Bucknell Men’s Basketball Falls to American 78-71 in Return after Four-Week Layoff

LEWISBURG, Pa. – Back in action for the first time in nearly four weeks and playing without the services of four frontcourt players, the Bucknell men's basketball game took the game down to the wire but fell to American 78-71 at Saturday Pavilion on Saturday afternoon.

Bucknell entered on a four-game winning streak, but this was the first contest for the Bison (4-5, 4-5 PL) since a Jan. 31 win over Lehigh due to positive COVID-19 tests with in the team's Tier 1 group, and then due to campus-wide restrictions on group activities following a surge in cases. Even though the Bison were unable to have a full-team practice until Thursday of this week, they got off to a nice start on Saturday, held the lead for about half the game, and were locked up in a one-point affair with 90 seconds to go.

With leading scorer John Meeks (24.5 points per game) and reserve bigs Andre Screen, Malachi Rhodes and Alex Timmerman all sidelined due to COVID-19 protocols, Bucknell played with a four-guard lineup for most of the game.

Freshman Deuce Turner led that group with a career-high 21 points. Walter Ellis went 3-for-5 from the 3-point arc and added 13 points, and Xander Rice contributed 10 points, six assists and four rebounds. American's top scorer Jamir Harris led four Eagles in double figures with 19 points. Harris was 4-for-18 from the field but 8-for-9 from the foul line, where he made four big ones in the final 21 seconds to help American pull away.

"I'm very proud of the way our guys have handled the difficult circumstances of not playing for a month, and then coming out here shorthanded with only a couple of practices under our belts," said head coach Nathan Davis. "The effort and energy was great, but at the same time this game counts in the standings, and we are disappointed that we didn't make a few more plays down the stretch when we had a chance to come away with a victory."

Andrew Funk's 3-point play with five seconds remaining in the first half lifted Bucknell into a 35-35 tie at the break. There were six lead changes and three ties in the first 11:34 of the second half, as both teams traded small runs.

Rice's layup with 8:26 to go tied game at 58 before American answered with a 7-0 run, capped by a Harris 3-pointer, to take the lead for good.

The Bison still trailed by seven at 70-63 after a 3-point play by Stacy Beckton Jr. with 4:13 to go, but Bucknell stayed in the game thanks to four straight defensive stops. Ellis hit a 3-pointer, Rice split a pair at the foul line, and then after Ellis made a sensational block on Harris' layup attempt, Turner stopped on a dime and canned an elbow jumper to make it a 70-69 game with 1:48 to go.

Bucknell had defended American's Princeton-style back cuts well for the most part all day long, but Harris shook free for a layup off a feed from Josh Alexander to end the Eagles' drought. The Bison turned the ball over, and then never got the ball back in a one-possession game thanks to a couple of key offensive rebounds by the Eagles.

American drained the shot clock, Connor Nelson's three attempt clanged off the rim, and the long rebound came out to Alexander, forcing the Bison to foul with the shot clock now off. Johnny O'Neil missed the front end of the 1-and-1, but Beckton Jr. tipped the rebound all the way out to Harris at midcourt. Harris hit both free throws, and then hit two more with 13 seconds left after a Turner layup.

"We played well enough to be right in the game at the end, but give credit to American for making the plays down the stretch," said Davis. "We obviously had a smaller lineup out there for most of the game, but our guards have good size and length. The two rebounds at the end kind of put the nail in the coffin, but there were plenty of other plays we'd like to have back. We had a couple of missed layups, a couple of missed free throws, and we hadn't given up a back cut all day until right at the end."

American finished with a 34-31 rebounding edge and led 11-9 in second-chance points. Paul Newman had a team-high 11 rebounds for the Bison, while Nelson pulled down 12 for AU.

The Bison shot 23-for-54 (.426) from the field and 17-for-23 from the line, while the Eagles were a couple of shots better, hitting 25-for-55 (.455) from the floor and 18-for-24 (.750) at the charity stripe. In the second half, Bucknell shot 39.3 percent (11-28) from the floor, while American shot 52.0 percent (13-25).

Harris handed out a game-high eight assists in addition to his 19 points. American recorded 17 assists on its 25 made field goals. Beckton Jr. added 17 points, while Matt Rogers (12) and Ben Lubarsky (10) also reached double figures in scoring.

Newman, Meeks, Jordan Sechan and head manager Spencer Bahrenburg were all honored before the game in a Senior Day ceremony, with their families joining in via Zoom on the Sojka Pavilion video boards. Sechan made his first career start, and the Bison also received six solid minutes off the bench from freshman Josh Adoh, who was making his collegiate debut after being injured at the start of the year.

The two teams will meet again on Sunday at 4 p.m. at American's Bender Arena.

Gallery: (2-27-2021) Men's Basketball vs. American

Bucknell Men’s Basketball Falls to American 78-71 in Return after Four-Week Layoff

Players Mentioned

Josh Adoh

Walter Ellis

Andrew Funk

John Meeks

Paul Newman

Malachi Rhodes

Xander Rice

Andre Screen

Jordan Sechan

Alex Timmerman

Deuce Turner