Men's Basketball Hosts Colgate on Senior Night, Fan Appreciation Night

Wednesday, February 26

Lewisburg, Pa.

7 p.m.

Bucknell University

Colgate

Buy Tickets

Photo by: Marc Hagemeier

Men's Basketball Hosts Colgate on Senior Night, Fan Appreciation Night

2/25/2020 2:58:00 PM | Men's Basketball

The final regular-season home game of the 2019-20 season is upon us, as Bucknell hosts Colgate on Wednesday night at Sojka Pavilion. The Bison will recognize senior players Bruce Moore, Ben Robertson and Avi Toomer, as well as senior managers Luke Summers, Mike Bangs and L.J. Shapiro prior to the 7 p.m. contest. It will also be Fan Appreciation Night at Sojka Pavilion, presented by Sheetz. The first 1,000 fans will receive a free raffle ticket, with special prizes given away throughout the night.

While this will be the last scheduled home game of the regular season, it is possible that the Bison will play a Patriot League Tournament first-round game at home on Tuesday, March 3. Bucknell is currently situated in a three-way tie for sixth place in the Patriot League standings, and based on current tiebreakers the Bison would be the No. 8 seed. If the Bison end up seeded 7th or 8th, they would play at home on Tuesday.

Of course, Bucknell would love to move out of a bottom-four seed and avoid having to play a first-round game altogether. The top six seeds get byes into the quarterfinals on Thursday, March 5. With two games remaining in the regular season Colgate has secured the No. 1 seed, which means home-court advantage throughout the Patriot League Tournament.

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

What: Colgate (22-7, 13-3 PL) at Bucknell (11-18, 7-9 PL)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa. | TICKETS
When: Wednesday, Feb. 25, 7 p.m.
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 (11.2 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 4.0 apg)
G: Andrew Funk (10.9 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 1.6 apg)
G: Avi Toomer (10.8 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 2.0 apg)
F: John Meeks (12.0 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 0.9 apg)
C: Paul Newman (4.8 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 0.7 bpg)

With a Win over Colgate, Bucknell Would ...

... split the season series and snap a three-game series losing streak to the Raiders.
... beat the Raiders at Sojka Pavilion for the fifth straight time and improve to 69-47 all-time against them.
... improve to 139-29 all-time against Patriot League opponents at Sojka Pavilion.
... maintain a share of sixth place in the Patriot League standings along with the Navy-Loyola winner.

Headlines

Bucknell had a chance to move into sole possession of sixth place in the Patriot League standings over the weekend, but a tough shooting day at Lehigh resulted in a 69-60 loss, and the Bison are now in a three-way tie for sixth with Navy and Loyola at 7-9 with two games remaining. The Midshipmen and Greyhounds meet in Annapolis on Wednesday, so one of those teams is assured of moving to 8-9 in league play.
The top six teams at the end of the regular season receive byes into the Patriot League Tournament quarterfinals. The seventh through 10th seeds have to play first-round games on Tuesday, March 3, and then go on the road for quarterfinal games two days later.
Bucknell has the most difficult remaining schedule of any team in the league. The Bison finish out the regular season against the top two teams in the standings. Colgate at 13-3 comes to Lewisburg having already clinched the No. 1 seed for the Patriot League Tournament. The Bison then go on the road to Boston University, which sits in sole possession of second place at 11-5.
The Bison will celebrate Senior Night on Wednesday. Bruce Moore, Ben Robertson and Avi Toomer will be honored prior to the game, along with senior managers Luke Summers, Mike Bangs and L.J. Shapiro.
Also being honored prior to the game is head coach Nathan Davis, who recently became the fastest Bison head coach to reach the 100-win plateau.
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.
Colgate is 22-7 overall and 13-3 in Patriot League play. The Raiders locked up the No. 1 seed for the Patriot League Tournament after routing Holy Cross 90-60 on Sunday. In PL play, Colgate has lost twice to Lafayette and once to Loyola.
All five Colgate starters score in double figures, led by Jordan Burns with 15.5 points per game. Rapolas Ivanauskas (13.2), Will Rayman (12.5), Nelly Cummings (11.0) and Tucker Richardson (10.4) are also double-digit scorers, and that quintet accounts for 82% of the team's scoring on the season. The Raiders are the league's highest-scoring team at 75.7 points per game, and they lead the league in 3-point (.358) and free-throw (.754) percentages. Colgate hits 10.1 threes per game, with 47% of their shot attempts and 37% of their makes coming from outside the arc.

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Colgate 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 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

Lehigh frontcourt mates James Karnik and Nic Lynch scored 17 points apiece to lead the Mountain Hawks to a wire-to-wire 69-60 victory over Bucknell on Saturday afternoon at Stabler Arena. The Bison saw their two-game winning streak snapped, despite a 20-point performance from Jimmy Sotos.
Walter Ellis and Andrew Funk scored 10 points each for Bucknell.
Bucknell endured a tough offensive day, shooting 39.3% overall while hitting 7 of 32 from 3-point territory. Meanwhile, Lehigh shot 46%, with much of the damage coming in the paint. The Mountain Hawks started their two centers, Karnik and Lynch, together for the first time, and that led to a 38-24 edge in points in the paint and a 17-5 scoring disparity from the foul line.
Sotos recorded his fifth 20-point game of the season and sixth in his career. He also logged five rebounds and three assists.
Kahliel Spear led the Bison with six rebounds to go with six points off the bench.

Bucknell vs. Colgate

This will be the 116th all-time meeting between Bucknell and Colgate in a series that dates back 100 years to 1920. The Bison have a 68-47 series lead. The only other opponents that Bucknell has played at least 100 times are Lehigh (176), Lafayette (169), Gettysburg (126) and Penn State (104).
As Patriot League rivals, Bucknell is 47-20, including 25-5 in Lewisburg.
Bucknell had won six straight games in the series until the Raiders prevailed 74-65 at Cotterell Court on Feb. 19, 2019. Rapolas Ivanauskas scored 21 points to lead Colgate. Avi Toomer scored 16 points for the Bison, who cut a 14-point deficit down to four late in the second half but could not get over the hump.
In last year's first meeting in Lewisburg, the Bison rallied for an 84-81 win behind 25 points from Kimbal Mackenzie and 15 and nine rebounds from Nate Sestina. Bucknell trailed by as many as 13 points in the first half but took over the game late, with Mackenzie and Sestina scoring 13 of the team's final 15 points down the stretch. Jordan Burns recorded 28 points, nine rebounds and six assists for Colgate, and Ivanauskas added 20 points.
The rubber match came in the Patriot League championship game, which was held in Hamilton because Colgate prevailed in a tiebreaker after the two teams shared the regular-season title. The Raiders won it 94-80 behind a sensational 35-point performance from Burns. Mackenzie scored 16 of his 23 points in a second-half flurry that cut what had been a 17-point deficit down to two, but the Bison could not overcome Colgate's 71% shooting in the second half.
The two teams also squared off in the 2018 Patriot League title game at Sojka Pavilion. The Bison built a 14-point halftime lead and sailed to an 83-54 win over Colgate. Bucknell rode a 22-point, six-assist performance from Tournament MVP Stephen Brown. Sestina scored 16 off the bench on 7-for-9 shooting, and the Bison posted the largest victory margin in the history of the Patriot League championship game.
This season's first meeting came at Cotterell Court on Jan. 20, and the Raiders won 80-65 thanks to some lights-out 3-point shooting. Colgate went 11-for-15 from the arc in the second half and 14-for-23 in the game. Burns hit six of those second-half treys and scored all 23 of his points in the second half. Andrew Funk scored 16 points to lead the Bison, who trailed by three at the half and were right in the game until Colgate pulled away late.

Notable Numbers

Bucknell has done well to limit opponents' 3-point shooting in recent games. Over the last five contests, Bison foes are just 18-for-83 (.217) from downtown.
Bucknell has held 13 of its 16 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.
Kahliel Spear is 21-for-34 (.618) from the field over the last six games, upping his season field-goal percentage to .534. Spear is shooting 60.3% in Patriot League play. Despite playing in a reserve role (14.4 mpg), Spear leads the Bison in 3-point play opportunities with 11. He scored a career-high 20 points in the win over American on Feb. 15, doubling his previous personal best.
Jimmy Sotos scored 20 points at Lehigh on Saturday after combining for 20 in his previous four games. Sotos now has five 20-point games this season, the most on the team.
John Meeks is averaging 7.7 rebounds over his last seven games.
Walter Ellis has made a 3-pointer in 12 straight games, and he is averaging 10.0 ppg off the bench in his last four games.
The Bison had been a solid free-throw shooting team for most of the season, but they have struggled of late. In the last four games the Bison are 20-for-44 (.455) 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 156 more free throws this season, leading to a 438-328 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 47.6% 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, 10-Loyola, 24-Boston University, 26-Lafayette, 68-Colgate. 90-American). The Bison rank 247th.
Bucknell's streak of 10 straight seasons with a positive assist-to-turnover ratio is likely to end, but over the last three games the Bison have 41 assists and 30 turnovers. Bucknell is now on the plus side in Patriot League play with 208 assists compared to 194 turnovers.
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 one assist to catch Abe Badmus (375) for eighth on Bucknell's career chart.
Andrew Funk needs 41 points for 500 in his career.
Avi Toomer needs 35 points for 800 in his career.

Who's Got Next?

Bucknell wraps up the regular season on Saturday at Boston University. It's a noon tip at Case Gym.
The Terriers handed the Bison their first-ever 20-point loss in Sojka Pavilion (77-57) back on Feb. 1.