Men's Basketball Hosts Holy Cross Saturday Afternoon

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 goes for the season sweep of Holy Cross on Saturday, when the Crusaders come to Sojka Pavilion for a 2 p.m. tip. The game can be seen on WQMY-TV throughout Northeast Pennsylvania, as well as online on ESPN+.

This should be an interesting battle between two teams who are playing much better of late after some earlier struggles. The Bison have split their last six games on the heels of an eight-game losing streak. The turnaround began at the Hart Center on Jan. 22, when Bucknell held off Holy Cross 68-65. The Bison have won their last two home games against Loyola and American and are back to .500 at 5-5 at Sojka Pavilion this season. Holy Cross has been even hotter, winning four of its last five, with the lone setback in that stretch coming on the road at first-place Colgate. The Crusaders started out 1-5 in Patriot League play, but now they find themselves just a game out of fourth place in the league standings.

Saturday's game will feature two of the Patriot League' top scorers in Bucknell's Andrew Funk and Holy Cross' Gerrale Gates. Funk is second in the league at 17.9 points per game, while Gates is sixth at 15.5. Gates scored a season-high 32 points along with 13 rebounds and five assists in the first meeting between the two teams. Funk has reached the 20-point mark 10 times this season, and he just eclipsed the 1,100-point mark for his career. Funk also just moved into the top 10 on Bucknell's career list for made 3-pointers with 171.

Following the Holy Cross game, Bucknell will have a quick turnaround before heading Lehigh on Monday night for a 7 p.m. That game will be televised on CBS Sports Network, as the Bison look to avenge a one-sided loss to the Mountain Hawks earlier in the season.

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

GAME DIGEST
What: Holy Cross (7-16, 5-6 PL) at Bucknell (6-19, 3-10 PL)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa.
When: Saturday, Feb. 11, 2 p.m.
TV: WQMY-TV
Streaming: 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 (11.9 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 4.0 apg)
G: Andrew Funk (17.9 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 2.4 apg)
G: Elvin Edmonds IV (5.6 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 2.1 apg)
F: Jake van der Heijden (6.2 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 1.4 apg)
C: Andre Screen (11.2 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 1.0 bpg)

With a Win over Holy Cross, Bucknell Would ...

... sweep the season series and beat the Crusaders for the sixth straight time.
... defeat the Crusaders for the seventh straight time at Sojka Pavilion.
... make it two straight wins and improve to 4-3 in the last seven games.
... improve to 6-5 at home this season and 145-36 all-time against Patriot League opponents at Sojka Pavilion.

Headlines

Bucknell has won its last two home games and three of its last six overall, and now Holy Cross comes to Sojka Pavilion on Saturday afternoon.
Bucknell's recent run of better play started in Worcester on Jan. 22. The Bison snapped an eight-game losing streak with a 68-65 win at Holy Cross, and they are 3-3 since then. Meanwhile, Holy Cross has also been much-improved of late. After that loss to Bucknell, the Crusaders dropped their next game at American, but since then they have won four of their last five to improve to 5-6 in Patriot League play.
Both teams' recent wins have all been nailbiters. All three of Bucknell's victories over the last three weeks have been by three points or fewer, and by a total of seven points. Holy Cross' four recent wins have all been by five points or fewer, and by a total of 15 points.
Bucknell is coming off a harrowing 68-66 win over American on Wednesday. The Bison led by double digits for most of the game and seemed to be on the way to one of their most dominant performances of the season, but the Eagles made things interesting with a late 11-0 run to take the game right down to the final possession.
The Bison shot a season-best 57.4% from the field on Wednesday, a figure that was boosted by an incredible 15-for-17 start to the game.
Sophomore center Andre Screen is in the midst of his best stretch of the season. Screen tallied 18 points on 9-for-10 shooting last Saturday at Lafayette, then matched his career-high with 20 points on 9-for-13 shooting against American. Over the last two games, he has 38 points on 18-for-23 (.783) accuracy.
Wednesday's win over American moved Bucknell past the Eagles into ninth place in the Patriot League standings. The Bison are two games behind eighth-place Lafayette and three behind seventh-place Holy Cross. Finishing in the No. 7 or 8 spot would mean a home game for the first round of the Patriot League Tournament. Just in front of 5-6 Holy Cross is a three-way logjam for fourth place, with Loyola, Army and Lehigh all 7-6.
Andrew Funk last Saturday recorded his first career double-double and his 10th 20-point game of the season when he finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds at Lafayette. Funk is now averaging 17.9 ppg, which is second in the league behind Loyola's Cam Spencer (19.3). Funk is now one of only 11 players in the nation with at least five games with 28 or more points this season; he is one of only 29 with at least three 30-point games; and he is one of 59 with 10 20-point games.
Holy Cross is led by standout forward Gerrale Gates, who ranks sixth in the league in scoring at 15.5 ppg and third in rebounding at 8.1 rpg. Gates has five 20-point games this season, all since Jan. 7, with a high of 32 against Bucknell in the first meeting. He tallied 23 points in Wednesday's win over Loyola.
Freshman guard Kyrell Luc has come on of late. The Bison limited him to eight points on 3-for-11 shooting at the Hart Center, but over his last five games, Luc has averaged 19.0 ppg. That stretch has upped his season scoring average to 13.3 ppg, which is the best mark among all Patriot League freshmen.

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Holy Cross game will be televised on WQMY-TV in Northeast PA and streamed on ESPN+.
Adam Marco and Bucknell Hall-of-Fame coach Pat Flannery will call the action on WQMY.
Doug Birdsong, who is in his 22nd season as the "Voice of the Bison", will join former Bison assistant coach Terry Conrad on the ESPN+ telecast.
Sam Kuperman 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

Andre Screen equaled his career high with 20 points, and Bucknell survived a late flurry from American to win 68-66 on Wednesday night at Sojka Pavilion.
The Bison trailed only once at 2-0, and they led by double figures for nearly 29 minutes, but the Eagles scored the game's final 11 points and missed a potential game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Andrew Funk tallied 16 points and Xander Rice added 11 for Bucknell.
The Bison got out to a dream start, hitting 15 of their first 17 shots from the field on the way to a 37-20 lead late in the first half. Bucknell cooled off a little bit late in the half and led 39-28 at intermission, but the hosts were still shooting 65% from the field when Screen's stick-back 3-point play made the lead 66-51 with 6:20 to play.
That would be Bucknell's last field goal of the day, and American used some outstanding free-throw shooting to chip away at the deficit. The Eagles made their final 13 free throws of the night, including 10-for-10 down the stretch. Bucknell led 68-55 after two charity tosses from Rice with 3:55 to play before the Eagles tallied the last 11 points. Elijah Stephens had a chance to win it, but his three attempt from the right corner came up short.
Despite missing their final five attempts of the night, the Bison shot a season-best 57.1% from the field. That included an 8-for-16 showing from the 3-point arc.

Bucknell vs. Holy Cross Series Notes
The Bucknell-Holy Cross rivalry has been one of the league's best through the years. Some of the highlights:

The Bison and Crusaders have combined to win 11 of the last 21 Patriot League titles.
These two teams have met 17 times in the 31 Patriot League Tournaments, with Bucknell winning nine of the 17. That includes four times in the championship game. Bucknell defeated Holy Cross in the 2005 and 2006 title tilts, while the Crusaders topped the Bison in the final in 1993 and 2007.
The Bison and Crusaders had never met until the formation of the Patriot League in 1990-91, but this will be the 79th meeting in 31 years. The two teams did not play last season under the COVID-modified Patriot League schedule that placed them in different divisions.
Bucknell leads the series 48-30. The road team has won just 12 of the last 33. The Bison have beaten the Crusaders six straight times at home.
Bucknell is 25-11 against Holy Cross in Lewisburg and 18-5 at Sojka Pavilion. Bucknell is 18-16 vs. Holy Cross at the Hart Center, with one of the wins coming in the 2005 Patriot League championship game.
The Bison have won the last five meetings, including close verdicts in the 2019 and 2020 Patriot League Tournaments. Holy Cross' last series win was a 72-71 thriller at the Hart Center in 2018-19, and its last win in Lewisburg was a 77-72 double-overtime stunner in the 2016 Patriot League Tournament quarterfinals. The ninth-seeded Crusaders upset the top-seeded Bison and then went on to win the tournament.
Andre Screen recorded 12 points and 13 rebounds for his first career double-double in Bucknell's 68-65 win at the Hart Center on Jan. 22. Screen clinched the game with two free throws with 4.8 seconds to play. Andrew Funk hit three critical shots in the final six minutes of the game after scoring his 1,000th career point earlier in the day. Funk tallied 14 points, Xander Rice added 16, and Malachi Rhodes had six points and a career-high 10 rebounds. Gerrale Gates carried Holy Cross with 32 points, 13 rebounds and five assists, although the Bison did limit him to two points over the final eight minutes of a tight game.

Notable Numbers

Senior guard Andrew Funk is enjoying his best season to date, with a scoring average (17.9) and field-goal percentage (.429) well above his previous career bests. Funk scored a career-high 38 points at Illinois State on Nov. 20, and his five games this season with 28 or more points are tied for fifth-most in the nation. Funk is one of only 18 Division I players to hit six or more 3-pointers in a game at least four times this season, and his 38 points are tied for 22nd-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.
Funk recently passed Zach Thomas to move into the top 10 on Bucknell's career 3-point field goal list.
Funk reached the 1,000-point plateau with a 3-pointer early in the first half at Holy Cross on Jan. 22. 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.
Funk currently ranks second in the Patriot League and 22nd nationally in minutes played at 36.2 per game. The last Bison to play more than 36 minutes per game over a full season was Darryl Shazier (36.1) in 2008-09. Funk ranks seventh nationally in total minutes played (907:05). No Bison had played more than 40 minutes in a game since Kimbal Mackenzie in an overtime win at St. Bonaventure in the 2018-19 season opener, but now Funk has played 43 in two of the last three games.
Xander Rice recorded eight assists in both games against Loyola this season. That total is the most by any active Bison. Rice has 47 assists and only 19 turnovers in his last 10 games.
Bucknell has struggled to create turnovers this season, as opponents are committing only 9.4 miscues per game on the season. That coupled with some rebounding troubles means that opponents have attempted 199 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 76.7% clip on the season. That is the best mark in the Patriot League and 25th-best in all of Division I basketball. The Bison ranked in the top-10 nationally at around 80% for much of the season, but they are just 27-for-47 (.574) over the last three games.
Bucknell shoots 82.1% from the foul line at home, compared to 72.2% on the road.

Patriot League Success

Bucknell is 309-148 (.676) all-time in Patriot League regular-season games, the best record of any league team. This will be only the sixth time in 32 years that the Bison will have a sub-.500 PL record.
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 198-69 (.742) overall and 144-36 (.800) 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 58-18 at home.

Men's Basketball Hosts Holy Cross Saturday Afternoon

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Elvin Edmonds IV

Andrew Funk

Andrew Funk

Malachi Rhodes

Xander Rice

Xander Rice

Andre Screen

Jake van der Heijden

Men's Basketball Hosts Holy Cross Saturday Afternoon

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Elvin Edmonds IV

Andrew Funk

Andrew Funk

Malachi Rhodes

Xander Rice

Xander Rice

Andre Screen

Jake van der Heijden

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