Men's Basketball Entertains Navy Wednesday on Community Night/Scout Night

Wednesday, January 8

Lewisburg, Pa.

7 p.m.

Bucknell University

Navy

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Photo by: Phil Inglis

Men's Basketball Entertains Navy Wednesday on Community Night/Scout Night

1/7/2020 4:13:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Note: The next Bucknell Basketball Luncheon will be held this Thursday, Jan. 9, at Matty's Sporthouse Grill in Lewisburg. Student-athletes and coaches from the Bison men's and women's basketball teams will speak and take questions. The $11 admission includes lunch. Seating is available at 11:45, with the program set to start at noon.

The Bucknell men's basketball team is off to a 2-0 start in Patriot League play, and now the Bison have two home games on tap this week, starting Wednesday when Navy comes to town for a 7 p.m. game. It is Community Night, presented by M&T Bank, and Scout Night at Sojka Pavilion. The Bucknell men's basketball program will recognize many local service organizations and scout troops at the game. Tickets are available online or at the Sojka Pavilion box office prior to the game.

Bucknell has beaten Army West Point and Lafayette to get to 2-0 in league play for the first time since 2017. The Bison put together one of their best halves of the year to close out Sunday's game in Easton. Trailing by 13 points in the opening minutes of the second half, Bucknell outscored Lafayette 48-23 to flip that 13-point deficit into a 12-point road win. Navy was picked ninth in the Patriot League preseason poll, but the Midshipmen have outplayed that forecast. They are 7-6 overall and 1-1 in the Patriot League, with a home win over Lehigh followed by a road loss at Holy Cross.

The teams split a pair of games last season, with the home team winning each time, but the Bison have won 19 of the last 21 in the series, including 13 straight at Sojka Pavilion.

Here's more info on Wednesday's game vs. Navy:

What: Navy (7-6, 1-1 PL) at Bucknell (6-9, 2-0 PL)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa. | TICKETS
When: Wednesday, Jan. 8, 7 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

Bucknell Probable Starters
G: Jimmy Sotos (13.7 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 4.1 apg)
G: Andrew Funk (10.7 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 1.4 apg)
G: Avi Toomer (12.7 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 1.3 apg)
F: John Meeks (11.0 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 0.7 apg)
C: Paul Newman (5.8 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 0.8 bpg)

With a Win over Navy, Bucknell Would ...

... win its third straight game and maintain at least a share of the Patriot League lead.
... improve to 3-0 in Patriot League play for the first time since 2016-17 and for the 11th time overall.
... win its 23rd straight home game against Patriot League opponents.
... defeat the Midshipmen at home for the 13th straight time and improve to 20-2 against them since the 2010-11 season.
... improve to 135-26 against Patriot League foes at Sojka Pavilion.
... improve to 297-122 all-time in Patriot League play.
... give head coach Nathan Davis his 96th win as Bucknell's head coach.

Headlines

Bucknell goes for a 3-0 start in Patriot League play when Navy visits Sojka Pavilion on Wednesday night. The Bison have had to come from behind to win each of the first two conference tilts. They overcame a nine-point deficit against Army before winning 67-65 last Thursday, and then on Sunday Bucknell was down by 13 early in the second half before outscoring Lafayette 48-23 the rest of the way to win 78-66.
Bucknell and Navy first met nearly 100 years ago on Jan. 31, 1920 in Annapolis. Navy won that inaugural meeting 15-13. Here is the account of that game from the New York Times a century ago:
- "The Naval Academy barely nosed out Bucknell at basket ball this afternoon, the score being 15 to 13. The game was one of the best contested and most expertly played staged here for years. Both teams had a splendid system of defense and the individual playing was of a high standard. The Navy had the edge in working close for shots, but Waddell showed the best individual work on the floor and netted the ball on several long shots. He threw safely four times and was the only player on either team to score more than one field goal."
Avi Toomer has been on fire from 3-point distance in recent weeks. He was 7-for-9 from long distance in the two league wins last week, and dating back to the start of December he is 17 for his last 26 (.654) from the arc. Toomer is now shooting 46.7% on 3-pointers for the season, which would rank ninth nationally, but he falls just two makes shy of the minimum (2.5 per game) to qualify for the NCAA leaderboard.
As a team, the Bison are 20-for-40 from 3-point range in Patriot League play.
Toomer and Jimmy Sotos have carried much of the scoring load in recent weeks. Sotos, who is also one of the league's top assist men, is averaging 18.4 points over his last five games and has taken over the team scoring lead at 13.7 ppg. Toomer is next at 12.7 ppg after posting 15 on Sunday at Lafayette.
Bucknell has used six different starting lineups this season. The latest iteration came about on Sunday when senior Bruce Moore saw his streak of 47 straight games played come to an end due to an injury sustained late in the first half of the Army game. Paul Newman returned to the starting lineup at Lafayette and recorded his first career double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Newman and John Meeks started together in the frontcourt for the first time.
Bucknell recently played its final game of the decade of the 2010s. Some of the highlights:
- 215-116 (.650) overall record
- 128-36 (.780) Patriot League record
- 8 PL regular-season titles
- 4 PL tournament titles
- 4 NCAA bids
- 3 NIT bids
Navy had won three of its previous four, with the lone loss a respectable 65-56 setback at defending national champion Virginia, until dropping a 63-61 nailbiter at Holy Cross on Sunday. Navy prefers to play at a slower pace — only Virginia (61.2) and Liberty (63.1) average fewer than Navy's 63.3 possessions per game — and as a result the Midshipmen have not allowed more than 65 points in regulation all season. Navy ranks 10th nationally in scoring defense at 58.7 points per game and 41st in rebound margin at +6.5. The Midshipmen also commit the 10th-fewest fouls per game (13.9) among all Division I teams, an interesting figure against a Bucknell team that would like to get to the free-throw line more often. The Mids have made 20 more free throws (174) than their opponents have even attempted (154) on the season.
Navy has a pair of double-digit scorers in Cam Davis (15.2 ppg) and John Carter Jr. (12.5 ppg). The Midshipmen shoot just 40.4% from the field as a team, but they rebound 35.1% of their own misses, which is by far the highest percentage 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). Doug Birdsong handles the play-by-play duties, and he will be joined by Hall-of-Famer Pat Flannery '80 as the color analyst. 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

Andrew Funk and Avi Toomer scored 15 points each to lead all five Bucknell starters in double figures, and the Bison stormed back from 13 points down to beat Lafayette 78-66 on Sunday afternoon at Kirby Sports Center.
Jimmy Sotos scored 13 points, Paul Newman added a season-high 12 with 10 rebounds for his first career double-double, and John Meeks scored 11 points to lead the Bison.
Bucknell shot 55.6% in the second half after 33.3% in the first 20 minutes. A big key to the turnaround was interior scoring. The Bison went just 7-for-23 on two-point shots in the first half, but they attacked to the tune of 13-for-24 in the second half. All the while Bucknell was knocking them down from long range. The Bison hit seven second-half threes and finished 10-for-19 from the arc on the day.
Trailing 43-30 after Lafayette scored the first four points of the second half, the Bison scored 17 straight points to grab the lead and then kept going. Bucknell outscored Lafayette 48-23 over the final 18:17 to flip the 13-point deficit into a 12-point win.
Kahiel Spear was strong again for Bucknell off the bench. He went 3-for-3 from the field, including a tip-dunk and two 3-pointers, and scored eight points.
Bucknell shot 45.5% overall, compared to Lafayette's 40.0%. The Leopards were just 9-for-27 in the second half, including 2-for-15 from 3-point distance. Lafayette entered the day shooting better than 48% from the field and 39% from downtown, by far the best marks in the Patriot League. They also led the league and ranked 25th nationally in opponent 3-point percentage (.276), but Bucknell went 10-for-19 on the heels of a 10-for-21 performance against Army in a win on Thursday.
The Bison committed only seven turnovers in the game, compared to 15 for Lafayette.
Lafayette's Justin Jaworski, the Patriot League's second-leading scorer coming in at 18.8 ppg, scored 10 points in a span of three possession early in the first half, but those were his only field goals of the day. He finished with 13 points.
Bucknell snapped a six-game road losing streak dating back to the season opener at Fairfield
Newman's double-double was the first of the season for Bucknell. It was Newman's third career double-digit rebounding effort. He also had three assists and two blocked shots
Bucknell beat Lafayette for the ninth straight time. It is Bucknell's second-longest winning streak in the 105-year-old series, trailing only a 13-game run from 1990-96.

Bucknell vs. Navy

This will be the 81st all-time meeting between the Bison and Midshipmen, with Bucknell holding a 44-36 edge in the series.
Bucknell has won 19 of the last 21 meetings, although Navy snapped an 11-game series losing streak with a 64-53 win in Annapolis last season.
The Mids won 12 of 16 from the Bison prior to joining the Patriot League in 1991-92.
As conference rivals, Bucknell leads 40-24, with the home team winning most of the time. Since Navy joined the league, Bucknell is 27-5 against the Mids at home but is only 13-19 against Navy in Alumni Hall, although the Bison have won seven of their last nine 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.
The Bison and Midshipmen split last year's series. In Lewisburg, Bucknell won 69-57 behind 14 points apiece from Kimbal Mackenzie and Avi Toomer. On a night when Bucknell played without injured point guard Jimmy Sotos, and three other starters missed most of the first half with foul trouble, the Bison bench played a big role in the victory. The reserves contributed 20 of the team's 36 first-half points, and they accounted for 26 points, 18 rebounds and six assists on the night. George Kiernan led Navy with 13 points. In the rematch at Alumni Hall, Navy won 64-53 behind 17 points from Hasan Abdullah. The Bison shot just 29.6% from the field and went 6-for-27 from 3-point distance.

Notable Numbers

Over his last five games, Jimmy Sotos has 92 points and has hit 12-28 (.429) from 3-point range and 24-29 (.828) from the foul line.
Sotos has 68 points in the last five second halves of games.
Avi Toomer has hit multiple 3-pointers in eight of his last nine games and is shooting a league-best 46.7% from the arc this season, up from 35.3% last year.
Andrew Funk has 11 steals in his last five games after logging four in his first 10 games.
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 four of their last five games.
John Meeks is averaging a team-best 18.6 points per 40 minutes.
Freshman guard Xander Rice had one of his best games of the season last time out at Lafayette. He had a modest four points, three rebounds and two assists in 19 minutes, but he was a +12 in the game, and the team averaged a robust 1.5 points per possession when he was on the floor.
The Bison have had difficulty shutting down opponents' scoring runs this season. Bucknell foes have put together a run of at least 10 or more unanswered points in a row in 10 of the 15 games thus far.
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

Paul Newman needs three rebounds for 200 in his career, and one block for 50 in his career.
Walter Ellis needs one point for 100 in his career.
Jimmy Sotos needs 11 assists to catch Russell Peyton (332) for ninth on Bucknell's career chart.
Avi Toomer needs 10 rebounds for 300 in his career.

Who's Got Next?

Bucknell next hosts Holy Cross on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Bucknell will celebrate the 16th Annual Dirk Sojka's Slam Dunk with Bison Basketball during the Holy Cross game. The day serves as a major fundraiser for Suncom Industries, a local organization that employs adults with developmental disabilities. Dirk Sojka, the late son of former Bucknell president Gary Sojka and his wife Sandy, was employed at Suncom before his passing in 2002.