Men's Basketball Visits Navy Wednesday Evening

Wednesday, February 12

Annapolis, Md.

7 p.m.

Bucknell University

Navy

Buy Tickets

Photo by: Marc Hagemeier

2/11/2020 2:53:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Two teams looking to put a halt to losing streaks square off on Wednesday night, as Bucknell visits Navy at Alumni Hall. The Bison have dropped four straight to fall to 5-7 in Patriot League play, while Navy is on a three-game slide to fall to 6-6. With six games remaining in the regular season, there is still time for the Bison to turn around and make a charge back up the standings, as they are only two games out of a top-four position.

To do so, Bucknell will need to get its offense rekindled. After scoring a season-high 98 points in a win over Loyola on Jan. 25, the Bison have struggled on the offensive end in the four games since then. Points figure to be at a premium on Wednesday as well, as they go up against a Navy team that likes to play at a slow tempo and leads the Patriot League in scoring defense at 62.7 points per game. Bucknell has been held to 62 points or fewer in six of its last eight trips to Annapolis, and it will go into this one without a senior starter in the frontcourt, as Bruce Moore suffered a broken hand in Saturday's game at Loyola. Junior Paul Newman returns to the starting lineup, and freshmen Malachi Rhodes and Alex Timmerman figure to play key backup roles down the stretch.

After the Navy game, the Bison return home to face American on Saturday afternoon, and it will be a very special day at Sojka Pavilion. Mike Muscala '13, Bucknell's all-time leading scorer who is now a seven-year NBA veteran, will have his jersey retired at halftime. Game time is 2 p.m. on Stadium TV.

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

What: Bucknell (9-16, 5-7 PL) at Navy (12-11, 6-6 PL)
Where: Alumni Hall, Annapolis, Md. | TICKETS
When: Wednesday, Feb. 12, 7 p.m.
Webcast: Patriot League Network
Local Radio: Eagle 107 (107.3 FM WEGH)
Listen Live: BucknellBison.com and Eagle107.com
Live Stats: NavySports.com

COMPLETE GAME NOTES

Bucknell Probable Starters
G: Jimmy Sotos (11.7 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 3.8 apg)
G: Andrew Funk (10.4 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 1.5 apg)
G: Avi Toomer (11.5 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 1.9 apg)
F: John Meeks (12.3 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 0.9 apg)
C: Paul Newman (5.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 0.6 bpg)

With a Win over Navy, Bucknell Would ...

... snap a season-high four-game losing streak and improve to 10-16 overall and 6-7 in the Patriot League.
... avoid its first five-game losing streak in Patriot League play since 2008-09.
... gain a split of the season series with the Midshipmen.
... improve to 45-37 all-time against the Mids.
... improve to 300-129 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.

Headlines

Bucknell makes its second trip this week to the state of the Maryland when it takes on Navy on Wednesday night. The Bison dropped a 78-65 decision at Loyola on Saturday evening.
The Bison are looking to shake a four-game losing streak, its longest in Patriot League play since 2008-09. During this stretch, Bucknell has struggled to get shots to drop on a consistent basis. After shooting a season-best 54.1% from the field in a 98-83 victory over Loyola at Sojka Pavilion on Jan. 25, the Bison have averaged 60.8 points on 36.9% shooting in the four games since then.
Extended conference losing streaks have been almost unheard of for Bucknell. This is the 30th year of the Patriot League, and the Bison have experienced three straight league losses in only six of those 30 seasons.
The Bison were dealt another blow this week when senior center Bruce Moore was diagnosed with a broken right hand. Moore, who will be out indefinitely, has played in 120 career games, 19th-most in school history.
Bucknell's three recent losses to Army, Lafayette and Loyola all followed a similar script. The Bison rallied from double-digit deficits in each game, only to go cold again down the stretch. At West Point, Bucknell came from 13 down to tie the game at 53-all with 8:11 to play, then went 1-for-11 on the way to a 68-59 loss. Against Lafayette at home, the Bison came from 15 down to take a few small leads in the second half, but they missed their final 11 field-goal attempts of the night in a 65-62 setback. And then in the most recent outing on Saturday, Bucknell trimmed a 13-point deficit to one with 4:57 to play, then missed six straight shots while Loyola went on an 11-1 run to reclaim a double-digit lead.
John Meeks entered the starting lineup just before the start of league play and has been terrific in that role. He set career highs with 22 points and nine rebounds in a win over Army, and he ranks 11th in the Patriot League in scoring at 14.8 points per game in conference action. Meeks is shooting 48.3% from the field, 38.6% from 3-point distance and 31-for-33 from the foul line in his 11 PL contests, and he has scored in double figures in all 11 games. Meeks missed the Boston University game on Feb. 1 due to illness.
Navy got out to a 5-2 start in Patriot League play, but since then the Midshipmen have dropped four of their last five, including their most recent three contests against Loyola, American and Colgate. Navy features an outstanding trio of guards in Cam Davis (16.5 ppg), John Carter Jr. (11.3 ppg) and Greg Summers (9.6 ppg, 6.3 rpg). Center Evan Wieck, who was injured when these two teams met last month, posts 10.1 ppg while shooting a Patriot League-best 64.7% from the field.
Navy is the third-slowest-paced team in the country, according to Ken Pomeroy's adjusted tempo formula. That has helped the Midshipmen lead the Patriot League in scoring defense by a wide margin at 62.7 ppg. Colgate is second at 68.1 ppg. Navy ranks second in the league in field-goal percentage defense (.429), and it is also the clear PL leader in rebounding margin at +5.1 per game. Offensive rebounding is the biggest factor there, as Navy grabs a league-high 34.0% of its own misses.
Bucknell head coach Nathan Davis will be going up against his old team. Davis was an assistant coach under Don DeVoe at Navy from 1998-2003. He also spent one season (2008-09) working under current Navy assistant Emmett Davis when he was head coach at Colgate.

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Navy game will be streamed 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 NavySports.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 cut a 13-point deficit to one with five minutes to play, but Loyola scored its final 15 points from the foul line in a game-ending 20-8 run and prevailed 78-65 at Reitz Arena on Saturday evening.
Avi Toomer led the Bison with 15 points, and John Meeks recorded his second double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Patriot League scoring leader Andrew Kostecka scored 20 points for Loyola, which won its third straight game while handing Bucknell its fourth straight loss.
The Bison missed their final 12 3-point attempts of the first half, but threes from Toomer and Andrew Funk in the opening three minutes of the second stanza got them going. Meeks canned two threes just past the midway point of the second half, and a trey from Sotos at the 4:57 mark made it a one-point game at 58-57.
Loyola was 1-for-13 from the arc at that point, but Kostecka swished a deep triple from the top of the key to answer Sotos' shot. After a Bucknell miss, Golden Dike converted a 3-point play to push Loyola's lead back up to seven at 64-57 with 3:49 left. The Bison missed their next six attempts after the Sotos three and Loyola finished it off at the foul line.
The Greyhounds never made another field goal, but they went 15-for-17 from the foul line in the last four minutes. Loyola was 34-for-46 from the stripe in the game, giving them 92 free-throw attempts in the two games against Bucknell this season. The Greyhounds came into the game ranked ninth nationally in free-throw attempts, and they outscored the Bison 34-17 from the line in this one.
Bucknell shot 31.3% from the field and went 8-for-35 from 3-point range. The Bison did have a good night at the foul line, hitting 17 of 21. Meanwhile Loyola shot 52.5%, despite a 2-for-14 showing from the arc.
Bucknell attempted 24 more shots than Loyola, but the free-throw disparity was too much to overcome.
Loyola outrebounded the Bison 34-32, but Bucknell held the Greyhounds to two offensive rebounds and built a 15-2 edge in second-chance points.

Bucknell vs. Navy

This will be the 82nd all-time meeting between the Bison and Midshipmen, with Bucknell holding a 44-37 edge in the series.
Bucknell and Navy first met just over 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."

Bucknell has won 19 of the last 22 meetings, although Navy hjas now won the last two.
The Mids won 12 of 16 from the Bison prior to joining the Patriot League in 1991-92.
As conference rivals, Bucknell leads 40-25, with the home team winning most of the time. Since Navy joined the league, Bucknell is 27-6 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.
In this season's first meeting at Sojka Pavilion on Jan. 8, Cam Davis hit a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 27 seconds left to lift Navy to a 60-56 win. The Bison saw their 22-game home winning streak against Patriot League opponents come to an end. Bucknell had a tough shooting night, going 5-for-29 from 3-point range while shooting just 34.6% overall. John Meeks led the Bison with 18 points, while Davis scored 20 for Navy.

Notable Numbers

Bucknell is shooting 33.4% from 3-point range, fifth-best in the Patriot League. However the Bison have struggled to finish closer to the basket. The Bison are now shooting 47.2% from 2-point distance, which ranks 10th in the Patriot League.
Bucknell's short-range shooting issues have been even more magnified in the Patriot League, which has six teams ranked in the top 100 nationally in 2-point field goal percentage (4-Army, 12-Loyola, 18-Lafayette, 22-Boston University, 78-Colgate, 91-American). The Bison rank 260th.
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 50.4% and 36.8% in the team's losses.
Bucknell has held nine of its 12 Patriot League opponents to 33% shooting or worse from 3-point range. The big anomaly came in the loss at Colgate, where the Raiders went 14-for-23 (.609) from the arc.
The Bison would like to even up a free-throw shooting disparity. Opponents have attempted 130 more free throws this season, leading to a 393-308 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 14 of his last 19 games and is shooting 38.8% from the arc this season, up from 35.3% last year.
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 12 of their last 15 games and 10 or more in six of the last 15.
Walter Ellis has hit a 3-pointer in eight straight games.
Jimmy Sotos is 15-for-33 (.455) from three over his last seven games.
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.

Who's Got Next?

Bucknell has only two home games remaining on the schedule, and one of them is coming up on Saturday against American at 2 p.m. The Bison will be looking to avenge a 61-60 loss to the Eagles in D.C., on Jan. 15.
Saturday will be Alumni Day at Sojka Pavilion, and one of those alums — current NBA-er Mike Muscala — will have his jersey retired at halftime.