Bison, Red Flash to Meet for First Time in Eight Years Wednesday in Loretto

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- On the heels of a run of three straight frustrating losses, the Bison men's basketball team posted an overtime victory over Siena on Sunday. Now Bucknell hopes to take that momentum on the road, with a three-game away stretch on tap heading into the final exams break. The road swing gets started on Wednesday night at Saint Francis (Pa.), which is coming off an impressive win of its own on Sunday at Lehigh.

The Bison and Red Flash were once frequent non-conference adversaries, but on Wednesday the teams will be meeting for the first time since the 2013-14 season. Bucknell has won three straight in the series and leads 17-12 dating all the way back to the very first matchup in 1927.

After giving up an average of 87.7 points in the three games at the Cancun Classic, the Bison put an emphasis on the defensive end against Siena, and they responded with their best performance of the year in that regard. Bucknell limited Siena to just 0.8 points per possession while holding the Saints to 33.8 percent shooting from the field and 21.4 percent (6-28) from 3-point distance. Bucknell came into that game ranked 350th out of 350 Division I teams in steals per game, but it took a step in the right direction with a season-high eight thefts, including a couple of big ones in overtime.

Bucknell will be tested by a balanced Red Flash offensive attack that features seven players averaging between 7.6 and 13.0 points per game. Saint Francis scores 77.2 points per game while shooting 42.4% as a team. Opponents have more than twice as many 3-pointers (50-24), but the Red Flash counter that with a big edge at the free-throw line (82-61) and on the glass (+5.8).

Here are some links to get you up to speed on the game.

• Complete Game Notes
• Digital Game Program
• 2021-22 Media Guide

GAME DIGEST
What: Bucknell (2-5, 0-0 PL) at Saint Francis (2-3, 0-0 NEC)
Where: DeGol Arena, Loretto, Pa.
When: Wednesday, Nov. 30, 7 p.m.
Internet Stream: NEC Front Row
Local Radio: The Valley 100.9 FM WVLY
Internet Audio: BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: SFUAthletics.com

Bucknell Tentative Starters
G: Xander Rice (14.6 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 4.3 apg)
G: Andrew Funk (18.3 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 2.7 apg)
F: Ian Motta (1.4 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 0.6 apg)
F: Jake van der Heijden (7.0 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 1.0 apg)
C: Alex Timmerman (11.4 ppg, 7.7 rpg, 0.9 apg)

With a Win over Saint Francis, Bucknell Would ...

... win its second straight game and improve to 3-5 overall and 1-2 on the road this season.
... defeat the Red Flash for the fourth straight time and improve to 18-12 all-time against them.
... give head coach Nathan Davis his 111th victory as Bucknell's head coach, moving him into sole possession of fourth place on the program's all-time wins list.

Headlines

Bucknell has a challenging three-game road swing heading into the final exams break, starting Wednesday night at Saint Francis. The Bison will also travel to Hofstra and Princeton prior to an 11-day hiatus.
Both teams are looking to build on Sunday victories. The Bison turned in their best defensive effort of the season, holding Siena to 33.8% shooting in a 65-56 overtime win at Sojka Pavilion. Later that evening, the Red Flash used a 53-point second half to run past Lehigh 79-68 in Bethlehem.
A major development for the Bison over the last week has been the emergence of junior center Alex Timmerman while starter Andre Screen has missed the last three games with an ankle injury. Timmerman averaged 17.7 ppg and 10.7 rpg while shooting 70.0 FG% in his first three career starts, and that led to his first Patriot League Player of the Week honor on Monday. Timmerman is riding a streak of four straight double-digit scoring games and two straight double-doubles, and his production over the last four games has exceeded his career numbers coming into that stretch.

Alex Timmerman Last Four Games
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
Siena   7-12   20 12 34
Totals   26-39    63 41 127
Career Prior   18-36 47 38 180

Senior guard Andrew Funk exploded for a career-high 38 points at Illinois State on Nov. 20, 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 topped the 30-point mark twice this season, and he ranks second in the Patriot League in scoring at 18.3 points per game.
Funk's 70 3-point attempts are the second-most in the nation, trailing only Jesse Zarzuela of Coppin State, who has 71. Funk's 25 made 3-pointers are seventh-most in Division I basketball.
Saint Francis is playing at home for just the second time this season. The Red Flash defeated Franciscan 100-54 on Nov. 15, then dropped two straight to Virginia Tech and Cornell before beating Lehigh on Sunday.
Ronell Giles Jr. leads a balanced scoring attack with 13.0 ppg. Ramiir Conover (12.5), Josh Cohen (11.8) and Myles Thompson (11.6) also score in double figures, with Maxwell Land (9.0), Marlon Hargis (8.2) and Mark Flagg (7.6) not far behind. Cohen is coming off back-to-back 18-point games and was named the NEC Co-Player of the Week on Monday. The Bison are familiar with Hargis, who played his first two years at Patriot League rival Holy Cross.
The Red Flash returned their top six scorers and 91% of their offensive production from last year's squad that finished 6-16 overall and 5-13 in the Northeast Conference. Saint Francis was 48-24 in NEC play in the four previous seasons, however, including a regular-season title in 2018-19.

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Saint Francis game will stream on NEC Front Row, with former Bucknell director of athletic communications Pat Farabaugh calling the play-by-play and Bernie Jubeck on color commentary.
Doug Birdsong has the radio call on The Valley, WVLY 100.9 FM.
The audio feed is also available online free of charge via BucknellBison.com.
Live in-game statistics can be accessed at SFUAthletics.com.
Follow @Bucknell_MBB for in-game updates on Twitter.

Last Time Out

Alex Timmerman continued his torrid play with 20 points and 12 rebounds, and Bucknell outscored Siena 15-6 in overtime to win 65-56 on Sunday afternoon at Sojka Pavilion.
The Bison snapped a three-game losing streak with their best defensive performance of the season, holding the Saints to 33.8% shooting from the field and 21.4% from 3-point range.
Bucknell struggled offensively for much of the day against Siena's pressure defense, but the Bison hit 4 of 6 shots from the field and 6 of 6 from the foul line in the extra period. Meanwhile, the Saints went 1-for-10 from the field in overtime, with the lone bucket an uncontested layup with six seconds left in an 11-point game.
Andrew Funk and Xander Rice, Bucknell's top two scorers coming in, were held in check for most of the game, but both still reached double figures while contributing in other ways. Rice had 11 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals, and he went 9-for-10 from the foul line after drawing nine fouls. He opened the overtime scoring with his only made field goal of the day, and he came up with two big steals in overtime.
Funk, the Patriot League scoring leader at 19.7 points per game coming in, was held to 10, but he hit a critical 3-pointer in overtime that stretched a two-point lead up to five.
Jake van der Heijden had a strong game with seven points and a career-high nine rebounds. He hit a go-ahead 3-pointer late in regulation, he hit another big jumper to beat the shot clock in overtime, and he made a key defensive play to force a miss from Siena's top scorer Anthony Gaines, just after the Funk three in OT.
Bucknell shot 37.5% from the field even though it hit 40.0% (8-20) from outside the arc. The Bison bench went 4-for-4 from 3-point range, with Adoh and Elvin Edmonds IV both hitting both of their attempts.
The Bison were 15-for-19 from the foul line, while the Saints were 6-for-8.

Bucknell vs. Saint Francis Series Notes

This will be the 30th all-time meeting between Bucknell and Saint Francis (Pa.), with the Bison leading the series 17-12.
The two teams first met on Jan. 17, 1927 in Loretto, with Bucknell winning that one 40-14. The Bison returned the following year and won a much closer affair, 30-29 on a shot just before the final horn from Hall-of-Famer Ed Halicki, who later went on to play in the NFL for the Frankford Yellow Jackets.
Bucknell has won the last three games in the series. The most recent meeting came at Sojka Pavilion on Nov. 16, 2013, when Cameron Ayers scored 16 points and Dom Hoffman added 14 off the bench in a 72-50 Bison victory.
Bucknell's last trip to Loretto came on Dec. 17, 2012, when the Bison ran out to a 42-19 halftime lead and won 76-49 to improve to 10-1 on the season. Mike Muscala had 12 points and seven rebounds in only 21 minutes for the Bison, who went on to win the Patriot League championship that season.
Saint Francis' last series win was a 68-67 verdict at DeGol Arena early in the 2010-11 season. G.W. Boon had 24 points and Muscala 22 for the Bison, who would go on to finish 25-9 and win the Patriot League title that year.
One of Bucknell's top individual performances came in Loretto 18 years ago. Kevin Bettencourt hit a school-record 11 3-pointers and scored 42 points, the most ever by a Bucknell player in a road game. The Red Flash won the game, however, 84-79.

Notable Numbers

Bucknell has been excellent at the free-throw line thus far, hitting at an 80.6% clip. That is the best mark in the Patriot League and 10th-best in all of Division I basketball. The Bison have four of the Patriot League's top-10 free-throw shooters.

Patriot League Leaders, Free-Throw Percentage
   Player   FTM   FTA   Pct.
1. Nelly Cummings, Colgate   16    17   .941
2. John Carter Jr., Navy 15    16   .938
3.  Xander Rice, Bucknell 33     36   .917
4. Elvin Edmonds IV, Bucknell 17    19   .895
5. Leo O'Boyle, Lafayette 19    22   .864
6. Cam Spencer, Loyola 24    28   .857
7. Andrew Funk, Bucknell 17    20   .850
8. Stacy Beckton Jr., American 14    17   .824
9.  Sukhmail Mathon, Boston U. 28    35   .800
10. Alex Timmerman, Bucknell 15    19   .789

NCAA Team Leaders, Free-Throw Percentage
   Player FTM   FTA   Pct.
1.  UMBC 82    96   .854
2.  Monmouth 95   112   .848
3.  Niagara 63 75   .840
4.  Iowa 119   143   .832
5.  Wisconsin 88   106   .830
6.  Kent State 58 70   .829
7.  Central Florida   59 72   .819
8.  Kentucky 61 75   .813
9.  Colorado State   109   135   .807
10. Bucknell 104   129   .806

As good as that free-throw figure is, Bucknell's opponents have been equally on the mark. Bison foes are also shooting 80.6% on the season.
Bucknell has outshot five of its seven opponents this season, with the lone exceptions Penn and Illinois State. On the season, the Bison are shooting 43.5% compared to their opponents' 40.7%.
That shooting advantage has been undermined by a wide disparity in turnovers, however. The Bison have a -5.4 turnover margin on the season, and their opponents have 68 steals to only 23 for Bucknell.
Bucknell has had at least one 20-point scorer in six straight games. That is the team's longest streak since 2017-18, when the Bison closed the season with eight straight games with a 20-point scorer, culminating with Zach Thomas (27) and Stephen Brown (20) both hitting that mark against Michigan State in the NCAA Tournament.
Andrew Funk has been one of the nation's most prolific 3-point shooters in the first month of the season. He has 25 treys in 70 attempts, and his 3.6 makes per game is the 17th-best figure in the country. Funk has made seven treys in a game twice, including in his 38-point game against Illinois State.

Most Points in a Division I Game, 2021-22 Season
   Player Pts.
1.  Trayce Jackson-Davis, Indiana vs. Marshall   43
2. Felipe Haase, Mercer vs. Winthrop 41
3. Jackson Gibbs, Jacksonville St. vs. Elon 40
4. Antoine Davis, Detroit vs. Hofstra 39
   Adrian Delph, Appalachian St. vs. Delaware   39
6. Andrew Funk, Bucknell vs. Illinois State 38
   Kofi Cockburn, Illinois vs. UTRGV 38

Funk needs six points to reach 800 in his career. He is Bucknell's leading active scorer with 794 points.

Who's Got Next?

Bucknell heads out to Long Island on Saturday to face Hofstra at 2 p.m. The Pride are 3-4 heading into Wednesday's home game against Princeton, but their losses include close road setbacks against No. 15 Houston (83-75 in OT), Iona (82-74) and No. 20 Maryland (69-67).

Bison, Red Flash to Meet for First Time in Eight Years Wednesday in Loretto

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Elvin Edmonds IV

Andrew Funk

Andrew Funk

Xander Rice

Xander Rice

Andre Screen

Alex Timmerman

Jake van der Heijden

Jake van der Heijden

Bison, Red Flash to Meet for First Time in Eight Years Wednesday in Loretto

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Elvin Edmonds IV

Andrew Funk

Andrew Funk

Xander Rice

Xander Rice

Andre Screen

Alex Timmerman

Jake van der Heijden

Jake van der Heijden

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