Men's Basketball Hosts American Saturday, Mike Muscala Jersey Retirement Ceremony at Halftime

Saturday, February 15

Lewisburg, Pa.

2 p.m.

Bucknell University

American

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Photo by: Marc Hagemeier

Men's Basketball Hosts American Saturday, Mike Muscala Jersey Retirement Ceremony at Halftime

2/14/2020 2:58:00 PM | Men's Basketball

There is lots happening at Sojka Pavilion on Saturday, when the Bison men's basketball team hosts American at 2 p.m. It is Alumni Day at Sojka, and highlighting the festivities is the Mike Muscala jersey retirement ceremony at halftime. Many alumni, including a number of Muscala's former teammates, will be in attendance. After the game, Muscala will sign autographs on the east concourse near the Geisinger Retired Jersey Wall, and the team's annual Alumni Game will take place.

As part of this special occasion, all fans will receive a free poster and commemorative game ticket, courtesy of Geisinger. The first 750 fans will receive free pom-poms from Mancini's Italian Restaurant.

🏀Muscala Day Giveaway x3🏀

We're excited for tomorrow! We have a commemorative ticket and poster presented by @GeisingerHealth for all fans. Get them signed after the game! AND Mancini's Italian Restaurant has pompoms for the first 750 fans! #rayBucknell #TheBisonWay pic.twitter.com/l7ExbQwSMm
— Bucknell MBasketball (@Bucknell_MBB) February 14, 2020

Here's more info on Saturday's game vs. American:

What: American (13-11, 9-4 PL) at Bucknell (9-17, 5-8 PL)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa. | TICKETS
When: Saturday, Feb. 15, 2 p.m.
TV: Stadium TV
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 (11.3 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 3.9 apg)
G: Andrew Funk (10.8 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 1.5 apg)
G: Avi Toomer (11.3 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 1.9 apg)
F: John Meeks (11.9 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 0.9 apg)
C: Paul Newman (5.0 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 0.7 bpg)

With a Win over American, Bucknell Would ...

... snap a five-game losing streak and improve to 10-17 overall and 6-8 in the Patriot League.
... avoid its first six-game losing streak in Patriot League play since 2000-01.
... split the season series with the Eagles.
... improve to 43-24 all-time against AU.
... improve to 17-2 against the Eagles at Sojka Pavilion.
... improve to 300-130 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.

Honoring Mike Muscala

Mike Muscala, one of the all-time great Bison men's basketball players, will be in Lewisburg on Saturday to have his jersey retired. He joins Hall-of-Famers Hal Danzig and Al Leslie as the only Bucknell men's players to have their jersey's retired. There will be a brunch in his honor on Saturday morning, and then the jersey retirement ceremony will take place at halftime. After the Bucknell-American game, the team's annual Alumni Game will take place.
During his playing days at Bucknell, Muscala was a two-time Patriot League Player of the Year (2011, 2013) and a four-time All-Patriot League selection. As a senior in 2013, he swept the league's Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year awards.
Muscala broke Leslie's career scoring record that had stood for 32 years. He became Bucknell's first 2,000-point scorer and finished with 2,036 career points. He also ranks No. 2 in school history with 1,093 career rebounds, and he was the Patriot League's first-ever 2,000-point/1,000-rebound man (he has since been joined by Lehigh's Tim Kempton).
Muscala is the first and only Bucknell alum to play in an NBA game. He is now in his seventh year in the NBA and his first with the Oklahoma City Thunder. He returns to Bucknell fresh off a 10-point performance off the bench in a road win at New Orleans on Thursday night, and he is now 15 for his last 23 from 3-point range. Muscala spent the first five years of his career with the Atlanta Hawks, and last season he split time between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Headlines

With five games remaining in the regular season, Bucknell is looking to get out of a frustrating five-game losing streak as American comes to town on Saturday afternoon. The Bison are currently in seventh place, but just two games behind the 7-6 trio of Lafayette, Army and Navy. Meanwhile, the Eagles have won seven of their last nine to move up into a tie for second place with Boston University at 9-4, two games behind league-leading Colgate.
After Wednesday's one-point loss at Navy, the Bison were mathematically eliminated from contention for the Patriot League regular-season title. That ends a record-setting run of five straight, and eight of the last nine regular-season crowns. Only Gonzaga (7) had more consecutive titles than Bucknell entering this season.
During this recent five-game 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 60.4 points on 38.2% shooting from the field and 29.6% from 3-point range in the five 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 a mere three straight league losses in only six of those 30 seasons.
A big factor in Bucknell's frustration in this current downturn is that in four of the five games, the Bison have been in position to win the game late, only to go cold down the stretch. Against Army, Lafayette and Loyola, the Bison rallied from double-digit deficits in each game, but could not finish off the comeback.
- 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.
- Last Saturday at Loyola, 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.
- On Wednesday at Navy, Bucknell flipped the script by getting out to a great start with a 13-0 lead, with all of the points coming from Andrew Funk. The Midshipmen got back in the game with a mid-first-half run. With five minutes left in the game the Bison trailed by just one, but a 2-for-6 stretch proved costly, and a potential game-tying 3-pointer with 14 seconds left wouldn't drop.
American has played good basketball of late and brings a three-game winning streak to Sojka Pavilion. After beating Navy on Feb. 5 in Annapolis, the Eagles then won back-to-back home games against Army and Loyola. The latter was an 81-76 verdict against the Greyhounds on Wednesday night, boosted by 22 points from Patriot League Preseason Player of the Year Sa'eed Nelson.
Nelson leads American and ranks second in the Patriot League in both scoring (17.4 ppg) and assists (5.0 apg). Nelson also leads the league in steals at 2.6 per game. Jamir Harris also scores in double figures at 11.0 ppg, boosted by a PL-best .930 free-throw percentage. Connor Nelson ranks fifth in the Patriot League in 3-point percentage (.394), and the Bison know all too well his long-range accuracy after he went 3-for-4, including a game-winner at the buzzer, in the first meeting in D.C.

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-American game will be produced and televised by Stadium TV, with D.J. Sixsmith on play-by-play and former Georgetown head coach Craig Esherick the color analyst. The broadcast will also 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, alongside Bucknell Hall-of-Famer Pat Flannery. 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 scored 20 points, 13 coming in an electric start to the game, but Bucknell fell 60-59 at Navy on Wednesday night. Cam Davis scored 22 for Navy, which snapped a three-game losing streak while extending Bucknell's slide to five in a row.
Walter Ellis tallied 11 points on perfect 4-for-4 shooting, and fellow reserve Kahliel Spear contributed nine points and four rebounds off the bench for the Bison. Bucknell outshot Navy 48% to 36% but was hampered by 17 turnovers.
The Bison could not have gotten off to a better start, as Funk scored all of the points in a 13-0 burst to start the game. But the Midshipmen quickly got back in it, and even though they didn't take their first lead until the opening moments of the second half, it was a tight contest the rest of the way.
The key sequence came after Spear's 3-point play put Bucknell ahead 42-37 with 11:22 to play. The Bison managed only one more field goal — an Ellis three — over the next five minutes as Navy went on an 11-3 run. Six of those points came at the free-throw line, as the Bison were whistled for 11 of the first 14 fouls in the half.
Down 53-50 coming out of the under-4 media timeout, Avi Toomer had his 3-pointer go in and out, and then Davis answered with a three the other way for a six-point swing.
Funk's 20-point game was his third of the season and was two shy of his career high.
John Meeks led the Bison with eight rebounds, but he was held in single digits in the scoring column for the first time in his 12 Patriot League appearances.
Navy finished with a 36-32 rebounding edge, boosted by 14 offensive boards to Bucknell's six. But the Bison scored on all six of their offensive caroms and finished with a 12-11 edge in second-chance points.
The Bison were 8-for-21 (.381) from 3-point distance, including a combined 7-for-11 from Funk and Ellis. Navy hit six treys in 20 attempts (.300) but was aided by a 14-3 scoring edge from the foul line. The Mids were 14-for-20, while Bucknell finished 3-for-6.

Bucknell vs. American

Bucknell has an overall 42-24 lead in an all-time series with American that includes some historic dates. The very first meeting on Jan. 14, 1939 also happened to be the first game ever played in Davis Gym (AU won 38-33). Coincidentally, American was also the opponent for the very last game ever played in Davis Gym on Jan. 11, 2003 (a 63-52 Bison win).
As Patriot League rivals, Bucknell leads 27-12, including victories in the 2005 and 2006 PL Tournament semifinals.
Bucknell has won 24 of 31 series meetings in Lewisburg, including 16 out of 18 at Sojka Pavilion, but the Bison are just 10-9 at Bender Arena since American joined the Patriot League in 2001-02.
Bucknell had won five straight games in the series until the Eagles won 76-68 at Bender Arena in the second of two meetings last season. Sa'eed Nelson led American with 20 points in that game, while Bruce Moore had 11 points and 11 rebounds for the Bison. Bucknell shot just 33.3% in the game, compared to American's 48.8%.
In the first meeting of last season, Nate Sestina hit a game-tying 3-pointer with 2:43 remaining and then the go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:17 to play, helping the Bison to a 55-54 win in a game where both teams shot under 40%. Twice in the final minute Bucknell missed front ends of 1-and-1s to give American a chance to take the lead, but the defense came up with timely stops. Nelson's 25-footer at the final buzzer rimmed out. Sestina overcame foul trouble to score a team-high 14 points for the Bison, while Moore chipped in 10 points and a career-high 15 rebounds. Nelson had 18 points, seven assists and six boards for the Eagles.
American took this year's first encounter 61-60 at Bender Arena on Jan. 15, thanks to a Connor Nelson 3-pointer at the final buzzer. Avi Toomer had just given the Bison a 60-58 lead with two tiebreaking free throws with five seconds left. John Meeks recorded 14 points and seven rebounds and Walter Ellis scored 12 points in his first career start, as the Bison played without Moore (injury) and Andrew Funk (illness). Jamir Harris led five players in double figures for American with 14 points.

Notable Numbers

Walter Ellis has hit a 3-pointer in nine straight games and is 16-for-36 (.444) from the arc over that span. Ellis now ranks second in the Patriot League in 3-point percentage at .417, trailing only Loyola's Kenneth Jones (.440).
Kahliel Spear is 9-for-13 from the field over the last three games, upping his season field-goal percentage to .524. Despite playing in a reserve role (13.6 mpg), Spear leads the Bison in 3-point play opportunities with nine.
Bucknell has struggled to finish around to the basket this season. The Bison are now shooting 47.5% 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 (6-Army, 11-Loyola, 21-Boston University, 22-Lafayette, 79-Colgate, 86-American). The Bison rank 250th.
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 49.6% and 36.3% in the team's losses.
Bucknell has held 10 of its 13 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 144 more free throws this season, leading to a 407-311 scoring edge. Bucknell has attempted more charity tosses than its opponents in each of the last five seasons.
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 16 games and 10 or more in six of the last 16.
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

Jimmy Sotos needs 14 assists to catch Abe Badmus (375) for eighth on Bucknell's career chart.
John Meeks needs 24 points for 500 in his career.

Who's Got Next?

It will be a quick turnaround for the Bison, with a Monday-night game at Holy Cross next on the schedule. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network.
Bucknell will be going for the season sweep after a 75-60 win over the Crusaders on Jan. 11.