Men's Hoops Looks to Stay Hot Sunday at Lehigh

Sunday, February 23

Bethlehem, Pa.

12 p.m.

Bucknell University

Lehigh

Buy Tickets

Photo by: Marc Hagemeier

2/21/2020 3:40:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Three games remain in the regular season, and Bucknell is hoping to extend its recent upturn and improve its Patriot League Tournament seeding when it travels to Bethlehem for a Sunday afternoon contest at Lehigh.

These have been two of the top teams in the league over the last decade, so it's unusual to see them both in the bottom half of the standings at this time of the season. Both teams have shown recent signs of improvement, however. The Bison have won two straight games over American and Holy Cross to move into a tie for sixth place with Navy, which holds the head-to-head tiebreaker. Bucknell would love to move out of the bottom four and avoid playing in a first-round tournament game. Lehigh sits in ninth place at 4-11, two games behind eighth-place Loyola. But the Mountain Hawks have gotten a couple of key players back from injury, and they played well in a three-point loss at first-place Colgate on Wednesday night.

Here's more info on Sunday's game vs. Lehigh:

What: Bucknell (11-17, 7-8 PL) at Lehigh (7-20, 4-11 PL)
Where: Stabler Arena, Bethlehem, Pa. | TICKETS
When: Sunday, Feb. 23, 12 p.m.
Internet: Patriot League Network
Local Radio: Eagle 107 (107.3 FM WEGH)
Listen Live: BucknellBison.com and Eagle107.com
Live Stats: LehighSports.com

COMPLETE GAME NOTES

Bucknell Probable Starters
G: Jimmy Sotos (10.9 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 4.0 apg)
G: Andrew Funk (10.9 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 1.6 apg)
G: Avi Toomer (11.1 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 1.9 apg)
F: John Meeks (12.1 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 0.9 apg)
C: Paul Newman (5.0 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 0.6 bpg)

With a Win over Lehigh, Bucknell Would ...

... win a season-high third straight game and improve to 12-17 overall and 8-8 in the Patriot League.
... sweep the season series and beat the Mountain Hawks for the fifth straight time, which would be its longest winning streak in the series since a six-game run from 2005-07.
... improve to 108-68 all-time against the Mountain Hawks.

Headlines

Bucknell has pieced together back-to-back victories over American and Holy Cross, and now the Bison look to make it three in a row when they travel to Lehigh on Sunday afternoon.
Monday's 69-48 win at Holy Cross, coupled with Navy's loss to American on Wednesday, helped the Bison move into a tie for sixth place in the Patriot League alongside the Midshipmen. Navy would own the head-to-head tiebreaker, however, based on its season sweep of Bucknell. The Bison are also now just one game behind fifth-place Army and two in back of fourth-place Lafayette with three games remaining.
Bucknell is winning the 3-point shooting battle of late. The Bison matched a season high with 15 threes in 33 attempts in Monday's victory at Holy Cross, and over the last three games they are shooting 41.8% (33-79) from the arc. At the other end of the floor, Bucknell had held its last four opponents to 19.7% shooting (14-71) from downtown.
Walter Ellis has been one of the catalysts in that improved 3-point shooting. Ellis is now 22-for-47 from three (.468) in his last 11 games, including 9-for-14 in the last three. He now ranks No. 1 in the Patriot League in 3-point percentage at 43.4% on the season, and he is one of four Bison in the top 10.
Bucknell reached a couple of major milestones over the last week. Last Saturday's win over American 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. Two days later, head coach Nathan Davis picked up his 100th Bucknell victory.
Davis became the fastest Bison head coach to reach the 100-win plateau.

Coach # of Games to Reach 100 Wins
Nathan Davis 162
Dave Paulsen 166
Pat Flannery 180
Malcolm Musser 189
Charlie Woollum 202

After a one-point loss at Navy on Feb. 12, the Bison were mathematically eliminated from contention for the Patriot League regular-season title. That ended 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.
Lehigh is experiencing a rare down season and currently sits in ninth place in the Patriot League standings at 4-10. The Mountain Hawks have been better of late, however, coinciding with the return of center James Karnik from an extended injury absence. Lehigh recently posted back-to-back wins over Lafayette and Holy Cross, and on Wednesday they played very well on the road against first-place Colgate, only to fall 70-67 in a game that came right down to the final shot.
Jordan Cohen is Lehigh's top scorer at 14.6 points per game. Karnik averages 11.9 points and 7.1 rebounds while shooting 59.6% from the field. Jeameril Wilson (10.0), Nick Lynch (9.7) and Marques Wilson (9.0) are other top scorers. The Mountain Hawks shoot 44.7% from the field, 33.9% from 3-point distance and 73.5% from the foul line. In recent years Lehigh has been one of the top 3-point shooting teams in the nation, but it is less-reliant on the long ball this year, averaging a league-low 5.7 made threes per game.

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Lehigh 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 LehighSports.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 19 points, hitting five of Bucknell's season-high-tying 15 3-pointers, and the Bison ran away from Holy Cross 69-48 on Monday night at the Hart Center.
John Meeks added 18 points and seven rebounds, and Avi Toomer scored 10 points to help Nathan Davis become the fastest head coach to reach 100 Bucknell victories.
The 21-point win was Bucknell's largest of the season, and the 48 points allowed was the team's best defensive performance of the year. The Bison limited Holy Cross to 37% shooting for the game and outscored the Crusaders 45-12 from the 3-point line.
Leading 30-25 after an erratic first half from both sides, Bucknell blew the lid off the game with a huge second half. Funk and Walter Ellis hit back-to-back 3-pointers to cap a 17-5 run to start the half and give the Bison a commanding 47-30 lead.
The margin grew to as many as 23 after another Ellis triple made it 59-36 with 7:45 to play.
Bucknell shot 43% from the field and won despite not making a free throw in the game (0-4). It was the team's first game without a made free throw since Nov. 16, 2013, when the Bison didn't even attempt one in a 72-50 rout of Saint Francis (Pa.).
Funk equaled his career best with five treys, while Meeks set a new personal best with four. Ellis went 3-for-6 from deep, making him 9-for-14 in the last three games.
The Bison finished with a 39-34 rebounding edge and forced 15 turnovers. They held a 9-2 edge in second-chance points, a 15-2 edge in fastbreak points, and a 17-2 margin in bench scoring.

Bucknell vs. Lehigh

Bucknell has played more games (175) and won more games (107) against Lehigh than any other school. The Bison have a 107-68 lead in a series that originated in 1902.
Since the start of Patriot League play in 1990-91, Bucknell holds a 47-22 advantage, including a 27-8 mark at home.
Lehigh is responsible for snapping Bucknell's 35-game home winning streak against Patriot League foes. The Bison had not lost to a conference opponent at Sojka Pavilion in nearly five years, until the Mountain Hawks won 56-54 in Lewisburg on Jan. 30, 2008.
Lehigh also won the first game ever played in Sojka Pavilion, a 60-56 decision on Jan. 15, 2003. Including that game, Bucknell is 14-7 against the Mountain Hawks in Sojka.
Bucknell is 7-3 against Lehigh in Patriot League Tournament action, including an 81-65 win in the 2017 championship game and a 97-75 verdict in last year's semifinals.
A year ago, Bucknell swept the regular-season series from the Mountain Hawks for the first time since 2011, when current NBA players Mike Muscala and C.J. McCollum were sophomores. The Bison won a thriller in Bethlehem, 85-83, on Jan. 19, and then they prevailed 87-75 at Sojka Pavilion on Feb. 11.
In last year's first meeting, Jimmy Sotos raced the length of the floor for a layup with 1.2 seconds remaining, giving Bucknell an 85-83 win at Stabler Arena. The Mountain Hawks had just come up with a steal in the backcourt, which led to Pat Andree's tying layup, but Sotos countered at the other end to cap a crazy finish. Five Bison scored in double figures, led by Kimbal Mackenzie with 25 points and Bruce Moore with a career-high 19. Kyle Leufroy tallied 26 points for Lehigh, which went 14-for-23 from 3-point distance.
In the rematch in Lewisburg, Mackenzie scored 27 points, nine of them coming in a 15-1 run early in the second half that sent the Bison on their way. Bucknell did a much better job against Lehigh's vaunted 3-point shooters in that one, holding the Mountain Hawks to 6-for-22 from the arc. James Karnik led Lehigh with 21 points.
In the Patriot League Tournament semifinals, the Bison piled up 97 points, 48 coming from seniors Mackenzie (25) and Nate Sestina (23) in their final games at Sojka Pavilion. Avi Toomer added 12 points and Moore had 10 to help counter 23 points from Lehigh's Jordan Cohen.
In this year's first meeting at Sojka Pavilion on Jan. 18, Toomer and Moore scored 15 points apiece in Bucknell's 72-56 victory. Bucknell led by 15 points at the half, and after Lehigh pulled within five at 53-48 with 5:50 to go, the Bison closed the game on a 19-8 run. Sotos chipped in 12 points, including a two critical 3-pointers in the final 5:30 to help stave off a Lehigh comeback attempt. John Meeks posted his first career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, and Kahliel Spear played a major role off the bench with nine points, six rebounds and three blocks. Jeameril Wilson paced Lehigh with 16 points.

Notable Numbers

Kahliel Spear is 18-for-30 (.600) from the field over the last five games, upping his season field-goal percentage to .525. Despite playing in a reserve role (14.3 mpg), Spear leads the Bison in 3-point play opportunities with 10. He scored a career-high 20 points in the win over American last Saturday, doubling his previous personal best.
Jimmy Sotos is averaging 5.3 assists over his last three games.
John Meeks has seven or more rebounds in six straight games and is averaging 8.2 boards per game in that span.
The Bison had been a solid free-throw shooting team for most of the season, but they have struggled of late. In the last three games the Bison are 15-for-35 (.429) from the line.
In addition to getting back to a better percentage, the Bison would also like to earn more chances at the foul line. Opponents have attempted 142 more free throws this season, leading to a 421-323 scoring edge. Bucknell has attempted more charity tosses than its opponents in each of the last five seasons.
Bucknell has struggled to finish around to the basket this season. The Bison are now shooting 47.3% 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, 7-Loyola, 21-Boston University, 23-Lafayette, 79-American, 84-Colgate). The Bison rank 260th.
Bucknell has held opponents to 41.1% shooting overall and 27.3% 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 shot 3-pointers (.348-.343) and free throws (.749-.673) better on the road than at home this season.
Bucknell has held 11 of its 14 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.
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 13 of their last 18 games and 10 or more in six of the last 18.
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 four assists to catch Abe Badmus (375) for eighth on Bucknell's career chart.
Andrew Funk needs 51 points for 500 in his career.
Avi Toomer needs 40 points for 800 in his career.

Who's Got Hext?

Bucknell hosts first-place Colgate on Senior Night on Wednesday at Sojka Pavilion.
The Bison and Raiders have met in each of the last two Patriot League championship games, with Bucknell winning in 2018 and Colgate in 2019.