Men's Hoops Looks to Build Win Streak at Holy Cross Monday Night on CBS Sports Network

Monday, February 17

Worcester, Mass.

7 p.m.

Bucknell University

Holy Cross

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Photo by: Marc Hagemeier

Men's Hoops Looks to Build Win Streak at Holy Cross Monday Night on CBS Sports Network

2/16/2020 2:26:00 PM | Men's Basketball

The Bison men's basketball team broke loose from a frustrating five-game losing streak on Saturday, defeating American 72-68 at Sojka Pavilion. A strong performance in all phases was nearly undermined by some uncharacteristic free-throw struggles in the final three minutes, but Bucknell made just enough to hold on and earn a split of the season series with the Eagles. Now the Bison go for two in a row on Monday night at Holy Cross.

This will be Bucknell's third appearance of the season on the Patriot League's Monday-night television package on CBS Sports Network. The Bison previously lost at Colgate and at home to Lafayette, and the team is 1-3 on the season when playing on two days of rest or less.

At 6-8 in Patriot League play, Bucknell has four games remaining in the regular season and is looking to make a late push north the standings. The Bison are currently in seventh place, which would mean hosting a Patriot League Tournament first-round game against the 10th-place team (currently Holy Cross). In order to avoid playing in that round, Bucknell will need to pass at least one team in front of them. The closest candidates are 7-7 Navy or 8-6 Lafayette and Army.

Bucknell is finished playing all three of those teams, so it must get help while taking care of its own business. Building a winning streak on Monday in Worcester is the next step.

Here's more info on Monday's game vs. Holy Cross:

What: Bucknell (10-17, 6-8 PL) at Holy Cross (3-24, 2-12 PL)
Where: Hart Center, Worcester, Mass.
When: Monday, Feb. 17, 7 p.m.
TV: CBS Sports Network
Local Radio: Eagle 107 (107.3 FM WEGH)
Listen Live: BucknellBison.com and Eagle107.com
Live Stats: GoHolyCross.com

COMPLETE GAME NOTES

Bucknell Probable Starters
G: Jimmy Sotos (11.1 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 4.0 apg)
G: Andrew Funk (10.6 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 1.6 apg)
G: Avi Toomer (11.1 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 2.0 apg)
F: John Meeks (11.9 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 0.8 apg)
C: Paul Newman (5.2 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 0.7 bpg)

With a Win over Holy Cross, Bucknell Would ...

... win its second straight game and improve to 11-17 overall and 7-8 in the Patriot League.
... sweep a season series from the Crusaders for the 11th time.
... improve to 46-30 all-time against Holy Cross.
... improve to 17-16 against the Crusaders at the Hart Center.
... give Nathan Davis his 100th win as Bucknell's head coach.

Headlines

Bucknell got rid of a nagging five-game losing streak with a 72-68 home victory over American on Saturday. The Bison remain in seventh place in the Patriot League standings but moved within one game of sixth-place Navy, although the Midshipmen hold a head-to-head tiebreaker.
Sophomore Kahliel Spear was the star of the day in the American win. In 23 minutes off the bench, Spear notched 20 points, nine rebounds and two blocked shots. He tallied 17 of his points in the second half, including 15 in a span of 6:36 to help Bucknell turn a tie game into an 11-point lead. Spear doubled his previous career high of 10 points, set in the season opener at Fairfield.
Walter Ellis is heating up at the right time. Ellis is now 19-for-41 from three (.463) in his last 10 games, including 6-for-8 in the last two. He now ranks No. 2 in the Patriot League in 3-point percentage at 42.9% on the season.
Bucknell and Holy Cross have met in 16 of the 29 Patriot League Tournaments (no other matchup has been played more than 10 times). If the current standings hold, they would make it 17 times in 30 years.
Saturday's win was Bucknell's 300th Patriot League regular-season victory. This is the 30th season of Patriot League men's basketball, and the Bison became the first team to reach that milestone. Holy Cross has the next-most PL wins with 237.
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.
Head coach Nathan Davis is one win shy of 100 for his Bucknell career. He could become the fastest Bison head coach to reach the 100-win plateau.

Coach # of Games to Reach 100 Wins
Dave Paulsen 166
Pat Flannery 180
Malcolm Musser 189
Charlie Woollum 202
Nathan Davis 161st game upcoming

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 young Holy Cross team has suffered some growing pains under first-year head coach Brett Nelson. Since beating Lehigh 96-95 in overtime on Jan. 22, the Crusaders have dropped seven in a row to fall to 3-24 on the season. Holy Cross does feature the probable Patriot League Rookie of the Year in Joe Pridgen, who is averaging 17.3 points per game to rank third in the Patriot League behind only Loyola's Andrew Kostecka and American's Sa'eed Nelson. That figure jumps to 18.1 ppg in league play. The Bison held Pridgen to four points in the first meeting of the season in Lewisburg, but overall he is shooting bettern than 56% from the field and 47% from 3-point range while also leading the team with 6.7 rebounds per game.
Austin Butler also scores in double figures with 12.0 ppg, although Butler missed the most recent game with an injury. Connor Niego (9.2 ppg), Matt Faw (8.3) and Ryan Wade (5.5) are also projected starters. The Crusaders score 67.7 points per game but allow 79.9.

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Holy Cross game will be televised on CBS Sports Network. Jason Knapp and Mo Cassara will call the action from the Hart Center.
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 GoHolyCross.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

Kahliel Spear came off the bench to score a career-high 20 points along with nine rebounds to lead Bucknell to a 72-68 win over American on Saturday at Sojka Pavilion. The Bison snapped a five-game losing streak, while the Eagles saw their three-game winning streak end.
It was already a feel-good day at Sojka Pavilion as Bucknell's all-time scoring leader Mike Muscala was honored at a morning event and then had his jersey retired at halftime. Muscala, a two-time Patriot League Player of the Year who is now in his seventh year in the NBA, then watched his alma mater lead nearly wire-to-wire to become the first team to reach 300 Patriot League victories.
John Meeks scored 11 points, Walter Ellis had 10 off the bench, and guards Jimmy Sotos, Andrew Funk and Avi Toomer combined for 14 assists in the victory. Spear was the star of the day, as he doubled his previous career high with the 20 points and matched his career best with the nine rebounds. He was 7-for-10 from the field, 2-for-3 from the 3-point arc, and 4-for-6 from the foul line in 23 minutes of action.
Bucknell hit 10 3-pointers in 25 attempts while American was just 2-for-18 from the arc. The Bison led 10-2 early and by 12 after Spear's layup with 7:35 to play, and then they survived some shaky free-throw shooting down the stretch.
Spear scored 17 of his 20 points in the second half. He scored on a variety of layups inside and he canned a pair of threes. After American tied the game at 37-37 on a Connor Nelson layup with 14:30 to go, Spear gave the Bison the lead right back with a tip-in followed by a dunk off a nice feed from Sotos. Spear later hit the two threes and had a 3-point play, giving him 15 points in a span of 6:36 to help push the margin back into double figures.
The Bison uncharacteristically struggled from the free throw line late in the game. They entered the day shooting 81% as a team in the final five minutes of games, but were just 6-for-16 in the last 3:10 in this one. Following a stretch of his team missing seven out of eight from the line, Sotos righted the ship by hitting a pair from the charity stripe with 24 seconds left to play, extending the Bison lead to 69-64. Bucknell made just enough free throws to prevent American from having the ball in a one-possession game. Ellis finished it off by going 1-for-2 with 0:03 left to make it a four-point game.
For the Eagles, Sa'eed Nelson scored a game-high 28 points to go along with eight rebounds and four assists. Nelson became the eighth player in Patriot League history to score 2,000 career points
Bucknell shot 44.6% overall and finished 12-for-25 from the foul line. American shot 43.1% and also struggled at the stripe, hitting 10 of 20. American outscored Bucknell 52-28 in the paint, but the Bison had a 30-6 edge from downtown and also committed only nine turnovers.

Bucknell vs. Holy Cross
The Bucknell-Holy Cross rivalry has been one of the league's best through the years. Some of the highlights:

The Bison and Crusaders have combined to win 11 of the last 19 Patriot League titles.
These two teams have met 16 times in the 29 Patriot League Tournaments, with both teams winning eight. That includes four times in the championship game. Bucknell defeated Holy Cross in the 2005 and 2006 title tilts, while the Crusaders topped the Bison in the final in 1993 and 2007.
The Bison and Crusaders had never met until the formation of the Patriot League in 1990-91, but this will be the 76th meeting in 30 years (an average of 2.5 meetings per season).
Bucknell leads the series 45-30. The road team has won just 10 of the last 30.
Bucknell is 25-11 against Holy Cross in Lewisburg and 18-5 at Sojka Pavilion. Bucknell is 16-16 vs. Holy Cross at the Hart Center, with one of the wins coming in the 2005 Patriot League championship game.
The two teams split last year's regular-season matchups, with the home team winning each time. Bucknell won 93-78 at Sojka Pavilion on Jan. 14, but Holy Cross snapped a five-game series losing streak with a 72-71 victory at the Hart Center on Feb. 16.
In last season's first meeting at Sojka Pavilion, Nate Sestina scored a career-high 32 points on 11-for-11 shooting from the field in Bucknell's 93-78 victory. Kimbal Mackenzie added 17 points, including the 1,000th of his career. Jehyve Floyd scored 25 points and Austin Butler 17 for Holy Cross. Bucknell led the game by as many as 26 points before the Crusaders made a late run to get as close as nine.
In the rematch in Worcester, Matt Faw answered Mackenzie's late go-ahead 3-pointer with one of his own with six seconds remaining, sending Holy Cross to a 72-71 victory. Sestina posted his ninth double-double of the season with 17 points and 15 rebounds, and Mackenzie added 16 points for the Bison. Floyd had 19 points and Jacob Grandison 17 for the Crusaders.
Bucknell and Holy Cross also met in the 2019 Patriot League Tournament quarterfinals at Sojka Pavilion. The second-seeded Bison defeated the 10th-seeded Crusaders 77-65 behind 27 points from Mackenzie, who hit seven 3-pointers in 13 attempts. John Meeks added 14 points off the bench.
Bucknell claimed this season's first meeting 75-60 on Jan. 11, behind 19 points from Meeks, 17 from Andrew Funk and 13 from Avi Toomer. The Bison forced 22 turnovers and blocked seven shots. Drew Lowder scored 21 to lead Holy Cross in his final game before leaving the team.

Notable Numbers

Bucknell's last three opponents are 10-for-52 (.192) from 3-point range.
Kahliel Spear is 16-for-23 (.696) from the field over the last four games, upping his season field-goal percentage to .543. Despite playing in a reserve role (14.0 mpg), Spear leads the Bison in 3-point play opportunities with 10.
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 (5-Army, 9-Loyola, 17-Boston University, 23-Lafayette, 80-American, 82-Colgate). The Bison rank 246th.
Bucknell has held opponents to 41.4% shooting overall and 28.0% 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 139 more free throws this season, leading to a 417-323 scoring edge. Bucknell has attempted more charity tosses than its opponents in each of the last five seasons, but this year the Bison rank 308th nationally in fouls per defensive possession.
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 17 games and 10 or more in six of the last 17.
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 nine assists to catch Abe Badmus (375) for eighth on Bucknell's career chart.
John Meeks needs 13 points for 500 in his career.
Avi Toomer needs 50 points for 800 in his career.

Who's Got Next?

Bucknell will not play again for another six days, as a trip to Lehigh is up next on Sunday.
The Bison will be going for a season sweep of the Mountain Hawks after winning 72-56 at Sojka Pavilion on Jan. 18.