Saturday, March 6
Easton, Pa.
2 p.m.
Bucknell University
5-6,5-6Patriot
92
at
84
Lafayette (PL Quarterfinals)
9-6,9-6Patriot
1
2
F
Bucknell
46
46
92
Lafayette
37
47
84
Photo by: Marc Hagemeier
Men's Basketball Headed Back to Patriot League Semifinals after 92-84 Win at Lafayette
3/6/2021 4:16:00 PM | Men's Basketball
EASTON, Pa. -- For the 24th time in 31 seasons in the Patriot League, the Bucknell men's basketball team is headed to the tournament semifinals. Led by a 31-point, 11-rebound performance from senior forward John Meeks -- his third 30-point outing in five games this year -- the sixth-seeded Bison shot a season-high 54.5 percent from the field and eliminated the third-seeded Leopards, despite 28 points from senior Justin Jaworski.
Bucknell will now travel to second-seeded Colgate on Wednesday night in the semifinal round of the PenFed Credit Union Patriot League Tournament. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network at 7:30 p.m. The Bison and Raiders met in the 2018 and 2019 championship games, with each team winning once on their home floors.
Bucknell went to Lafayette in the rare position of being a quarterfinal underdog. This was just the fifth time in the Patriot League era that the Bison were seeded sixth or lower, but in four of those five instances they won to move on to the semifinals. Last season, the seventh-seeded Bison upset No. 2 American in the quarters, and now they are moving on again after a strong offensive performance against Lafayette.
In addition to Meeks' 31-point double-double, sophomore point guard Xander Rice also had a big day with 19 points, thanks in large part to a career-high four 3-pointers. Junior guard Andrew Funk scored all 14 of his points in the second half, junior wing Walter Ellis logged 13 points, eight rebounds and four assists, and freshman center Andre Screen have the Bison 15 productive minutes off the bench with nine points and six rebounds.
"I'm really happy for our guys, who have been through a lot this year," said head coach Nathan Davis, who improved to 13-4 in Patriot League Tournament games in his six seasons at Bucknell. "Offensively, we really showed our versatility scoring in a number of different ways, and it was nice to have our full complement of weapons again. Of course, having No. 12 (Meeks) back on the floor gives everyone else so much confidence. Defensively we were not nearly as good as we were before we went on pause, and we know we are going to have be better there going up to Colgate on Wednesday."
After beating Lehigh 92-68 on Jan. 31 for its fourth straight victory, Bucknell did not play again until last weekend's pair of losses to American, which came without the services of frontcourt players Meeks, Screen, Alex Timmerman and Malachi Rhodes. All four returned to practice this week, and Meeks in particular carried the Bison in the first half against Lafayette, even though the host got out to a torrid start.
The Leopards hit four of their first six 3-pointers of the day, and the Bison found themselves down by as many as nine on a couple of occasions, the latter after an E.J. Stephens 3-point play made it 24-15 at the 11:29 mark. But then Meeks started to take over. He spun in the lane for a bucket while drawing a foul, he hit a fadeaway jumper on the wing, and then he buried a 3-pointer from the top of the key to quickly answer a Jaworski three.
Meeks grabbed two straight offensive rebounds in one flurry, with his second stick-back resulting in a 3-point play, cutting the margin to 32-29 with 7:40 left. Meeks then kicked the ball out of a double team for a tying three from Rice, who then followed with another trey and layup, giving him eight straight points and the Bison a 37-32 lead after an 11-0 run.
Neal Quinn stopped the flurry with a 3-point play of his own, but Bucknell scored the final seven points of the half, six coming from Meeks, who finished with 23 points in the opening 20 minutes. Bucknell limited Lafayette to just the single field goal from Quinn over the last 8:18, and the 20-5 run gave the Bison a 46-37 lead at the break.
Funk, Bucknell's second-leading scorer coming in, was held scoreless in the first half, but he got going in the second. He opened the scoring with a nifty reverse layup, and then his 4-point play gave the Bison a 52-37 lead. Just under two minutes later Ellis swished a three from the left wing, and Bucknell had its largest advantage of the day at 57-42.
No lead is too large against Lafayette, the league's second-highest scoring team with two dangerous scorers in Jaworski and Stephens. Sure enough, those two combined for seven quick points, and the Leopards were right back in it.
Bucknell had plenty of answers of their own, however. When Lafayette pulled within eight on a Sean Good layup, Meeks scored twice in a row at the rim to push it with 12. When Jaworski splashed a three from way downtown, Meeks drove the lane and dished to Rice in the right corner for a big 3-pointer.
Tyrone Perry's steal in the backcourt led to a 3-point play, against cutting the margin to seven, but again Rice hit a big three, this one from the left corner off a feed from Ellis.
Lafayette eventually pulled within four at 80-76 after Jaworski's fourth 3-pointer of the day with 2:22 to play. Funk answered with a big step-back jumper from about 12 feet, and then Bucknell finished off the victory at the free-throw line, hitting 10 of 12 in the final 1:02.
Up 84-80, Miles Latimer hit two big ones with 29 seconds left. At the other end, the Bison fouled Stephens, the sixth-ranked free-throw shooter in the nation at 91.9 percent. Stephens, who was 9-for-9 at the line on the day and had not missed two free throws in the same game all season, missed both with 23 seconds left. Ellis grabbed the rebound and hit two at the other end to make it 88-80, essentially putting the game out of reach and making Bucknell 25-for-31 (.806) at the line on the day.
Rice was coming off a 7-for-7 shooting performance last time out against American, and he went 6-for-10 in this one, including 4-for-6 from the arc. Rice is now shooting 52.6 percent from the field this season, highest among all Patriot League guards. He is also shooting 48.3 percent from 3-point range.
"Xander is really playing at a high level right now," said Davis. "He is a 50-40 guy in terms of his percentages, and he has come a long way, really since the second Lafayette game back early in the season. He decided he was going to attack and play his game, and even though he wasn't credited with any assists tonight he really controlled the tempo."
Meeks turned in Bucknell's third 30-point performance in a Patriot League Tournament game. Chris Hass had 32 against Holy Cross in 2015, and Mike Muscala tallied 30 against Lehigh in the 2012 final. Meeks also had 31 points and 11 rebounds against Lehigh on Jan. 17, and he scored 32 against the Mountain Hawks two weeks later. He will take a 25.8 scoring average to Colgate on Wednesday.
Bucknell and Colgate were scheduled to meet in Hamilton on Jan. 23-24, but those games were canceled due to an apparent positive COVID-19 test in Bucknell's Tier 1 group, although it was later determined to be a laboratory error that resulted in the positive.
"Colgate is obviously playing very well right now," said Davis. "We were prepared to play them earlier in the season, so our scout won't be all new. I personally think Jordan Burns and John Meeks are the two best players in the league, so it could be quite a show. We know we have our work cut out for us, but if we play to our potential it's a game we are capable of winning."
Bucknell will now travel to second-seeded Colgate on Wednesday night in the semifinal round of the PenFed Credit Union Patriot League Tournament. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network at 7:30 p.m. The Bison and Raiders met in the 2018 and 2019 championship games, with each team winning once on their home floors.
Bucknell went to Lafayette in the rare position of being a quarterfinal underdog. This was just the fifth time in the Patriot League era that the Bison were seeded sixth or lower, but in four of those five instances they won to move on to the semifinals. Last season, the seventh-seeded Bison upset No. 2 American in the quarters, and now they are moving on again after a strong offensive performance against Lafayette.
In addition to Meeks' 31-point double-double, sophomore point guard Xander Rice also had a big day with 19 points, thanks in large part to a career-high four 3-pointers. Junior guard Andrew Funk scored all 14 of his points in the second half, junior wing Walter Ellis logged 13 points, eight rebounds and four assists, and freshman center Andre Screen have the Bison 15 productive minutes off the bench with nine points and six rebounds.
"I'm really happy for our guys, who have been through a lot this year," said head coach Nathan Davis, who improved to 13-4 in Patriot League Tournament games in his six seasons at Bucknell. "Offensively, we really showed our versatility scoring in a number of different ways, and it was nice to have our full complement of weapons again. Of course, having No. 12 (Meeks) back on the floor gives everyone else so much confidence. Defensively we were not nearly as good as we were before we went on pause, and we know we are going to have be better there going up to Colgate on Wednesday."
After beating Lehigh 92-68 on Jan. 31 for its fourth straight victory, Bucknell did not play again until last weekend's pair of losses to American, which came without the services of frontcourt players Meeks, Screen, Alex Timmerman and Malachi Rhodes. All four returned to practice this week, and Meeks in particular carried the Bison in the first half against Lafayette, even though the host got out to a torrid start.
The Leopards hit four of their first six 3-pointers of the day, and the Bison found themselves down by as many as nine on a couple of occasions, the latter after an E.J. Stephens 3-point play made it 24-15 at the 11:29 mark. But then Meeks started to take over. He spun in the lane for a bucket while drawing a foul, he hit a fadeaway jumper on the wing, and then he buried a 3-pointer from the top of the key to quickly answer a Jaworski three.
Meeks grabbed two straight offensive rebounds in one flurry, with his second stick-back resulting in a 3-point play, cutting the margin to 32-29 with 7:40 left. Meeks then kicked the ball out of a double team for a tying three from Rice, who then followed with another trey and layup, giving him eight straight points and the Bison a 37-32 lead after an 11-0 run.
Neal Quinn stopped the flurry with a 3-point play of his own, but Bucknell scored the final seven points of the half, six coming from Meeks, who finished with 23 points in the opening 20 minutes. Bucknell limited Lafayette to just the single field goal from Quinn over the last 8:18, and the 20-5 run gave the Bison a 46-37 lead at the break.
Funk, Bucknell's second-leading scorer coming in, was held scoreless in the first half, but he got going in the second. He opened the scoring with a nifty reverse layup, and then his 4-point play gave the Bison a 52-37 lead. Just under two minutes later Ellis swished a three from the left wing, and Bucknell had its largest advantage of the day at 57-42.
No lead is too large against Lafayette, the league's second-highest scoring team with two dangerous scorers in Jaworski and Stephens. Sure enough, those two combined for seven quick points, and the Leopards were right back in it.
Bucknell had plenty of answers of their own, however. When Lafayette pulled within eight on a Sean Good layup, Meeks scored twice in a row at the rim to push it with 12. When Jaworski splashed a three from way downtown, Meeks drove the lane and dished to Rice in the right corner for a big 3-pointer.
Tyrone Perry's steal in the backcourt led to a 3-point play, against cutting the margin to seven, but again Rice hit a big three, this one from the left corner off a feed from Ellis.
Lafayette eventually pulled within four at 80-76 after Jaworski's fourth 3-pointer of the day with 2:22 to play. Funk answered with a big step-back jumper from about 12 feet, and then Bucknell finished off the victory at the free-throw line, hitting 10 of 12 in the final 1:02.
Up 84-80, Miles Latimer hit two big ones with 29 seconds left. At the other end, the Bison fouled Stephens, the sixth-ranked free-throw shooter in the nation at 91.9 percent. Stephens, who was 9-for-9 at the line on the day and had not missed two free throws in the same game all season, missed both with 23 seconds left. Ellis grabbed the rebound and hit two at the other end to make it 88-80, essentially putting the game out of reach and making Bucknell 25-for-31 (.806) at the line on the day.
Rice was coming off a 7-for-7 shooting performance last time out against American, and he went 6-for-10 in this one, including 4-for-6 from the arc. Rice is now shooting 52.6 percent from the field this season, highest among all Patriot League guards. He is also shooting 48.3 percent from 3-point range.
"Xander is really playing at a high level right now," said Davis. "He is a 50-40 guy in terms of his percentages, and he has come a long way, really since the second Lafayette game back early in the season. He decided he was going to attack and play his game, and even though he wasn't credited with any assists tonight he really controlled the tempo."
Meeks turned in Bucknell's third 30-point performance in a Patriot League Tournament game. Chris Hass had 32 against Holy Cross in 2015, and Mike Muscala tallied 30 against Lehigh in the 2012 final. Meeks also had 31 points and 11 rebounds against Lehigh on Jan. 17, and he scored 32 against the Mountain Hawks two weeks later. He will take a 25.8 scoring average to Colgate on Wednesday.
Bucknell and Colgate were scheduled to meet in Hamilton on Jan. 23-24, but those games were canceled due to an apparent positive COVID-19 test in Bucknell's Tier 1 group, although it was later determined to be a laboratory error that resulted in the positive.
"Colgate is obviously playing very well right now," said Davis. "We were prepared to play them earlier in the season, so our scout won't be all new. I personally think Jordan Burns and John Meeks are the two best players in the league, so it could be quite a show. We know we have our work cut out for us, but if we play to our potential it's a game we are capable of winning."
Team Stats
Buck
Laf
FG%
.545
.475
3FG%
.500
.375
FT%
.806
.810
RB
38
23
TO
15
9
STL
4
7
Game Leaders
Pts
31
FGM
10
3FGM
1
FTM
10
Pts
19
FGM
6
3FGM
4
FTM
3
Pts
14
FGM
5
3FGM
1
FTM
3
Pts
13
FGM
3
3FGM
1
FTM
6
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's Basketball
G
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/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
C
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