Men's Basketball Entertains Lehigh Thursday at Sojka Pavilion

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 Bucknell's spectator policy recently changed, and proof of vaccination or negative COVID-19 test is now required for entry. CLICK HERE for more details on the updated policy.

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- Bucknell and Lehigh clash for the 181st time this Thursday evening at Sojka Pavilion. Game time is 7 p.m., with live coverage on ESPN+.

Thursday's game against Lehigh will be Youth Basketball Night at Sojka Pavilion. All youth basketball players attending the game in uniform get in free, and parents receive a $5 discount on their tickets. Visit Bucknell's online ticket office and use promo code YBBALL22 on checkout.

Bucknell and Lehigh are currently riding opposite waves of momentum. After starting the season 1-10, the Mountain Hawks have won four of their last five, including a 3-1 start in Patriot League play. Meanwhile, the Bison are looking for a reversal of fortunes after dropping their first four league contests, including a tough 71-67 setback at Loyola on Monday night.

These two teams are certainly familiar with one another. Of those previous 180 meetings dating back to 1902, four came last season under the COVID-modified divisional format implemented by the Patriot League. The Bison won all four of those games, two in Lewisburg and two in Bethlehem, and they lead the all-time series 111-69 heading into the first of two scheduled get-togethers on this year's slate.

• Complete Game Notes
• 2021-22 Media Guide

GAME DIGEST
What: Lehigh (5-11, 3-1 PL) at Bucknell (3-13, 0-4 PL)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa.
When: Thursday, Jan. 13, 7 p.m.
Internet Stream: ESPN+
Local Radio: The Valley WVLY 100.9 FM
Internet Audio: BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com
BUY TICKETS

Bucknell Tentative Starters
G: Xander Rice (11.8 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 3.7 apg)
G: Andrew Funk (18.1 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 2.3 apg)
G: Elvin Edmonds IV (6.0 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 2.5 apg)
F: Jake van der Heijden (7.5 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 1.5 apg)
C: Andre Screen (10.5 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 0.9 apg)

With a Win over Lehigh, Bucknell Would ...

... snap a five-game losing streak and improve to 1-4 in Patriot League play.
... avoid the first 0-5 start in league play during the Patriot League era.
... improve to 4-2 at home this season and 143-33 against Patriot League opponents at Sojka Pavilion.
... defeat the Mountain Hawks for the fifth straight time and improve to 112-69 all-time against them.
... improve to 307-142 all-time in Patriot League regular-season play.

Headlines

After playing 11 of its first 16 games away from home, the Bison kick off a stretch of four of the next six at Sojka Pavilion when Lehigh pays a visit on Thursday night.
Bucknell has dropped its first four Patriot League games, three of them coming on the road, with all four games coming against teams that currently sit in the top half of the league standings. Lehigh is tied for second place with a 3-1 PL record, meaning that Bucknell's first five conference tilts will come against the top five teams on the leaderboard.
Three of Bucknell's four Patriot League losses have been decided in the final minutes, including Monday's 71-67 setback at Loyola. Over the final nine minutes of that game, the Bison had numerous possessions down by three points or fewer, but they could never manage to tie or take the lead. Down two inside 10 seconds to play, Bucknell turned the ball over on a backdoor pass attempt, and Loyola's Cam Spencer clinched the verdict with two free throws.
Despite the loss, Andrew Funk recorded his seventh 20-point game of the season and his third in four Patriot League contests. Funk logged 21 in the game, upping his season average to 18.1 ppg. That mark, as well as his 20.5 ppg Patriot League average, ranks second in the league behind only Loyola's Cam Spencer.
Funk is now on 1,000-point watch. The senior has 955 career points, leaving him 45 away from becoming Bucknell's 44th 1,000-point scorer. When Funk hits that milestone, he and older brother Tommy Funk would become just the second Patriot League brother combination to both score 1,000 career points. Tommy tallied 1,544 points for Army from 2016-20. The other brother combo to accomplish the feat also involved a Bucknell standout, as Kevin Bettencourt (1,577 from 2002-06) and Holy Cross' Ted Bettencourt (1,035 from 1992-96) also surpassed 1,000 points.
Bucknell and Lehigh will be meeting for the fifth time in the last 12 months. Under last year's COVID-modified Patriot League schedule, the Bison and Mountain Hawks squared off four times, with Bucknell winning all four. Bucknell actually played four consecutive games against Lehigh, thanks to the cancellation of a weekend series at Colgate. That was a first in team history, as Bucknell had never even played the same team three times in a row before last year's scheduling quirk.
The Bison are catching a red-hot Lehigh squad. After starting the season 1-10, the Mountain Hawks have suddenly won four of their last five. That includes a 3-1 start in Patriot League play, with wins over American, Colgate and Holy Cross along with a loss at Army.
Evan Taylor, a 6'6" guard, leads Lehigh in both scoring (12.9) and rebounding (6.1). Taylor is coming off a double-double with 15 points and 12 boards in Monday's 77-69 home win over Holy Cross. Jeameril Wilson averages 11.5 points per game and shoots 41.0% from the 3-point arc. Marques Wilson, a fifth-year guard, recently returned from a six-game injury absence and led the team with 17 points last time out against the Crusaders. Lehigh has also received improved play from freshman guard Keith Higgins Jr. This week's Patriot League Rookie of the Week has scored in double figures in five straight games.

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Lehigh game can be seen on ESPN+, with Doug Birdsong and former Bison assistant coach Terry Conrad on the call. Birdsong is in his 22nd year as "The Voice of the Bison".
Sam Kuperman is the play-by-play announcer for the local radio broadcast 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 BucknellBison.com.
Follow @Bucknell_MBB for in-game updates on Twitter.

Last Time Out

Andrew Funk recorded his seventh 20-point game of the season for Bucknell, but the Bison could not get over the hump late in the game in a 71-67 loss at Loyola on Monday night at Reitz Arena.
Cam Spencer scored 26, including the clinching free throws with 4.8 seconds left, to help Loyola win its third straight game to get to 3-1 in Patriot League and 9-6 overall.
The story of the night was Bucknell repeatedly creeping back from deficits, only to come up short in one-possession games. The Bison trailed by as many as 12 early in the second half, but Andre Screen's dunk with 9:36 to go made it a 57-54 game. Over the final nine minutes, Bucknell had numerous chances to tie or take the lead, but could not convert.
Down 69-67 with the ball and the shot clock off, the Bison found Screen in the high post with Jake van der Heijden cutting open along the baseline. Screen's hard bounce pass didn't connect, and Spencer hit the two free throws to ice it.
Funk tallied 21 points to lead the Bison. Van der Heijden logged 11 points, Alex Timmerman had 10 off the bench, and Screen had nine points and eight rebounds. Xander Rice finished with eight points and a career-high eight assists.
Spencer and Jaylin Andrews (19) accounted for 45 of Loyola's 71 points. The Greyhounds shot 51.7% from the field, compared to Bucknell's 44.1%.
The Bison equaled a season-low with 10 turnovers, but they were costly. The Greyhounds converted those takeaways into 18 points, including 12 fastbreak points.

Bucknell vs. Lehigh Series Notes

Bucknell has played more games (180) and won more games (111) against Lehigh than any other school. The Bison have a 111-69 lead in a series that originated in 1902.
Since the start of Patriot League play in 1990-91, Bucknell holds a 51-23 advantage, including a 29-8 mark at home.
Lehigh is responsible for snapping Bucknell's 35-game home winning streak against Patriot League foes. The Bison had not lost to a conference opponent at Sojka Pavilion in nearly five years, until the Mountain Hawks won 56-54 in Lewisburg on Jan. 30, 2008.
Lehigh also won the first game ever played in Sojka Pavilion, a 60-56 decision on Jan. 15, 2003. Including that game, Bucknell is 15-7 against the Mountain Hawks in Sojka.
Bucknell is 7-3 against Lehigh in Patriot League Tournament action, including an 81-65 win in the 2017 championship game.
The Bison went 4-0 against Lehigh last season, as the two teams played four times in the same campaign for the first time. In last year's first weekend set, Bucknell won 75-70 at home and 77-61 in Bethlehem. Two weeks later, the Bison prevailed 84-70 at Stabler Arena and 92-69 at Sojka Pavilion.
John Meeks played a huge role in last year's sweep of Lehigh. He totaled 98 points and 25 rebounds in the four games, and twice he topped the 30-point mark. Andrew Funk also played well, scoring in double figures in all four games for a 13.8 ppg average.

Notable Numbers

Senior guard Andrew Funk is enjoying his best season to date, with a scoring average (18.1) and FG% (.449) all well above his previous career bests. Funk scored a career-high 38 points at Illinois State on Nov. 20, and his four games this season with 28 or more points are tied for second-most in the nation. Funk is one of only 15 Division I players to hit six or more 3-pointers in a game at least three times this season, and his 38 points are tied for 11th-most in the nation.
Funk's 38 points against Illinois State tied the Cancun Challenge tournament scoring record. Norris Cole, who later played in the NBA, scored 38 against Florida A&M in 2009.
Andre Screen is shooting 66.7% from the field (22-33) in Patriot League play. That is the best mark in the Patriot League. Screen has now played in 75% of Bucknell's overall games, which makes him eligible for the league leaderboard. His full-season shooting percentage of 61.3% is second-best in the league.
Xander Rice's eight assists at Loyola are the most by any active Bison.
Elvin Edmonds IV has made a 3-pointer in seven straight games and is 11-for-25 (.440) in that span. Edmonds is shooting 43.2% from the arc on the season. That is the fourth-best mark in the Patriot League and the best among freshmen.
Bucknell averaged 14.8 turnovers per game in non-conference play, but since the start of the Patriot League schedule the Bison have reduced that figure to 11.0 per game.
The Bison have 49 assists against 34 turnovers in their last three games, and that has bumped their season assist-turnover ratio back over 1.0 with 234 assists and 222 turnovers.
Bucknell has struggled to create turnovers, however, as opponents are committing only 9.3 miscues per game on the season. That coupled with some rebounding troubles means that opponents have attempted 136 more field goals this season. The Bison have taken more shots than their opponent only three times this season — against Penn, Illinois State and Loyola — and in all three of those games the margin was just one additional attempt.
Bucknell has been excellent at the free-throw line thus far, hitting at a 79.0% clip. That is the best mark in the Patriot League and 10th-best in all of Division I basketball.

Patriot League Success

Bucknell is 306-142 (.683) all-time in Patriot League regular-season games, the best record of any league team. The Bison have finished at least .500 in PL play 25 times in 31 Patriot League seasons.
Bucknell won three straight Patriot League regular-season titles from 2011-13, becoming the first team in league history to accomplish that feat. The Bison had won five in a row and eight of the previous nine before finishing T-6th in 2019-20.
Bucknell has made nine Patriot League Tournament appearances as the No. 1 seed and seven as the No. 2 seed.
Bucknell won Patriot League Tournament titles in 2005, 2006, 2011, 2013, 2017 and 2018. The Bison have made it to the semifinals 24 times and to the championship game 13 times in the league's first 31 years.
The Bison are the only team to go unbeaten in league play in a season (14-0 in 2006).

Home Cooking

Since Sojka Pavilion debuted in 2003, the Bison are 196-66 (.748) overall and 142-33 (.811) against Patriot League foes.
Bucknell won a record 15 home games in 2016-17, and then it matched that figure a year later. Over the last six years, Bucknell is 56-16 at home.

Who's Got Next?

Bucknell travels to American on Sunday for a 2 p.m. contest on ESPN+. The Eagles are 0-2 in Patriot League play heading into a Thursday trip to Holy Cross.

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Men's Basketball Entertains Lehigh Thursday at Sojka Pavilion

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Elvin Edmonds IV

Andrew Funk

Andrew Funk

John Meeks

Xander Rice

Xander Rice

Andre Screen

Alex Timmerman

Jake van der Heijden

Men's Basketball Entertains Lehigh Thursday at Sojka Pavilion

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Elvin Edmonds IV

Andrew Funk

Andrew Funk

John Meeks

Xander Rice

Xander Rice

Andre Screen

Alex Timmerman

Jake van der Heijden

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