWestPoint.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

Andrew Funk scored a career-high 22 points to lead Bucknell to a 98-83 win over Loyola on Saturday night at Sojka Pavilion.
Walter Ellis also hit a career high with 13 to lead a 39-point performance from the Bison bench, which was critical on a night when the team was whistled for 30 fouls.
The Greyhounds led for the majority of the first half, but the Bison closed the half strong to take a 42-41 lead into halftime. The Bison run came with starters Bruce Moore, John Meeks and Avi Toomer all spending the majority of the half on the bench in foul trouble. Ellis scored 10 points in extended first-half minutes, while Malachi Rhodes added six points and four rebounds playing the final 10 minutes of the half.
Multiple lead changes took place early in the second half before a dunk by Moore gave the Orange and Blue a 49-47 lead with 16:53 on the clock. Funk hit back-to-back threes to extend the Bison lead to seven and the Greyhounds would not get closer than five the rest of the way. Bucknell shot a blistering 65.5 % (19-for-29) from the field in the second half, including shooting 7-for-13 from three.
Jimmy Sotos added 14 points and a team-high four assists while accruing a +25 rating in 27 minutes of action. Ellis scored 13 to go along with five rebounds and three steals. Meeks added 10 points, giving him a double-digit total in all eight Patriot League games.
The contest featured 57 combined fouls and 78 free throw attempts, with the Greyhounds attempting a facility record 46 shots from the charity stripe. Loyola, whose 31 made free throws tied an opponent record at Sojka, was led by 18 points each from Isaiah Hart and Andrew Kostecka, while Kavaughn Scott and Golden Dike each had 13. Kostecka, the Patriot League's leading scorer at better than 21 per game, also had some first-half foul trouble, and the Bison kept him to four made field goals in the game and just one in the second half.
Bucknell shot a season-best 54.1% from the field. The Bison had not eclipsed the 50-percent mark all season until last Saturday against Lehigh, and they have now done it in back-to-back home games. They also finished 11-for-31 from downtown and 21-for-32 from the free-throw line. The 98 points were the team's most since last year's record-setting 118-76 win over Lafayette.
Bucknell is now 19-3 all-time against Loyola with six straight wins. The 98 points are the second-most in series history. The Bison beat the Greyhounds 116-95 in Davis Gym in 1992-93 behind Hall-of-Famer Mike Bright's 9-for-10 shooting night from 3-point range.

Bucknell vs. Army West Point

The Bison hold a 59-21 lead in a series that dates back to 1929. Bucknell has won the last 12 meetings, including two come-from-way-behind one-point victories last season.
The Bison are 34-5 all-time at home against Army.
Army won the first 10 series showdowns, nine of them coming prior to 1966.
As Patriot League rivals, Bucknell has won 58 of 69 meetings.
In Patriot League Tournament action, Bucknell is 8-2 against Army. Eight of those 10 postseason meetings have come in the quarterfinals, including Army's 72-71 win at Sojka Pavilion in 2014, which was its most recent victory over the Bison.
In this season's first meeting back on Jan. 2, Paul Newman blocked a potential game-tying layup by Lonnie Grayson at the final buzzer to preserve Bucknell's 67-65 victory. John Meeks had a career night with 22 points and nine rebounds, and his no-look putback with 58 seconds remaining proved to be the winning bucket. Not only did Newman tally four points, four rebounds and three blocked shots, he helped limit Army's standout center Matt Wilson to six points. Tommy Funk led Army with 19 points, followed by Lonnie Grayson with 17. The Bison shot 10-for-21 from 3-point range, paced by a 4-for-5 night from Avi Toomer.

Notable Numbers

Bucknell has shot 3-pointers (.351 to .343) and free throws (.760 to .701) much better on the road than at home this season. But the team's overall field-goal percentage has been better at home (.451 to .406). The Bison have struggled from inside the arc on the road, shooting just 44.2%, compared to 52.8% at home.
Bucknell has held opponents to 41.2% shooting overall and 29.9% from 3-point distance in its victories this season. Those numbers jump all the way up to 50.9% and 38.9% in the team's losses.
The Bison would like to even up a free-throw shooting disparity. Opponents have attempted 101 more free throws this season (470-369), leading to a 331-266 scoring edge. Bucknell has attempted more charity tosses than its opponents in each of the last five seasons.
Avi Toomer has hit multiple 3-pointers in 11 of his last 15 games and is shooting 42.5% from the arc this season, up from 35.3% last year. Toomer is 16-for-36 (.444) in Patriot League play, which includes an 0-for-5 in the loss to Navy.
As a team, Bucknell did not have more than seven steals in any of its first 10 games of the season, but they have pilfered seven or more in nine of their last 11 games and 10 or more in six of the last 11.
John Meeks is averaging a team-best 19.0 points per 40 minutes.
Freshman guard Xander Rice has 37 points, seven assists and only three turnovers in his last seven games, marking his best stretch of the season.
Bucknell had a perfect day at the free-throw line at La Salle, finishing 18-for-18. That is the fifth-most free throws without a miss in team history. The Bison ran their streak to 25 straight made free throws before missing late in the Army game.

Possible Upcoming Milestones

Avi Toomer needs nine points for 700 in his career.
Jimmy Sotos needs 31 assists to catch Abe Badmus (375) for eighth on Bucknell's career chart.
Sotos needs seven steals for 100 in his career, one rebound for 300 in his career, and 23 points for 700 in his career.
Nathan Davis needs two more wins for 100 in his Bucknell career.

Who's Got Next?

The only remaining Patriot League team that the Bison have yet to play is Boston University, and those two squads will square off on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Sojka Pavilion.