Men's Hoops Hosts American Wednesday Night

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 has played seven of its first 12 Patriot League games on the road, which means four of the final six encounters will come at home, starting Wednesday night against American. Live coverage begins at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.

The Bison and Eagles currently occupy the bottom two spots in the Patriot League standings, and both are looking to make a move up the ladder. Bucknell can pass American and move into ninth place with a victory on Wednesday. The last four seeds will have to play an opening-round game in the Patriot League Tournament, but the 7 and 8 seeds get to host those Tuesday-night games, so there is plenty of incentive to try to reel in Holy Cross and Lafayette, who currently occupy the 7-8 spots.

The Bison dropped a heartbreaker on Saturday, falling at Lafayette 74-72 on a Neal Quinn layup with 2.3 seconds remaining in overtime. Andrew Funk had just hit a clutch 3-pointer to tie the game with 31 seconds left, but Bucknell could not come up with one more defensive stop to keep the game going. The last time the Bison played at home, they did get that last-second stop and defeated Loyola 82-80 in overtime on Jan. 30. Bucknell has now played four OT games this season, its most since 2017-18.

American defeated Bucknell 63-56 at Bender Arena on Jan. 16. The Eagles are just 1-6 since then, however, with the lone win coming at home against Holy Cross. AU will be looking to snap a three-game losing streak on Wednesday.

• Complete Game Notes
• 2021-22 Media Guide

GAME DIGEST
What: American (6-16, 2-8 PL) at Bucknell (5-19, 2-10 PL)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa.
When: Wednesday, Feb. 9, 7 p.m.
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 (12.0 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 4.0 apg)
G: Andrew Funk (18.0 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 2.3 apg)
G: Elvin Edmonds IV (5.7 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 2.0 apg)
F: Jake van der Heijden (6.3 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 1.4 apg)
C: Andre Screen (10.8 ppg, 6.7 rpg, 1.0 bpg)

With a Win over American, Bucknell Would ...

... snap a two-game losing streak and improve to 3-10 in Patriot League play.
... move past the Eagles into ninth place in the Patriot League standings.
... break a three-game series losing streak and avenge a 63-55 loss to AU earlier in the season.
... improve to 5-5 at home this season and 144-36 all-time against Patriot League opponents at Sojka Pavilion.

Headlines

Bucknell plays four of its final six regular-season games at Sojka Pavilion, starting Wednesday night against American. Both teams are looking to make a late climb in the Patriot League standings, at least into the No. 7 or 8 spot, which would mean a home game for the first round of the Patriot League Tournament.
Bucknell is looking to bounce back from a tough 74-72 overtime loss at Lafayette on Saturday. Leopards center Neal Quinn finished a layup with 2.3 seconds remaining in OT, just moments after Andrew Funk hit a dramatic tying 3-pointer for the Bison.
Bucknell is now 2-2 in overtime this season. The four OT games this season are the team's most since 2017-18, when the Bison went 3-1 in four games requiring extra time.
Funk 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. The last time Bucknell played at home, Funk turned in one of the best performances of his career. He tallied 34 points, 27 of them coming after halftime, in Bucknell's 82-80 overtime win over Loyola. Funk hit a clutch go-ahead 3-pointer with 14 seconds left in regulation and then another one in the early stages of overtime. Defensively, Funk marked Patriot League scoring leader Cam Spencer for most of the game and limited the Loyola star to a season-low 11 points.
Funk is now averaging 18.0 ppg, which is second in the league behind Spencer (18.9). Funk is now one of only nine players in the nation with at least five games with 28 or more points this season; he is one of only 25 with at least three 30-point games; and he is one of 57 with 10 20-point games.
American has lost three straight and six of its last seven. The Eagles dropped an 86-68 decision to first-place Colgate in their most recent game on Saturday. They are currently in a stretch of five out of six games on the road, and they have a Saturday-Monday trip to Holy Cross and Boston University coming up next.
American averages a league-low 63.7 points per game while allowing 73.2. Stacy Beckton Jr. leads the squad in scoring at 12.7 ppg, followed by Colin Smalls at 10.2.

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-American game will stream live on ESPN+, with Doug Birdsong and former Bison assistant coach Terry Conrad on the call. Birdsong is in his 22nd season as the "Voice of the Bison".
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

Neal Quinn's tiebreaking layup with 2.3 seconds left gave Lafayette a 74-72 overtime victory over Bucknell on Saturday afternoon at Kirby Sports Center.
Bison senior Andrew Funk recorded his first career double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds, and he tied the game with a 3-pointer with 31 seconds left in overtime, only for the Leopards to win it on the final possession.
Andre Screen tallied 18 points on 9-for-10 shooting, and Malachi Rhodes added a career-high 12 points off the bench.
Bucknell shot 45.2% to Lafayette's 38.6%. The Leopards were just 7-for-35 from 3-point range, but the Bison were hampered by turnovers in the first half and uncharacteristically poor free-throw shooting in the second.
The Bison came into the game ranked ninth nationally in team free-throw shooting but missed nine of their first 10 in the second half. Xander Rice did come up clutch, however, when he made all three charity tosses after being fouled on a 3-point attempt with 9.5 seconds left in regulation. Bucknell finished with a defensive stop and forced overtime in a 67-67 tie.
The teams combined to miss their first seven shots of the overtime period before C.J. Fulton came up big for Lafayette. Fulton made two layups surrounding a Funk bucket to give Lafayette a 72-69 lead. Funk curled off a screen and swished a tying 3-pointer with 31 seconds to go. The Leopards called timeout, then Fulton drove down the right alley and slipped a pass to the 7-footer Quinn for a clean layup. Funk's halfcourt attempt was off the mark at the buzzer.

Bucknell vs. American Series Notes

Bucknell has an overall 44-27 lead in an all-time series with American that includes some historic dates.
The very first meeting on Jan. 14, 1939 also happened to be the first game ever played in Davis Gym (AU won 38-33). Coincidentally, American was also the opponent for the very last game ever played in Davis Gym on Jan. 11, 2003 (a 63-52 Bison win).
As Patriot League rivals, Bucknell leads 29-15, including victories in the 2005 and 2006 PL Tournament semifinals.
Bucknell has won 25 of 33 series meetings in Lewisburg, including 17 out of 20 at Sojka Pavilion, but the Bison are just 11-11 at Bender Arena since American joined the Patriot League in 2001-02.
Bucknell and American clashed twice last season, coming on back-to-back days to close out the regular season. The Bison had been on a monthlong COVID pause and played those two games without the services of most of their frontcourt players, including leading scorer John Meeks. American won 78-71 at Sojka Pavilion, and then 81-68 the next day at Bender Arena.
American won this season's first meeting 63-55 in D.C. Colin Smalls scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half to lead the Eagles. Andrew Funk scored 20 points and was Bucknell's lone double-digit scorer.

Notable Numbers

Senior guard Andrew Funk is enjoying his best season to date, with a scoring average (18.0) and field-goal percentage (.430) 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 fourth-most in the nation. Funk is one of only 15 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 20th-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 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 recently became the eighth player in Bucknell history to attempt 500 career 3-point shots. Funk needs two more made treys to catch Zach Thomas for 10th all-time. Thomas tallied 169 from 2014-18.
Funk currently ranks second in the Patriot League and 22nd nationally in minutes played at 36.1 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 (869:56). 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 43 assists and only 18 turnovers in his last nine games.
The Jan. 22 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. They did it again two games later, beating Loyola despite 20 turnovers and a 27-0 discrepancy in points off turnovers. Prior to this stretch, only three times in the last 10 years did the Bison win a game while committing 20+ turnovers. Then it happened twice in eight days.
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 196 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 77.0% clip on the season. That is the best mark in the Patriot League and 23rd-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 21-for-38 (.553) over the last two games.
Bucknell shoots 83.0% from the foul line at home, compared to 72.2% on the road.

Patriot League Success

Bucknell is 308-148 (.675) 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 197-69 (.741) overall and 143-36 (.799) 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 57-18 at home.

Who's Got Next?

Bucknell returns home to face Holy Cross on Saturday at 2 p.m. The game will be televised locally on WQMY-TV and will also stream on ESPN+.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Elvin Edmonds IV

Andrew Funk

Andrew Funk

John Meeks

Malachi Rhodes

Xander Rice

Xander Rice

Andre Screen

Jake van der Heijden