Men's Basketball Takes on Loyola Sunday Night at Sojka on CBS Sports Network

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. -- The Loyola Greyhounds pay a visit to Sojka Pavilion on Sunday evening, as the Bucknell men's basketball squad kicks off the second half of Patriot League play in a game that will be televised on CBS Sports Network.

With half of the league schedule in the rearview mirror, the Bison hope to begin a climb up the Patriot League standings, starting Sunday against a Loyola team that finds itself in a logjam at the top of the table. Depending on how Army and Navy fare on Saturday -- both play at home against Lafayette and American, respectively -- the Greyhounds will be in first place or just a half-game out when they arrive in Lewisburg.

A 1-8 league record is an unusual position for a Bison squad that has finished .500 or better in Patriot League play in 25 of 31 seasons while winning nearly 70 percent of its league games. Bucknell endured some close losses in the first half, one of which was a 71-67 setback at Loyola on Jan. 10. The Bison were down two points with the ball in the final 10 seconds but could not convert a pass to an open baseline cutter, leading to a turnover.

The Bison have dominated the all-time series with Loyola, winning 19 of 24 meetings, but the Greyhounds have taken the last two. Bucknell has won eight straight series clashes at Sojka Pavilion.

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

GAME DIGEST
What: Loyola (12-8, 6-3 PL) at Bucknell (4-17, 1-8 PL)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa.
When: Sunday, Jan. 30, 6 p.m.
TV: CBS Sports Network
Local Radio: The Valley WVLY 100.9 FM
Internet Audio: BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com
BUY TICKETS

Bucknell Tentative Starters
G: Xander Rice (11.9 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 3.9 apg)
G: Andrew Funk (17.1 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 2.3 apg)
G: Elvin Edmonds IV (5.5 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 2.2 apg)
F: Jake van der Heijden (6.7 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 1.2 apg)
C: Andre Screen (10.8 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 1.1 bpg)

With a Win over Loyola, Bucknell Would ...

... avenge a Jan. 10 loss to the Greyhounds and improve to 2-8 in Patriot League play.
... snap a four-game home losing streak.
... improve to 4-5 at home this season and 197-69 all-time at Sojka Pavilion.
... beat the Greyhounds at home for the ninth straight time and improve to 20-5 all-time against them.

Headlines

Bucknell starts the back half of Patriot League play when Loyola visits Sojka Pavilion on Sunday evening. The Bison couldn't build on last weekend's win at Holy Cross, falling to Navy at home on Wednesday. The Midshipmen led by eight points at the half, and then shot 59.4% in the second half on the way to an 81-63 win.
The Bison are looking to get their Sojka Pavilion mojo back as Loyola comes to Lewisburg. Bucknell was 3-1 at home in non-conference play but has lost all four Patriot League home games. Since Sojka Pavilion opened in 2003, the Bison have lost four straight home games only one other time (2015-16), and they have never dropped five straight.
Sunday's game will feature a battle between the Patriot League's top two scorers in Loyola's Cam Spencer (19.4) and Bucknell's Andrew Funk (17.1). When the Bison and Greyhounds met earlier this month in Baltimore, both players hit the 20-point mark (Spencer 26, Funk 20) in Loyola's 71-67 win.
Jan. 24-30 has been designated as the American Cancer Society's Coaches vs. Cancer Suits and Sneakers Week. Head coach Nathan Davis and his staff are participating in a nationwide event that unites coaches across the country to raise funds and awareness about the fight against cancer. While coaching games during the week, coaches are wearing sneakers with their game attire as a visible reminder of their support of the American Cancer Society. The coaching staff is wearing adidas Ultraboost22 shoes during this week's games.
Bucknell won 68-65 at the Hart Center last Saturday, ending an eight-game losing streak and an 11-game road losing streak.
Funk reached the 1,000-point plateau with a 3-pointer early in the first half at Holy Cross. Funk became the 44th Bison to score 1,000 career points. He and older brother Tommy Funk also became 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 Hall-of-Famer Kevin Bettencourt (1,577 from 2002-06) and Holy Cross' Ted Bettencourt (1,035 from 1992-96) also surpassed 1,000 points.
Freshman Ian Motta has emerged as a key weapon off the bench in recent games, more than doubling his season-to-date production in terms of points and field goals. Motta went 3-for-3 from 3-point range on the way to a career-high 10 points against Colgate on Jan. 19. He then eclipsed that personal best with 12 points in the win at Holy Cross before adding nine more points against Navy. In a span of three games, Motta has upped his season field-goal percentage 141 percentage points, from .206 to .347.

Ian Motta Pts.   FG-A   3FG-A
First 18 Games   22    7-34    3-22
Last 3 Games 31   10-15    7-8

Loyola is one of three teams with a 6-3 record and one of four with a .667 winning percentage sitting at the top of the Patriot League standings. This is the Greyhounds' best start since joining the Patriot League.
Loyola features the Patriot League's top scorer in Cam Spencer, who averages 19.4 points per game. Spencer also leads the league in steals (2.2) and assist-to-turnover ratio (3.2), with the latter figure ranking sixth nationally. Kenneth Jones leads the PL in assists (5.1), while Jaylin Andrews averages 14.4 ppg to give the Greyhounds the league's highest-scoring backcourt.

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Loyola game will be televised on CBS Sports Network. Jason Knapp and Mo Cassara will call the action from Lewisburg.
Doug Birdsong, who is in his 22nd season as the "Voice of the Bison", will handle 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

Bucknell fell 81-63 to Navy in Patriot League action Wednesday night at Sojka Pavilion. Andrew Funk scored a game-high 17 points and handed out four assists to lead the Bison.
The Midshipmen took a 35-27 lead into the halftime break, and then they broke the game open with a sizzling start to the second half. Navy made its first seven shots and scored on its first nine possessions of the stanza, which helped the visitors open up a 55-37 lead by the 14:24 mark. Navy would go on to lead by as many as 25 points, shooting 59.4 percent in the second half after connecting on 37.5 percent in the first 20 minutes.
Both teams got out to hot starts thanks to Andre Screen and Tyler Nelson. Screen scored Bucknell's first nine points of the game, with his 3-point play giving the Bison an early 9-6 lead. Meanwhile, Nelson scored nine of Navy's first 11 points.
Ian Motta's 3-pointer put the Bison in front 12-9, but Navy responded with a 12-0 run to take the lead for good.
Funk was honored before the game for scoring his 1,000th career point in Saturday's win at Holy Cross, and he added 17 more to his ledger to move up to 41st place on Bucknell's all-time scoring list.
Screen finished with 15 points, eight rebounds, and three blocks, while Xander Rice had 10 points, four assists, and three steals for the Bison.

Bucknell vs. Loyola Series Notes

The Bison and Greyhounds have met 24 times previously. Bucknell leads 19-5 in the series, including a 13-3 mark since Loyola joined the Patriot League in 2013-14.
Bucknell is 9-3 all-time at Loyola's Reitz Arena and 10-2 at home (2-0 in Davis Gym, 8-2 at Sojka Pavilion). Both of the Greyhounds' wins in Sojka Pavilion came before they joined the Patriot League. The Bison have won the last eight in Lewisburg.
The first series meeting came on Jan. 7, 1987 in Lewisburg. The Bison prevailed that day 72-70. A year later Bucknell won 80-60 on Loyola's home floor.
Bucknell and Loyola played twice within the 1992-93 season. The Bison won 75-59 in Baltimore, and in late February at Davis Gym the Bison rolled to a 116-85 victory. In the latter game, the Bison produced what was then their second-highest point total in program history, led by an incredible 9-for-10 3-point shooting performance by Hall-of-Famer Mike Bright.
Bucknell and Loyola split two meetings in 2019-20, and then did not meet last season under the COVID-modified Patriot League schedule.
In Baltimore on Jan 10, Loyola prevailed 71-67 in a game that was not decided until the final seconds. Down 69-67 inside 10 seconds to play, the Bison had an open cutter on the baseline but could not connect on the pass, and Cam Spencer hit two free throws to ice the game. Spencer (26 points) and Andrew Funk (20) — the league's top two scorers — engaged in quite a battle throughout.

Notable Numbers

Senior guard Andrew Funk is enjoying his best season to date, with a scoring average (17.1) 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 fifth-most in the nation. Funk is one of only 27 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 15th-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.
Xander Rice's eight assists at Loyola are the most by any active Bison. Rice has 31 assists and only 12 turnovers in his last six games.
Bucknell recently went five straight games with a 1.0 or greater assist-to-turnover ratio, but in the last three games the team has 32 assists and 51 turnovers.
Saturday's win at Holy Cross was the first time the Bison won a game while committing 20 or more turnovers since Jan. 17, 2018, when they had 22 miscues in a 78-70 win over Loyola.
Bucknell has struggled to create turnovers this season, as opponents are committing only 9.3 miscues per game on the season. That coupled with some rebounding troubles means that opponents have attempted 177 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 78.4% clip. That is the best mark in the Patriot League and 13th-best in all of Division I basketball. The school record is 78.8%, set by the 2010-11 team.
Andre Screen has joined the free-throw party of late. He is 20-for-24 (.833) over his last five games, including two game-clinching charity tosses in the win at Holy Cross.

Patriot League Success

Bucknell is 307-146 (.678) 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).

Who's Got Next?

Bucknell is back on the road twice next week. The Bison travel to Colgate on Wednesday night and to Lafayette on Saturday afternoon.
The Bison fell to Colgate, 75-56, in Sojka Pavilion on Jan. 19. This will be the first of two meetings between the Bison and Leopards.

Men's Basketball Takes on Loyola Sunday Night at Sojka on CBS Sports Network

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Elvin Edmonds IV

Andrew Funk

Andrew Funk

Ian Motta

Xander Rice

Xander Rice

Andre Screen

Jake van der Heijden

Men's Basketball Takes on Loyola Sunday Night at Sojka on CBS Sports Network

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Elvin Edmonds IV

Andrew Funk

Andrew Funk

Ian Motta

Xander Rice

Xander Rice

Andre Screen

Jake van der Heijden

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