Men's Basketball Back Home Sunday to Host Siena

SPECTATOR POLICY: Bison Athletics and the Bucknell men's basketball team are pleased to welcome fans back to Sojka Pavilion this season. Please note that per University policy, masks are required for all individuals inside all public and academic indoor campus spaces, regardless of social distancing or vaccination status.

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bison men's basketball team looks to bounce back from a tough week when Siena visits Sojka Pavilion on Sunday afternoon. After beating Rider in the most recent home game on Nov. 17, a shorthanded Bucknell squad dropped three in a row at the Cancun Classic, including two games in which the Bison led late in regulation.

The campus-site portion of of the Cancun Classic truly was a classic. Bucknell and Illinois State both let late leads get away before the Bison forced overtime on an Elvin Edmonds IV buzzer-beater. The Redbirds ended up prevailing 105-100 despite a sensational 38-point effort from Andrew Funk. The Bison senior hit seven 3-pointers on the way to tying the tournament scoring record, previously set by future NBA player Norris Cole, then of Cleveland State. Funk now leads the Patriot League in scoring, minutes played and 3-pointers per game.

Down at the Riviera Maya, Bucknell battled a good Mercer team that made it to the Southern Conference final a year ago. The Bison trailed by five at the half, fell behind by 19 in the second, then got as close as seven after a strong finish. The star of that game was junior center Alex Timmerman, who went for 22 points and eight rebounds with starter Andre Screen sidelined with an injury. Bucknell then played Rider for the second time in a week. After a slow start, the Bison rallied to go up by 11, only to go ice cold down the stretch as the Broncs parlayed a late 11-0 run into an 85-79 win. That loss overshadowed a career-best 24-point, eight-rebound effort from Xander Rice.

The schedule does not get any easier for the Bison, as they now prepare to take on a Siena team that won MAAC regular-season titles in each of the last two seasons. The Saints were the No. 1 seed in the MAAC Tournament a year ago, only to run into Rick Pitino's Iona squad that ended up winning the tournament as a No. 9 seed. Siena has almost a completely new roster this year with six upperclass transfers among its 10 newcomers.

The Saints have also been tested by a difficult schedule. After absorbing one-sided losses to No. 23 St. Bonaventure, Delaware, Yale and Georgetown, they picked up an impressive 72-69 home win over Harvard in their most recent outing on Monday.

Here are some links to get you up to speed on this year's squad.

• Complete Game Notes
• 2021-22 Media Guide

GAME DIGEST
What: Siena (1-4, 0-0 MAAC) at Bucknell (1-5, 0-0 PL)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa.
When: Sunday, Nov. 28, 2 p.m.
Internet Stream: ESPN+
Local Radio: WKOK 1070 AM
Internet Audio: BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com

Bucknell Tentative Starters
G: Xander Rice (15.2 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 4.3 apg)
G: Andrew Funk (19.7 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 2.8 apg)
F: Ian Motta (1.2 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 0.5 apg)
F: Jake van der Heijden (7.0 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 1.1 apg)
C: Alex Timmerman (10.0 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 0.8 apg)

Headlines

Bucknell wraps up a busy holiday week with a home game against Siena on Sunday afternoon. The Bison will be looking to snap a three-game losing streak, while the Saints are looking to carry some momentum from last Monday's impressive home win over Harvard.
Bucknell returned stateside on Thanksgiving Day after playing three games at the Cancun Classic. The Bison dropped all three, but they were well-positioned to win two of them. The trip started with a wild one, with Illinois State prevailing 105-100 in overtime in a campus-site game in Normal, Ill. In Cancun, Bucknell fell 78-68 to a Mercer team that played in the Southern Conference championship game last season, and then Rider used a late 11-0 run to swipe an 85-79 verdict.
The Bison played shorthanded on the trip, with two starters missing time. Sophomore guard Josh Adoh missed the first two games and was limited to four minutes in the third due to illness. Sophomore center Andre Screen sat out the two games in Cancun due to an ankle injury.
A significant silver lining, however, was the emergence of junior Alex Timmerman, who played major minutes in Screen's absence. In the three games at the Cancun Classic, including the campus-site game at Illinois State, Timmerman totaled 43 points and 29 rebounds while hitting 19 of 27 shots from the field (.704). That included a 22-point, eight-rebound performance against Mercer and his first career double-double against Rider.

Alex Timmerman at the Cancun Classic
Opponent   FG-A   Pts.   Reb.   Min.
Illinois State   5-9     10     9    28
Mercer 10-12   22 8    32
Rider 4-6   11 12    33
Totals 19-27   43 29 93

Senior guard Andrew Funk exploded for a career-high 38 points in the Illinois State game, and he later earned a spot on the Cancun Classic All-Tournament Team. It was a remarkable performance for Funk, who scored 28 of his 38 points after halftime and shot the Bison back into the game after they fell behind by seven points in the second half. Funk has now topped the 30-point mark twice this season, and he is leading the Patriot League in scoring at 19.7 points per game.
Siena has been idle since Monday, when the Saints picked up their first win of the season, 72-69 over Harvard at the Times Union Center. Siena shot 57% and hit 7 of 10 from 3-point range in the second half. The Saints started the season 0-4, but against a very difficult schedule (St. Bonaventure, Delaware, Yale, Georgetown). Colby Rogers leads the team in scoring at 14.6 ppg.
Siena was the MAAC regular-season champion last season, but the Saints have 10 new players this year, including six transfers. North Carolina transfer Andrew Platek has played in the last two games after being cleared by the NCAA to join the squad. The Bison went up against Platek back in 2017 in Chapel Hill. He was scoreless in 14 minutes off the bench in a game the Tar Heels won 93-81.

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Siena game will stream on ESPN+, with Doug Birdsong (play-by-play) and former Bison assistant coach Terry Conrad (color analyst) calling the action.
Sam Kuperman has the radio call on WKOK 1070 AM.
The audio feed is also available online free of charge via BucknellBison.com.
Live in-game statistics can be accessed at BucknellBison.com.
Follow @Bucknell_MBB for in-game updates on Twitter.

Cancun Review
Illinois State 105, Bucknell 100 (OT)

The Bison and Redbirds played an instant classic in Normal last Saturday. Andrew Funk poured in a career-high 38 points, 28 coming after halftime, and freshman Elvin Edmonds IV scored a career-high 18, including a put-back at the buzzer that forced overtime.
It was a closely contested affair throughout, with 12 ties and 22 lead changes over 45 minutes of action. Both teams let leads slip out of their grasps in the latter stages of regulation. The Redbirds crept out to a seven-point lead with 6:25 remaining, but Funk shot the Bison right back in it with 15 points in the next five minutes. Bucknell went up 84-79 with 45 seconds to go, but a missed front end of a 1-and-1 and two costly turnovers in the backcourt allowed Illinois State to regain the lead.

Mercer 78, Bucknell 68

The Bears led 37-32 at halftime but ran the margin up to as many as 19 in the second half. The Bison got back in it by holding Mercer scoreless for 6:20. A Funk 3-pointer cut the margin to seven at 73-66 with 2:30 to go and the Bison had a possession to get even closer, but a palming violation followed by a Felipe Haase 3-pointer stymied the comeback attempt.
Alex Timmerman had a huge game with 22 points on 10-for-12 shooting, and Xander Rice added 20 of his own.

Rider 85, Bucknell 79

Stuggles in the first five minutes and last five minutes of the game proved costly for the Bison. They fell behind 14-2 early, then controlled the game for long stretches. Some hot shooting by Jake van der Heijden (15 points on 5-8 3FG) helped Bucknell go up by 11 in the second half, but Rider used an 11-0 run to flip a four-point deficit into a seven-point lead in the late stages.
Over the first 5:00 and final 5:20, Rider outscored Bucknell 30-8. Over the middle 30 minutes, Bucknell outscored Rider 71-55.
Xander Rice set new career highs with 24 points and eight rebounds for the Bison.

Bucknell vs. Siena Series Notes

Bucknell and Siena are meeting for the seventh time overall and for the sixth time in the last eight years. The Saints have a 5-1 series lead, but the Bison won 115-92 the last times the teams met at Sojka Pavilion on Nov. 20, 2017.
The first series meeting came on Dec. 27, 1985, when the Saints won 83-65 in the first round of the Siena Invitational. Siena went on to beat Cornell to win the tournament, while Bucknell beat East Carolina in the consolation game. Mike Butts led the Bison with 13 points in that 1985 meeting, while former Marist and James Madison head coach and current Maryland assistant Matt Brady had 19 points and seven assists for the Saints. That Siena team was coached by John Griffin, father of Bucknell alum and former assistant coach John Griffin.
In the last clash in Lewisburg, the Bison had a monster offensive night and set what was then a Sojka Pavilion scoring record in the 115-92 victory. Zach Thomas set school records for free throws made (19) and attempted (22) on the way to a 25-point night. Nana Foulland (15), Nate Sestina (14), Bruce Moore (14) and Jimmy Sotos (10) all scored in double figures for the Bison, who went 39-for-45 (.867) from the foul line. Nico Clareth led the Saints with 21 points.
The last series meeting came on Dec. 21, 2019 at the Times Union Center. Siena won 81-71 behind 28 points from Elijah Burns and a 29-7 scoring edge at the foul line.

Notable Numbers

Bucknell has been excellent at the free-throw line thus far, hitting at an 80.9% clip. That is the best mark in the Patriot League and 13th-best in all of Division I basketball.
As good as that free-throw figure is, the Bison have actually been outshot at the stripe. Bucknell's opponents are shooting 81.0% on the season.
Bucknell has outshot four of its six opponents this season, with the lone exceptions Penn and Illinois State. On the season, the Bison are shooting 44.5% compared to their opponents' 41.8%.
That shooting advantage has been undermined by a wide disparity in turnovers, however. The Bison have a -6.3 turnover margin on the season, and their opponents have 62 steals to only 15 for Bucknell.
Andrew Funk has been one of the nation's most prolific 3-point shooters in the first month of the season. He has 23 treys in 61 attempts, and his 3.8 makes per game is the eighth-best figure in the country. Funk has made seven treys in a game twice, including in his 38-point game against Illinois State.

NCAA Leaders, 3-Point Field Goals Per Game
   Player   G   3FG   Avg.
1.  Joe Quintana, Loyola Marymount 5   23   4.60
2.  Lamar Norman Jr., Western Michigan   4   18   4.50
3.  Kamdyn Curfman, VMI 6   26   4.33
   Brendan Barry, Dartmouth 3   13   4.33
5.  Patrick Good, Winthrop 5   21   4.20
6.  Alex Hunter, Furman 5   20   4.00
   George Papas, Monmouth 5   20   4.00
8.  Andrew Funk, Bucknell 6   23   3.83
9.  Taylor Funk, Saint Joseph's 5   19   3.80
10. Tyrese Williams, Quinnipiac 5   19   3.80

Most Points in a Division I Game, 2021-22 Season
   Player    Pts.
1.  Felipe Haase, Mercer vs. Winthrop 41
2.  Adrian Delph, Appalachian St. vs. Delaware   39
3.  Andrew Funk, Bucknell vs. Illinois State 38
4.  Michael Devoe, Georgia Tech vs. Georgia 37
   Drew Timme, Gonzaga vs. Texas 37
   Grant Basile, Wright State vs. Marshall 37

Who's Got Next?

After Sunday's game against Siena, Bucknell will play three straight on the road heading into the final exam break. First up is a trip to Saint Francis (Pa.) on Wednesday.

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Players Mentioned

Josh Adoh

Elvin Edmonds IV

Andrew Funk

Andrew Funk

Xander Rice

Xander Rice

Andre Screen

Alex Timmerman

Jake van der Heijden

Jake van der Heijden