Wednesday, January 18
West Point, N.Y.
6 p.m.
Bucknell University
8-12,1-6Patriot
68
at
66
Army
11-9,5-2Patriot
1
2
F
Bucknell
35
33
68
Army West Point
27
39
66
Photo by: Mady Salvani
Men’s Basketball Shakes Drought with 68-66 Road Win over Army
1/18/2023 8:32:00 PM | Men's Basketball
WEST POINT, N.Y. – Andre Screen hit two tiebreaking free throws with two seconds remaining in the game to back up a career-high-tying 25-point performance from Jack Forrest, and Bucknell came away with a 68-66 victory over red-hot Army West Point on Wednesday night at Christl Arena.
Bucknell was in the midst of one of its most complete performances of the season, leading by 17 midway through the second half against an Army team that came in with a 5-1 Patriot League record and six wins in its last seven. The Black Knights made a furious comeback, scoring 10 straight points to tie the game on an Ethan Roberts layup with 15 seconds left.
The Bison ran a great play out of a timeout, as Screen rolled to the basket after setting a pick and took a nifty pass from Xander Rice before drawing a foul going up. Screen made both free throws with 2.1 seconds remaining, and Jalen Rucker's desperation shot came after the buzzer.
Forrest scored 18 of his points in the first half and matched his career high of 25, set against La Salle when he played for Saint Joseph's. Alex Timmerman finished with 12 points and nine rebounds. Rice tallied nine points and saw his streak of 20 straight double-digit scoring games come to an end, but he did have five assists and the game-winning pass to Screen on the final play.
Roberts led Army with 17 points, including eight of Army's 10 in that final run. Rucker, who came in averaging 22.0 points per game in Patriot League play, was held to 13. Elvin Edmonds IV had primary defending duties on Rucker, who was 6-for-17 from the field and 0-for-5 from the 3-point arc. Rucker had won each of the last two Patriot League Player of the Week awards after recent games of 35 and 29 points, and he entered the game leading all Division I players with a .725 3-point percentage in the month of January.
With the win, Bucknell snapped an eight-game losing streak and improved to 8-12 overall, 1-6 in the Patriot League. Army dropped to 11-9, 5-2.
"I thought our guys really deserved a win after a bunch of very good practices over the last week," said head coach Nathan Davis. "We played pretty well for stretches in every Patriot League game, but we just haven't been executing well enough offensively for the full 40 minutes. We'll go back and look at what we can do better in the late-game situations, but how we played on the way to that 17-point lead on the road is certainly something we will look to build on."
Forrest stole the show with 18 points as Bucknell led for the entirety of the first half. Screen started the scoring with a 3-point play but then had to leave after picking up his second foul just 62 seconds in. Noah Williamson gave the Bison some good minutes in relief, and then two threes and a pair of free throws from Forrest staked the Bison to a quick 13-4 lead.
Forrest's slashing layup gave Bucknell its largest lead of the half at 17-6 before Army responded with a 14-4 run, pulling within a point on a Jared Cross 3-pointer at the 7:37 mark.
Timmerman's bucket in the paint ignited a 9-0 Bison spurt, which also included five straight points from Forrest and a nice finish in transition from Williamson to make it a 30-20 game.
The Bison led 35-27 at intermission and quickly stretched the margin to 17 after a 15-6 run over the first 6:25 of the second half. That stretch was capped with nine straight points, coming from a Timmerman 3-point play and back-to-back threes from Forrest and Edmonds.
Inside four minutes to play, Rice and Forrest both hit tough mid-range jumpers keep Bucknell's lead at 10. It was a 66-56 game with just over two minutes to go when Roberts almost singlehandedly brought the Black Knights back. The freshman converted back-to-back 3-point plays on drives to the basket to make it a 66-64 game, and then after a Rice miss Roberts again finished a tough drive, this time flipping it over two Bison defenders to knot the game at 66.
Screen won the game at the foul line for the second time this season. He also hit a tiebreaking free throw with 5.9 seconds remaining in a 66-65 win over Presbyterian at the Greenlight Sunshine Slam on Nov. 21. The 7'1" center has been very good at the charity stripe of late, hitting 15 of 17 in his last five appearances. He was limited to 15 minutes in this one due to the foul trouble but still managed eight points and four rebounds.
Forrest made his first start as a Bison and finished 9-for-15 from the field and 5-for-7 from the arc. He added six rebounds and two assists while playing a season-high 35 minutes.
Bucknell shot 48.1 percent from the field and went 8-for-17 from the 3-point arc after struggling from downtown in league play. The Bison also had a 34-28 rebounding edge. Army shot 43.3 percent overall and hit just 4 of 18 from long range. The Black Knights came in shooting 49.8 percent as a team while hitting nearly nine 3-pointers per game.
Bucknell returns home on Saturday to face Holy Cross at 2 p.m. The game will be televised locally on WQMY-TV in addition to streaming on ESPN+.
Gallery: (1-18-2023) Men's Basketball at Army
Bucknell was in the midst of one of its most complete performances of the season, leading by 17 midway through the second half against an Army team that came in with a 5-1 Patriot League record and six wins in its last seven. The Black Knights made a furious comeback, scoring 10 straight points to tie the game on an Ethan Roberts layup with 15 seconds left.
The Bison ran a great play out of a timeout, as Screen rolled to the basket after setting a pick and took a nifty pass from Xander Rice before drawing a foul going up. Screen made both free throws with 2.1 seconds remaining, and Jalen Rucker's desperation shot came after the buzzer.
Forrest scored 18 of his points in the first half and matched his career high of 25, set against La Salle when he played for Saint Joseph's. Alex Timmerman finished with 12 points and nine rebounds. Rice tallied nine points and saw his streak of 20 straight double-digit scoring games come to an end, but he did have five assists and the game-winning pass to Screen on the final play.
Jack Forrest is on 🔥🔥🔥! He's 4-5 from the arc and has 18 in the game, and the Bison have their double-digit lead back. #rayBucknell
— Bucknell MBasketball (@Bucknell_MBB) January 18, 2023
Watch: https://t.co/4jrStxL1RX@PatriotLeagueTV | @ESPN pic.twitter.com/0pln6KkK6f
Roberts led Army with 17 points, including eight of Army's 10 in that final run. Rucker, who came in averaging 22.0 points per game in Patriot League play, was held to 13. Elvin Edmonds IV had primary defending duties on Rucker, who was 6-for-17 from the field and 0-for-5 from the 3-point arc. Rucker had won each of the last two Patriot League Player of the Week awards after recent games of 35 and 29 points, and he entered the game leading all Division I players with a .725 3-point percentage in the month of January.
With the win, Bucknell snapped an eight-game losing streak and improved to 8-12 overall, 1-6 in the Patriot League. Army dropped to 11-9, 5-2.
"I thought our guys really deserved a win after a bunch of very good practices over the last week," said head coach Nathan Davis. "We played pretty well for stretches in every Patriot League game, but we just haven't been executing well enough offensively for the full 40 minutes. We'll go back and look at what we can do better in the late-game situations, but how we played on the way to that 17-point lead on the road is certainly something we will look to build on."
Forrest stole the show with 18 points as Bucknell led for the entirety of the first half. Screen started the scoring with a 3-point play but then had to leave after picking up his second foul just 62 seconds in. Noah Williamson gave the Bison some good minutes in relief, and then two threes and a pair of free throws from Forrest staked the Bison to a quick 13-4 lead.
Forrest's slashing layup gave Bucknell its largest lead of the half at 17-6 before Army responded with a 14-4 run, pulling within a point on a Jared Cross 3-pointer at the 7:37 mark.
Timmerman's bucket in the paint ignited a 9-0 Bison spurt, which also included five straight points from Forrest and a nice finish in transition from Williamson to make it a 30-20 game.
The Bison led 35-27 at intermission and quickly stretched the margin to 17 after a 15-6 run over the first 6:25 of the second half. That stretch was capped with nine straight points, coming from a Timmerman 3-point play and back-to-back threes from Forrest and Edmonds.
Inside four minutes to play, Rice and Forrest both hit tough mid-range jumpers keep Bucknell's lead at 10. It was a 66-56 game with just over two minutes to go when Roberts almost singlehandedly brought the Black Knights back. The freshman converted back-to-back 3-point plays on drives to the basket to make it a 66-64 game, and then after a Rice miss Roberts again finished a tough drive, this time flipping it over two Bison defenders to knot the game at 66.
Screen won the game at the foul line for the second time this season. He also hit a tiebreaking free throw with 5.9 seconds remaining in a 66-65 win over Presbyterian at the Greenlight Sunshine Slam on Nov. 21. The 7'1" center has been very good at the charity stripe of late, hitting 15 of 17 in his last five appearances. He was limited to 15 minutes in this one due to the foul trouble but still managed eight points and four rebounds.
Forrest made his first start as a Bison and finished 9-for-15 from the field and 5-for-7 from the arc. He added six rebounds and two assists while playing a season-high 35 minutes.
Bucknell shot 48.1 percent from the field and went 8-for-17 from the 3-point arc after struggling from downtown in league play. The Bison also had a 34-28 rebounding edge. Army shot 43.3 percent overall and hit just 4 of 18 from long range. The Black Knights came in shooting 49.8 percent as a team while hitting nearly nine 3-pointers per game.
Bucknell returns home on Saturday to face Holy Cross at 2 p.m. The game will be televised locally on WQMY-TV in addition to streaming on ESPN+.
Team Stats
Buck
ARM
FG%
.481
.433
3FG%
.471
.222
FT%
.769
.588
RB
34
28
TO
15
7
STL
4
10
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
25
FGM
9
3FGM
5
FTM
2
Pts
12
FGM
5
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Pts
9
FGM
4
3FGM
1
FTM
0
Pts
8
FGM
2
3FGM
0
FTM
4
Players Mentioned
G
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