Bison Men's Basketball Hosts Midshipmen Wednesday Night

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bucknell men's basketball squad plays host to Navy on Wednesday night at Sojka Pavilion. It's First Responder & Military Appreciation Night at Sojka, and the Bison coaching staff will be wearing Suits & Sneakers in support of Coaches vs. Cancer Week.

Bucknell snapped an eight-game losing streak at Army one week earlier, but the momentum was short-lived as the Bison fell to Holy Cross 80-73 on Saturday. Bucknell shot 63.2 percent (24-38) on 2-point shot attempts but again struggled from outside the arc, hitting 5 of 23. Meanwhile, the Crusaders went 10-for-19 from downtown and shot 52.6 percent overall, a rare feat against a Bucknell team that came in leading the league in field-goal percentage defense.

Navy, meanwhile, has won two straight on the heels of a five-game losing streak. Most recently, the Midshipmen overcame a double-digit deficit to defeat service academy rival Army on the road on Saturday afternoon. The Bison will be looking to shed a seven-game series losing streak to Navy. Prior to this run, Bucknell had won 19 of the previous 20 clashes.

GAME DIGEST
What: Navy (10-10, 3-5 PL) at Bucknell (8-13, 1-7 PL)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa.
When: Wednesday, Jan. 24, 7 p.m.
Streaming: ESPN+
Local Radio: The Valley (100.9 FM)
Internet Audio: BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com
TICKETS
COMPLETE GAME NOTES
DIGITAL GAME PROGRAM

Bucknell Tentative Starters
G: Elvin Edmonds IV (7.5 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 2.4 apg)
G: Xander Rice (14.7 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 4.0 apg)
G: Jack Forrest (7.7 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 0.9 apg)
F: Alex Timmerman (12.2 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 1.9 apg)
C: Andre Screen (10.7 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 1.1 bpg)

With a Win over Navy, Bucknell Would ...

... snap a seven-game series losing streak to the Midshipmen and improve to 45-42 all-time against them.
... snap a four-game home losing streak.
... improve to 147-41 all-time at home against Patriot League opponents.

Headlines

Bucknell and Navy square off in the first of two regular-season meetings on Wednesday night at Sojka Pavilion. The teams will meet again in Annapolis on Feb. 8.
This is the National Association of Basketball Coaches' "Suits and Sneakers" Week to support Coaches vs. Cancer. Head coach Nathan Davis and the Bison staff will be putting the suits back on for the two games this week to support the effort to put an end to cancer.
Bucknell will also be holding its annual First Responder and Military Appreciation Night on Wednesday. The honorary game captain will be SSG (Ret.) Kenny Feese, a Williamsport native who served 20 years in the U.S. Army and did five combat tours: Operation Desert Storm, Operation Provide Comfort, Operation Determined Resolve, and two tours in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Bucknell put an end to an eight-game losing streak last Wednesday at Army, but the Bison could not build on the victory and fell 80-73 to Holy Cross on Saturday at Sojka Pavilion.
The Bison have been solid defensively this season — they led the Patriot League in field-goal percentage defense coming in — but they struggled to get stops in the Holy Cross game. The Crusaders shot 52.6% from the field, went 10-for-19 from 3-point range, and scored 80 points in a non-overtime game in Lewisburg for the first time since 1996.
Jack Forrest entered the starting lineup for the first time last week and had two big games against Army and Holy Cross. The Saint Joseph's transfer matched his career high with 25 points, including 18 in a sensational first half, in the 68-66 win at West Point. Forrest finished 9-for-15 from the field and 5-for-7 from 3-point distance. His previous 25-point game came against La Salle while playing for Saint Joseph's in 2021. Forrest added 14 points against Holy Cross on Saturday.
Bucknell finally seemed to break out of a 10-game-long shooting slump at Army. The Bison had been shooting just 23.8% from the 3-point arc in Patriot League play and 29.8% in the previous 10 games, but they went 8-for-17 from downtown against the Black Knights. They could not keep it going against Holy Cross, however, as a 5-for-23 showing from the arc proved costly.
Alex Timmerman has enjoyed a strong senior season playing both the 4 and 5 spots. Timmerman has nine or more rebounds in five of the last six games and is the Patriot League's second leading rebounder at 7.0 per game. Offensively, he is 12-for-17 from the field over the last two games and has upped his season scoring average to a career-best 12.2 ppg.
Andre Screen has now won two games this season with late free throws, after he broke a 66-all tie from the line with 0:02 left at Army last week. 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 good at the charity stripe of late, hitting 16 of 20 in his last six appearances.
Senior Xander Rice, who will play in his 100th straight game on Wednesday, has upped his scoring output in his senior season and comes into the game as the Patriot League's fourth-leading scorer at 14.7 ppg.

2022-23 Patriot League Scoring Leaders
1. Gerrale Gates, Holy Cross 17.4
2. Jalen Rucker, Army 16.4
3. Evan Taylor, Lehigh 14.7
4. Xander Rice, Bucknell 14.7
5. Tucker Richardson, Colgate 14.5

Rice became the first Bison player with 20 straight double-figure scoring games since Stephen Brown did it in the final 21 games of the 2017-18 season. That streak ended last Wednesday when he was held to nine points at Army.
An experienced Navy team that starts four seniors and a junior went 7-5 in the non-league portion of its schedule and routed Boston University 75-58 on the road in the Patriot League opener, but then the Midshipmen hit a bump in the road and lost five straight games. They seemed to have righted the ship over the last week, however, with another one-sided win over Boston University (63-45) followed by an impressive come-from-behind 77-71 road victory over arch-rival Army on Saturday.
Navy ranks seventh nationally in 3-point shooting percentage (.396) and has five regulars in the rotation hitting at better than 40% from the arc. That includes top scorer Tyler Nelson, who averages 12.6 ppg while shooting 42.3% from the arc. Daniel Deaver (11.7) and Sean Yoder (10.2) also score in double figures, and each of their top three scorers also average at least five rebounds per game.
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 finished 9-23 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

The Bucknell-Navy game will be streamed live on ESPN+. "Voice of the Bison" Doug Birdsong will call the action.
Kevin Foedinger 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.

Bucknell vs. Navy Series Notes

This will be the 87th all-time meeting between the Bison and Midshipmen, with Bucknell clinging to a 44-42 edge in the series.
Navy has won the last seven meetings on the heels of a 19-1 stretch for Bucknell. This is Navy's longest series winning streak since it opened the series with 10 straight wins from 1920-50.
The Mids won 12 of 16 from the Bison prior to joining the Patriot League in 1991-92.
The first meeting between the two teams came 103 years ago in Annapolis, a 15-13 Navy win. According to the New York Times game story:
The Naval Academy barely nosed out Bucknell at basket ball this afternoon, the score being 15 to 13. The game was one of the best contested and most expertly played staged here for years. Both teams had a splendid system of defense and the individual playing was of a high standard.
As conference rivals, Bucknell leads 40-30, with the home team winning most of the time. Since Navy joined the league, Bucknell is 27-7 against the Mids at home but is only 13-23 against Navy in Alumni Hall, although the Bison have won seven of their last 12 there.
Bucknell is 5-3 all-time against Navy in the Patriot League Tournament, including the Midshipmen's 76-75 win in the 1997 championship game. Navy won the first three postseason clashes, but the Bison have won the last five, including a 70-65 decision in the 2017 semifinal round.
Navy swept last season's series with two 18-point wins. The Midshipmen prevailed 73-55 in Annapolis and 81-63 in Lewisburg. The latter meeting was the first time Navy ever scored 80 points on Bucknell's campus, and it was only the eighth time hitting 80 in 86 all-time meetings.
Last season's first meeting was tied at 32 at the half, and Bucknell led 35-34 after a transition layup by Xander Rice, but that was one of only four Bison buckets in the first 14 minutes of the second half. Daniel Deaver led Navy with 20 points on 8-for-8 shooting, while John Carter Jr. scored 11 of his 18 at the foul line. Rice paced the Bison with 14 points. Elvin Edmonds IV tallied 12 points, and Andre Screen had 11 points and seven rebounds.
The rematch in Lewisburg followed a similar script, as the early stages of the second half proved to be the difference. Navy led 35-27 at intermission and then scored on its first nine possessions of the second half to take control. Andrew Funk scored a game-high 17 points for the Bison, while Tyler Nelson and Jaylen Walker scored 14 points each for the Midshipmen.

Notable Numbers

Through 21 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, fourth in scoring defense, and fifth in 3-point defense.

   Scoring Defense   Opp. FG%   Opp 3FG%
2021-22     79.4      .466   .373
2022-23 68.0 .423     .343

Bucknell has held nine of its 21 opponents under 40% from the field this season and is 7-2 in those games. Bucknell is 1-12 when the opponent shoots 40% or better, with Army (.433) the lone exception.
Jack Forrest needs nine 3-point field goals for 100 in his career.
Xander Rice has 112 career 3-pointers and needs eight more to jump into the top 20 in team history.
Rice's .851 career free-throw percentage would be the third-best in school history.

Bucknell Career Free-Throw Percentage Leaders
1. Mike Joseph 1986-90     397-449 .884
2. Kimbal Mackenzie   2015-19    281-329 .854
3. Xander Rice 2019-pres.   222-261 .851
4. Bo Heiden 1985-89 197-232   .849
5. Chris Hass 2012-16 292-351    .832

Rice was named Tournament MVP of the Ocean Bracket at the Sunshine Slam during Thanksgiving Week. On Dec. 18 against Merrimack, he was held to 11 points, but he did hand out nine assists without a turnover. Rice, who ranks fourth in the Patriot League in assist/TO ratio (1.8), is one of only 36 Division I players — Lafayette's CJ Fulton is the only other Patriot League player to do it — 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's "free throw defense" has been terrific this season. Opponents are shooting only 59.7% from the foul line at Sojka Pavilion, and their overall 63.7% mark on the season is seventh-lowest in the nation.

Last Time Out

Will Batchelder scored a game-high 22 points and spearheaded a big 3-point shooting performance for Holy Cross in an 80-73 win over Bucknell on Saturday afternoon at Sojka Pavilion.
The Bison received 17 points and nine rebounds from Alex Timmerman but couldn't get enough stops down the stretch in a tight game.
Bucknell trimmed a 10-point second-half deficit down to one, as the two teams traded blows over the game's final 13 minutes.
Three-point accuracy was the biggest differentiator on the stat sheet, as Holy Cross went 10-for-19 from the arc compared to Bucknell's 5-for-23. The Bison came into the game leading the Patriot League in field-goal percentage defense (.418) and had just held two of the league's top 3-point shooting teams — Army and Colgate — in check on the road earlier in the week, but the Crusaders shot 52.6% overall in this one.
Timmerman scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half, when Bucknell shot 50.0 percent as a team. Jack Forrest added 14 points and freshman Ruot Bijiek achieved career highs with 12 points and seven rebounds over 28 minutes of action. Three of Bijiek's field goals came via acrobatic tip-ins on Bison missed shots.

Who's Got Next?

Bucknell travels south for its next two encounters. The Bison visit Loyola on Saturday afternoon and then face American for the first time this season the following Wednesday.
The Bison will be looking to avenge a 10-point loss to Loyola on Jan. 11. That is a 1 p.m. tip at Reitz Arena.

Bison Men's Basketball Hosts Midshipmen Wednesday Night

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Ruot Bijiek

Elvin Edmonds IV

Jack Forrest

Andrew Funk

Xander Rice

Andre Screen

Alex Timmerman

Bison Men's Basketball Hosts Midshipmen Wednesday Night

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Ruot Bijiek

Elvin Edmonds IV

Jack Forrest

Andrew Funk

Xander Rice

Andre Screen

Alex Timmerman

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