Men's Basketball Heads to West Point Wednesday

ARMY WEST POINT SPECTATOR POLICY

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bucknell men's basketball squad visits West Point for a 6 p.m. game on Wednesday evening. Bucknell's final road game of the regular season will air on ESPN+.

The Bison have two games remaining on the regular-season slate, with the home finale coming on Saturday against Boston University. Bucknell opened Patriot League play against Boston and Army, and now nearly two months later the Bison close out the schedule against those two squads.

Bucknell will be back on the road next Tuesday for the first round of the Patriot League Tournament. After Lafayette's win over Holy Cross on Monday, the Bison are now locked into either the No. 9 or 10 seed, meaning they will play on the road in either the 7-10 or 8-9 game on Tuesday. Colgate wrapped up the regular-season title with a win over American on Monday. The Raiders have won 10 straight games, and at 14-2 in Patriot League play have a three-game lead on second-place Navy with two games remaining. Boston University is in third at 10-6, but then the next five teams are all separated by just one game.

The Bison are looking to build on Saturday's thrilling 92-89 overtime win over Lafayette. Bucknell has been very strong offensively in recent weeks but has not been consistent enough on the defensive side to string together a winning streak. Army is looking to shake a six-game losing skid. A month ago, the Black Knights were knocking on the door for one of the top three seeds, but now they are 7-9 in Patriot League play and one of those teams mired in that mid-table logjam. The five teams at 8-8 or 7-9 are not only jockeying to claim the No. 4 seed and earn a quarterfinal home game, but two of those teams are going to end up in the first round on Tuesday.

Saturday's game at Sojka is Senior Day and Fan Appreciation Day, presented by Sheetz. | BUY TICKETS

• Complete Game Notes
• 2021-22 Media Guide

GAME DIGEST
What: Bucknell (7-21, 4-12 PL) at Army West Point (13-15, 7-9 PL)
Where: Christl Arena, West Point, N.Y.
When: Wednesday, Feb. 23, 6 p.m.
Streaming: ESPN+
Local Radio: The Valley WVLY 100.9 FM
Internet Audio: BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: GoArmyWestPoint.com

Bucknell Tentative Starters
G: Xander Rice (12.5 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 4.0 apg)
G: Andrew Funk (18.1 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 2.5 apg)
G: Elvin Edmonds IV (5.8 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 2.3 apg)
F: Jake van der Heijden (6.6 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 1.3 apg)
C: Andre Screen (11.5 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 1.0 bpg)

With a Win over Army, Bucknell Would ...

... win its second game in a row and improve to 5-12 in Patriot League play.
... gain a spit of the season series with the Black Knights.
... improve to 60-23 all-time against the Black Knights.
... win for the sixth time in the last seven trips to West Point.

Headlines

Bucknell plays its final regular-season road game on Wednesday at Army. The Bison are assured of playing on the road in the first round of the Patriot League Tournament, however. Lafayette's win over Holy Cross on Monday night locked Bucknell into the 9 or 10 seed, meaning the Bison will travel to the 7 or 8 seed next Tuesday.
Bucknell and Army are meeting for the first time since Jan. 4, when the Black Knights won a 96-89 shootout at Sojka Pavilion.
Bucknell has been much improved offensively in recent games. Over the last five contests the Bison have shot 50.2% from the field (140-279) and 47.7% from 3-point range (42-88) with a 86-57 assist-to-turnover ratio. Bucknell has averaged 76.2 points per game in that span.
Andrew Funk, the lone senior on the Bison squad, is having a terrific season. Funk is averaging 18.1 ppg, which is second in the league behind Loyola's Cam Spencer (18.8). Funk is one of only 22 players in the nation with at least five games with 28 or more points this season; he is one of only 39 with at least three 30-point games; and he is one of 49 with 12 20-point games.
Funk, whose older brother Tommy was a standout point guard at West Point, earned his third Patriot League Player of the Week honor of the season on Monday, two days after he hit a dramatic, tiebreaking 3-pointer in Bucknell's 92-89 overtime win over Lafayette. Funk played 79 minutes in two games against Lehigh and Lafayette last week, and he totaled 44 points, six assists and no turnovers.
Funk was recently named to the five-man CoSIDA Academic All-District 2 Team, and he now moves on to the national Academic All-America ballot. Funk is an accounting and financial management major with a 3.66 cumulative grade-point average.
Sophomore center Andre Screen is playing his best basketball of the season. Over the last five games, Screen has averaged 15.8 ppg on 65.5% shooting from the field.
Army got out to a great start in Patriot League play but has struggled of late. The Black Knights won their first three and seven of their first 10 PL games, but they have dropped six straight to fall to 7-9 and into a tie for sixth place. Four of those six recent losses have been by four points or fewer, however.
Army features the Patriot League's fourth-leading scorer in guard Jalen Rucker, who averages 16.4 ppg overall and 17.7 ppg in league games. Rucker's 78 3-pointers are the most in the Patriot League, two more than Bucknell's Funk. Josh Caldwell also scores in double figures with 11.8 ppg.
Army ranks fourth in the Patriot League in scoring at 70.3 ppg, just a tick behind Bucknell, which ranks second at 70.6. The Black Knights lead the league in steals (8.0) and rank fifth in scoring defense (70.5).

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Army game can be seen on ESPN+, with Rich DeMarco calling the action.
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 GoArmySports.com.
Follow @Bucknell_MBB for in-game updates on Twitter.

Last Time Out

Andrew Funk beat the shot clock with an off-balance 3-pointer off an inbounds play with 5.9 seconds remaining in overtime, sending Bucknell to a wild 92-89 overtime victory over Lafayette on Saturday at Sojka Pavilion. Funk scored 20 points in the game to help the Bison avenge a two-point overtime loss at Lafayette just two weeks earlier.
Lafayette stormed back from 17 points down in the second half and forced overtime on a long three from Jon Brantley with 10 seconds left in regulation. Tyrone Perry's 3-pointer gave the Leopards an 89-87 lead with 1:14 to go in the extra session, but the Bison scored the final five points of the game.
Funk notched his 12th 20-point game of the season, and he also had three assists and no turnovers in 42 minutes of action. Andre Screen and Xander Rice tallied 17 points each. Rice added seven assists, and backcourt-mate Elvin Edmonds IV had a strong game with 11 points, six rebounds, and four assists.
Bucknell also got a big lift from backup center Alex Timmerman, who celebrated his 21st birthday with nine points in 16 minutes. Timmerman was especially clutch after Screen fouled out in the first minute of overtime. Timmerman hit a go-ahead layup on the next possession, and later he contested two missed layups from Lafayette seven-footer Neal Quinn, he grabbed the defensive rebound that set up the final sequence, and he finished the night with the assist on the Funk game-winner.
Bucknell shot 51.7% for the game, including a 9-for-21 mark (.429) from 3-point range. The Bison broke out of a four-game slump at the foul line by hitting 21 of 23, and they outrebounded Lafayette 32-22.
Lafayette shot a blistering 72.0% in the second half but then was just 2-for-8 in overtime. The Leopards shot 56.7% overall and finished 10-for-27 from the arc and 11-for-14 from the foul line.
Both teams took good care of the ball. Bucknell had 19 assists to 11 turnovers, while Lafayette had 23 assists to 10 turnovers.

Bucknell vs. Army Series Notes

The Bison hold a 59-23 lead in a series that dates back to 1929. Bucknell had won 12 straight meetings before the Black Knights captured the last two.
The two teams did not play at all last season. They were in different divisions under the COVID-modified schedule and did not meet for the first time since 1989-90.
The Bison are 34-6 all-time at home against Army.
Army won the first 10 series showdowns, nine of them coming prior to 1966.
As Patriot League rivals, Bucknell has won 58 of 71 meetings.
In Patriot League Tournament action, Bucknell is 8-2 against Army. Eight of those 10 postseason meetings have come in the quarterfinals, including Army's 72-71 win at Sojka Pavilion in 2014, which was its most recent victory over the Bison in Lewisburg. Bucknell has beaten the Black Knights seven straight times at Sojka Pavilion.
Army won this year's first meeting all the way back on Jan. 4, 96-89 at Sojka Pavilion. In the highest-scoring game in series history, Bucknell received 28 points from Andrew Funk and a career-high 20 from Jake van der Heijden. Andre Screen added 17 on 8-for-9 shooting, and Xander Rice tallied 15, as that quartet accounted for 80 of the team's 89 points. Army also had two 20-point scorers, with Jalen Rucker (21) and Aaron Duhart (20) both hitting that mark.

Notable Numbers

Senior guard Andrew Funk is enjoying his best season to date, with a scoring average (18.1) and field-goal percentage (.431) 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 12th-most in the nation. Funk is one of only 24 Division I players to hit six or more 3-pointers in a game at least four times this season.
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 has now entered the top 10 on Bucknell's season and career charts for made 3-pointers.
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 16th nationally in minutes played at 36.6 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. In addition, Funk ranks sixth nationally in total minutes played (983:24).
Xander Rice recorded eight assists in both games against Loyola this season. That total is the most by any active Bison. Rice has 61 assists and only 24 turnovers in his last 13 games.
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 218 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 76.5% clip on the season despite a recent slump. That is the best mark in the Patriot League and 29th-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 endured a 51-for-86 (.593) slump over a four-game stretch before hitting 21 of 23 against Lafayette on Saturday.
The Bison have now played five overtime games this season, one shy of the school record of six set in 2008-09. Bucknell's three overtime wins are also one shy of the team record. The 1978-79 squad won four OT contests.

Who's Got Next?

Bucknell wraps up the regular season on Saturday at home against Boston University at 2 p.m.
It will be Senior Day at Sojka Pavilion, with team manager Kenny Wu and guard Andrew Funk slated to be honored prior to the game.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Elvin Edmonds IV

Andrew Funk

Andrew Funk

Xander Rice

Xander Rice

Andre Screen

Alex Timmerman

Jake van der Heijden