Men's Basketball Closes Out Non-Conference Slate Friday at Rutgers

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- Bucknell and Rutgers square off for the first time in 22 years on Friday evening at Jersey Mike's Arena. The 5 p.m. contest will be televised on the Big Ten Network, with local radio coverage on WKOK 1070 AM.

Bucknell will be on a tight turnaround after playing at Richmond on Wednesday night. A tough stretch late in the first half proved costly in an 81-71 road loss to the defending Atlantic 10 champs. The Bison hit an astounding 15 of 20 shots from the field in the second half and cut a 16-point deficit down to seven, but the Spiders were deadly from long distance, hitting 14 of 26 in the game, including some late daggers from Tyler Burton (29 points, 6-6 3FG) and Matt Grace (20 points, 4-6 3FG). Xander Rice paced the Bison with 19 points.

Bucknell will face a stiff challenge on Friday from a Rutgers team that has some impressive wins this season. The Scarlet Knights have been idle since an 81-57 rout of a Wake Forest team that bounced back three days later and defeated Duke 81-70. Rutgers also owns a 63-48 home win over No. 8 Indiana, which was followed by a controversial one-point road loss at the buzzer at No. 23 Ohio State. The Scarlet Knights boast one of the nation's stingiest defenses, and they are very difficult to beat at home. Rutgers is 7-1 at Jersey Mike's Arena this season and 49-9 over the last four.

This is Bucknell's last non-conference game of the 2022-23 regular season. Following the Rutgers game, the Bison will take a few days off for Christmas and then begin preparations for the Patriot League opener at Holy Cross on Dec. 30.

GAME DIGEST
What: Bucknell (7-5) at Rutgers (7-4)
Where: Jersey Mike's Arena, Piscataway, N.J.
When: Friday, Dec. 23, 5 p.m.
TV: Big Ten Network
Local Radio: WKOK (1070 AM)
Internet Audio: BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: S carletKnights.com
COMPLETE GAME NOTES

Bucknell Tentative Starters
G: Elvin Edmonds IV (9.1 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 2.8 apg)
G: Xander Rice (16.2 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 4.3 apg)
F: Ian Motta (7.6 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 0.8 apg)
F: Alex Timmerman (11.2 ppg, 6.7 rpg, 1.8 apg)
C: Andre Screen (11.5 ppg, 6.2 rpg, 1.2 bpg)

With a Win over Rutgers, Bucknell Would ...

... improve to 8-5 on the season, which would be its best preconference record since going 8-5 in 2016-17.
... improve to 2-4 in true road games this season.
... snap a 14-game series losing streak to the Scarlet Knights.
... defeat a Big Ten opponent for the first time since a 90-80 win at Penn State on Nov. 13, 2013.

Headlines

Bucknell concludes a busy pre-Christmas stretch at Rutgers on Friday evening. While the Scarlet Knights have been idle since Saturday's 24-point drubbing of Wake Forest, the Bison will be playing their third game in six days. After defeating Merrimack at home on Sunday, Bucknell dropped an 81-71 verdict at Richmond on Wednesday night.
This is Bucknell's final regular-season non-conference game. The team will take a few days off for Christmas and then begin preparations for the Dec. 30 Patriot League opener at Holy Cross.
Bucknell clinched a winning non-conference record with Sunday's 61-55 home victory over Merrimack, the preseason favorite in the Northeast Conference. This is the team's first winning non-conference slate since the 2016-17 team went into league play with an 8-5 record.
Bucknell has shot 50% or better from the field seven times in 12 games this season. The Bison are shooting 50.1% on the season, which ranks 17th nationally. Bucknell also ranks eighth in Division I in effective field-goal percentage (.578), which is an adjusted rate that accounts for the added worth of a 3-pointer, and seventh in 3-point percentage (.410).
Bucknell also ranks 33rd nationally in opponent field-goal percentage (.389), and the Bison are one of only two teams in the nation shooting over 50% while holding opponents under 40%.

NCAA Teams Shooting > 50% and Holding Teams <>
Team FG%   Opponent FG%
UMass-Lowell   .502    .364
Bucknell .501   .389

New Jersey native Xander Rice has upped his scoring output in his senior season and comes into Friday's game as the Patriot League's third-leading scorer at 16.2 ppg. Rice has scored in double figures in every game this season and 13 straight dating back to last year. He tallied a team-high 19 points at Richmond on Wednesday.

2022-23 Patriot League Scoring Leaders
1. Gerrale Gates, Holy Cross   17.1
2. Tucker Richardson, Colgate   16.5
3. Xander Rice, Bucknell 16.2
4. Walter Whyte, Boston U. 14.5
5. Jalen Rucker, Army    14.2

Rice was named Tournament MVP of the Ocean Bracket at the Sunshine Slam during Thanksgiving Week. On Sunday against Merrimack, he was held to 11 points, but he did hand out nine assists without a turnover. Rice, who now leads the Patriot League in assist/TO ratio (2.1), is one of only 24 Division I players to log nine or more assists with no turnovers in a game this season, and he is only the fourth different Bison to do it in the last 18 years.

Bucknell Players with 9+ Assists, No Turnovers (Since 2004-05)
• Abe Badmus (11A) vs. Kansas, Mar. 18, 2005 (NCAA Tournament)
• Darryl Shazier (10A) at Boston College, Dec. 22, 2010
• Darryl Shazier (9A) vs. Holy Cross, Jan. 16, 2011
• Stephen Brown (9A) vs. Lafayette, Feb. 22, 2017
• Xander Rice (9A) vs. Merrimack, Dec. 18, 2022

Andre Screen turned in one of the best games of his career at La Salle just before the break. Screen logged a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds, tying his career scoring high in the process. He was injured late in the contest, however, and did not play against Merrimack. He returned to the lineup at Richmond outfitted in a mask and recorded 11 points and nine rebounds.
Bucknell this week has benefitted from the addition to the rotation of Saint Joseph's transfer Jack Forrest. Forrest missed the first 10 games of the season due to a lower leg injury, but he has played 20+ minutes off the bench in the last two games, tallying six points in each contest.
For the second time this week, Bucknell will be facing a former Patriot League rival. On Wednesday, the Bison went up against former Lafayette center Neal Quinn, who transferred to Richmond this season. and is the starting center for the Spiders. Now Bucknell will see former Loyola guard Cam Spencer, who is off to a strong start in his first season at Rutgers. Spencer ranks sixth in the nation in steals per game (2.7) and is Rutgers's second-leading scorer at 12.7 ppg. Bucknell faced Spencer twice last season. He dropped 26 points in Loyola's 71-67 win in Baltimore, but the Bison kept him in check in the second meeting. Spencer was held to 11 points in that game, an 82-80 overtime win for Bucknell, although Spencer did have six assists and five steals.
Rutgers head football coach Greg Schiano is a 1988 Bucknell graduate. Schiano was an All-Colonial League linebacker and a team captain during his playing days with the Bison. His son Joe also played football at Bucknell, and daughter Katie is currently a sophomore on the Bison women's soccer team. Katie was the starting right back this fall as Bucknell captured its second straight Patriot League championship.
Another Bucknell-Rutgers tie is the legendary head coach Jim Valvano. A 1967 Rutgers graduate, Valvano captained the Scarlet Knights basketball team and was inducted into the Rutgers Hall of Fame in 1993. He stuck around for two seasons as an assistant coach at Rutgers, and he later served a three-year stint (1972-75) as Bucknell's head coach. During his time at Bucknell, Valvano went 0-3 against his alma mater.
Rutgers is off to a 7-4 start this season, highlighted by a 63-48 home win over No. 8 Indiana on Dec. 3. One game later the Scarlet Knights fell 67-66 at No. 23 Ohio State on a controversial buzzer-beater. After a two-point loss to in-state rival Seton Hall, Rutgers bounced back with an 81-57 rout of Wake Forest in its most recent game last Saturday.
Bucknell's efficient offense will be put to the test against against one of the nation's best defensive squads. Rutgers ranks fourth nationally in 3-point defense (.249), sixth in scoring defense (54.7), 11th in field-goal percentage defense (.367), and 11th in steals (10.4). The Scarlet Knights force 17.7 turnovers per game and have a +4.4 turnover margin, both of which are the best in the Big Ten.
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.

How to Get the Game

Friday's game will be televised on the Big Ten Network, with Jason Horowitz and Austin Johnson on the call.
Veteran play-by-play man Doug Birdsong will have the local radio call on WKOK (1070 AM) in the Susquehanna Valley.
The audio feed is also available online free of charge via BucknellBison.com.
Live statistics can be accessed via ScarletKnights.com.
Follow @Bucknell_MBB for in-game updates on Twitter.

Bucknell vs. Rutgers Series Notes

The Bison and Scarlet Knights have met 30 times previously, but this will be the first clash since the 2000-01 season and just the third meeting since 1976. Rutgers leads the series 22-8 and has won the last 14 meetings.
These teams first met 100 years ago this February. On Feb. 6, 1923, Rutgers won 43-24 in Piscataway, avenging a football defeat to Bucknell from the fall.
Bucknell's last win was a 72-71 thriller in Piscataway on Feb. 8, 1964.
The most recent meeting was a 78-48 Rutgers rout on Nov. 25, 2000. Current Utah Jazz assistant coach Bryan Bailey was Bucknell's leading scorer that day with 13 points.

Notable Numbers

Through 12 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 Patriot League in field-goal percentage defense and 3-point defense, and No. 2 in scoring defense.

Scoring Defense Opp. FG% Opp 3FG%
2021-22 79.4 .466 .373
2022-23 65.4 .389 .335

Bucknell has held nine of its 12 opponents under 40% from the field this season. Saint Peter's (.516), La Salle (.500), and Richmond (.500) are the only three teams to hit better than 40% against the Bison this season.
Bucknell shot 50% or better from the field nine times last season and has already done so seven times this year. The Bison are currently one of only four teams in the nation shooting better than 50% from the field and 40% from 3-point distance.

NCAA Teams Shooting > 50%FG and >40% 3FG%
Team    FG%   3FG%
1. Xavier .511   .409
2. Bucknell   .501   .410
3. Louisiana   .501   .403
4. Utah State  .501   .447

The Bison have a Patriot League-best +5.4 rebounding margin on the season, but they would like to improve on the defensive glass. Opponents have 129 offensive rebounds to Bucknell's 103, and that area was particularly costly in losses to Saint Peter's, Georgia, Marist, and La Salle, which combined for a 62-16 edge in second-chance points.
Xander Rice had his streak of 26 straight games with a 3-pointer end against Merrimack. He had made multple threes in every game this season before going 0-for-5 from the arc against the Warriors. He bounced right back with a 4-for-5 showing at Richmond.

Last Time Out

Tyler Burton made all six of his 3-point attempts and scored 29 points to lift hot-shooting Richmond to an 81-71 victory over visiting Bucknell on Wednesday night at the Robins Center.
Xander Rice led three Bison in double figures with 19 points, 13 coming in the second half when Bucknell made 15 of 20 shots from the field, but a 16-point halftime deficit proved too much to overcome.
Matt Grace, who was 3-for-16 from the arc on the season coming into the game, hit 4 of 6 in this one and added 20 points for Richmond. The Spiders hit 14 of 26 from downtown and shot an even 50% from the field, becoming only the third team all season to break even 40% against the Bison.
Virginia natives Elvin Edmonds IV (13 points) and Andre Screen (11 points, nine rebounds) had strong nights for the Bison. Richmond, the reigning Atlantic 10 champion, improved to 5-1 at home this season. The Spiders had won their previous two home games against Drake (82-52) and Fairleigh Dickinson (77-48) by a combined 59 points.
Bucknell started well, but Richmond used a 24-6 run late in the half to go up 41-25 at the half. Bucknell went 15-for-20 from the field in the second half and drew as close as seven, but every time the Bison seemed poise to get closer, Burton or Grace answered with a 3-pointer.

Who's Got Next?

When the Bison return to practice on Dec. 26, it will be in preparation for Patriot League play. Bucknell makes its conference debut on Dec. 30 at Holy Cross and then will host Boston University on Jan. 2.

Men's Basketball Closes Out Non-Conference Slate Friday at Rutgers

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Elvin Edmonds IV

Jack Forrest

Ian Motta

Xander Rice

Andre Screen

Alex Timmerman

Men's Basketball Closes Out Non-Conference Slate Friday at Rutgers

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Elvin Edmonds IV

Jack Forrest

Ian Motta

Xander Rice

Andre Screen

Alex Timmerman

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