Men's Basketball Back Home Saturday to Face Marist

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- Fresh off a Thanksgiving feast and an Ocean Bracket championship at the Greenlight Sunshine Slam, the Bucknell men's basketball team opens up a two-game homestand on Saturday afternoon against Marist. The Bison defeated Presbyterian (66-65) and Austin Peay (79-65) in Daytona Beach earlier in the week and bring a 4-2 record into Saturday's contest. The Red Foxes are 1-4, having dropped four straight since a season-opening victory over American of the Patriot League.

The Bison, who have been much-improved defensively while also ranking among the NCAA leaders in field-goal-percentage, have four games remaining in the semester. They will host Saint Francis (Pa.) on Youth Basketball Night on Wednesday, and then road trips to NJIT and La Salle lead into the final exams break.

GAME DIGEST
What: Marist (1-4) at Bucknell (4-2)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa.
When: Saturday, Nov. 26, 2 p.m.
Streaming: ESPN+
Local Radio: The Valley (WVLY 100.9)
Internet Audio: BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com
COMPLETE GAME NOTES
DIGITAL GAME PROGRAM

Bucknell Tentative Starters
G: Elvin Edmonds IV (8.8 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 3.2 apg)
G: Xander Rice (17.2 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 3.2 apg)
F: Ian Motta (6.3 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 1.1 apg)
F: Alex Timmerman (11.5 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 1.8 apg)
C: Andre Screen (13.0 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 1.5 bpg)

With a Win over Marist, Bucknell Would ...

... win its third straight game and improve to 5-2, marking its best seven-game start to a season since 2016-17.
... improve to 2-1 this season against teams from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
... improve to 7-4 all-time and 5-1 at home against the Red Foxes.
... improve to 3-0 at home this season and make it five straight home wins dating back to last season.

Headlines

Bucknell enjoyed a successful trip south for the Greenlight Sunshine Slam, presented by Discount Tire. The Bison started the excursion with a four-point loss at Georgia in a campus-site game, and then defeated Presbyterian and Austin Peay in Daytona Beach to win the Ocean Bracket championship.
Bucknell is now 4-2 on the season for its best start since 2016-17. That year, the Bison started 6-2 on the way to a Patriot League title.
Xander Rice was named Tournament MVP of the Ocean Bracket at the Sunshine Slam. The senior guard scored 19 points against Georgia and 17 against Presbyterian, and then in the championship game against Austin Peay he tallied 18 of his 20 points in the second half to lead the Bison to a come-from-behind victory.
Rice now leads the team and ranks third in the Patriot League in scoring at 17.2 ppg.
Alex Timmerman and Andre Screen joined Rice on the Sunshine Slam All-Tournament Team. Timmerman scored a career-high 23 points in the Austin Peay win. Screen tallied 17 points and 12 rebounds against Presbyterian, and he hit the tie-breaking free throw with 5.9 seconds left in the 66-65 victory.
Bucknell is off to a hot shooting start in 2022-23. The Bison have hit 50% or better from the field in five of their first six games — 44.4% at Georgia is the outlier — and are shooting 53.5% as a team. That is the sixth-best percentage in all of Division I basketball.

NCAA Team Leaders, FG Percentage
1. Arizona       211-350   .603
2. Indiana 166-299   .555
3. Wright State   233-432   .539
4. James Madison   177-330   .536
5. Gonzaga 122-228   .535
6. Bucknell 169-316   .535

Bucknell currently ranks fourth in the nation in effective field-goal percentage, which is an adjusted field-goal percentage that accounts for the added worth of a 3-pointer.

NCAA Team Leaders, Effective Field-Goal Percentage (FG + 0.5 * 3P) / FGA)
1. Arizona .647
2. Indiana .618
3. James Madison .617
4. Bucknell .614
5. Iowa .613

The Bison were picked eighth in the Patriot League preseason coaches' poll, ahead of Holy Cross and Lafayette. Defending-champion Colgate was the preseason No. 1 pick.
Bucknell is looking to bounce back from a 9-23 season a year ago. The Bison were playing well at the end of the season, however, with an overtime win at Lafayette in the Patriot League Tournament first round capping a 3-1 stretch. Bucknell was eliminated by Colgate in the quarterfinal round.
Bucknell won eight Patriot League regular-season titles in a nine-year span from 2011-19, and the Bison went to the NCAA Tournament in 2011, 2013, 2017 and 2018 during that stretch. Now Bucknell is trying to rebound from a rare run of three straight sub-.500 seasons, something that has not happened since 2007-08 to 2009-10, although the Bison did win conference tournament games in each of the last three years.
Marist opened the season with a 73-69 home win over American, but the Red Foxes have dropped four straight since then to Binghamton (78-75), Lehigh (64-54), Princeton (62-55), and Maryland-Eastern Shore (70-59).
Marist finished 14-16 overall and 9-11 in the MAAC last season. The Red Foxes were the No. 6 seed in the MAAC Tournament but were upset by 11th-seeded Quinnipiac 77-52 in the opening round.
The Red Foxes are led by 6'11" center Patrick Gardner, a grad transfer from Saint Michael's College who has two 20-point games this season and leads the team in scoring (17.0) and rebounding (7.6).

How to Get the Game

Saturday's game will stream live on ESPN+. Veteran play-by-play man Doug Birdsong will call the play-by-play.
Kevin Foedinger will have the radio call on The Valley (WVLY 100.9 FM) in the Susquehanna Valley.
The audio feed is also available online free of charge via BucknellBison.com.
Live statistics can be accessed via BucknellBison.com.
Follow @Bucknell_MBB for in-game updates on Twitter.

Bucknell vs. Marist Series Notes

Bucknell and Marist have met 10 times previously, with the Bison winning six, including four of the last five.
Bucknell is 4-1 at home and 3-1 in Sojka Pavilion against Marist.
The teams first met during the 1985-86 season, with Marist winning 61-53 in Poughkeepsie. That Marist team, led by future NBA All-Star Rik Smits, would go on to win the ECAC Metro Conference tournament and make its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance. Bucknell defeated the Smits-led Red Foxes 66-64 the following season in Davis Gym.
The last meeting between the two teams came in Sojka Pavilion in the 2014-15 season opener. Bucknell won 75-72. Dom Hoffman led five Bison in double figures with 14 points to go with nine rebounds. The Bison overcame 33 points from Marist's Khalid Hart, whose seven 3-pointers are still tied for the Sojka Pavilion record by an opposing player.

A Look Back at the Sunshine Slam

Bucknell played some good basketball during last week's trip to the Greenlight Sunshine Slam, dropping a 65-61 decision in a campus-site game at Georgia before defeating Presbyterian (66-65) and Austin Peay (79-65) to win the Ocean Bracket championship.
It was Bucknell's first in-season tournament title since winning the Mid-Major flight of the Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational in 2016-17.
Bucknell took Georgia right down to the final seconds on Friday at Stegeman Coliseum. The game was tied at 30-30 at the half, and the Bulldogs later used a 17-2 run to go up by 14 in the second half. Bucknell fought back and pulled within two on an alley-oop lob from Xander Rice to Andre Screen with eight seconds left. But Justin Hill hit two free throws to clinch it for Georgia.
Rice led the Bison with 19 points on 8-for-13 shooting, and Screen and Alex Timmerman scored 10 apiece. Terry Roberts led Georgia with 20 points, nine rebounds, and six assists.
Screen played a starring role in the one-point nailbiter against Presbyterian. He finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds and made two winning plays in the closing seconds. With the score even at 65-65, Screen grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled going up. He split a pair at the line to give the Bison the lead with 5.9 seconds left, and then at the, other end he stepped in from the help side to cut off a drive and force a wild shot at the buzzer that was well off the mark. Bucknell never trailed in the game and led by as many as 15 in the first half, but the Bison had to hold off a rally from the Blue Hose.
It was Bucknell's turn to come from behind in the Ocean Bracket final against Austin Peay. Down nine late in the second half, the Bison closed within five by the break and then charged ahead in the second half to go up by as many as 17. All told, it was a 41-18 run, with Rice and Timmerman the catalysts. Timmerman finished with a career-high 23 points on 9-for-15 shooting, and Rice tallied 18 of his season-high 20 points in the second half.

Notable Numbers

Through six games in 2022-23, Bucknell has been much-improved defensively over last season, when the Bison struggled to get stops. Bucknell ranks No. 1 in the league in scoring defense and field-goal percentage defense, and No. 2 in 3-point defense.

Scoring Defense Opp. FG% Opp 3FG%
2021-22 79.4 .466 .373
2022-23 63.2 .375 .303

Bucknell shot 50% or better from the field nine times last season and has already done so five times this year. The Bison are currently one of only eight teams in the nation shooting better than 50% from the field and 40% from 3-point distance.
Bucknell's top nine scorers are all shooting 50% or better from the field.
Andre Screen is shooting 68.0% from the field, which is the best mark in the Patriot League and 23rd-best in the nation.
The Bison have a +3.8 rebounding margin on the season, but they would like to improve on the defensive glass. Opponents have 81 offensive rebounds to Bucknell's 53, and that area was particularly costly in the two losses to Saint Peter's and Georgia, which combined for a 33-9 edge in second-chance points.
Bucknell's 21 made 3-pointers against Lebanon Valley are the third-most by any Division I team so far this season.

Who's Got Next?

Bucknell will play at home again on Wednesday, taking on Saint Francis (Pa.) at 7 p.m. It will be Youth Basketball Night at Sojka Pavilion, presented by Red Robin.

Men's Basketball Back Home Saturday to Face Marist

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Players Mentioned

Elvin Edmonds IV

Ian Motta

Xander Rice

Andre Screen

Alex Timmerman

Men's Basketball Back Home Saturday to Face Marist

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Players Mentioned

Elvin Edmonds IV

Ian Motta

Xander Rice

Andre Screen

Alex Timmerman

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