Bison Men Travel to Baltimore Saturday to Face Loyola

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- Bucknell starts a two-game southern swing on Saturday at Loyola, when the Bison and Greyhounds square off at 1 p.m. at Reitz Arena. The Bison won their most recent road game at Army on Jan. 18 but couldn't build any momentum with a pair of home losses to Holy Cross and Navy. Bucknell is aiming for a season split with the Greyhounds, who snapped a nine-game Sojka Pavilion losing streak with a 67-57 win in Lewisburg on Jan. 11. Loyola defeated Navy in its next game but has dropped three straight since then, and now the Bison and Greyhounds enter Saturday's game just a game apart in the Patriot League standings.

Bucknell and Loyola have both struggled at the offensive end of late. In fact, both teams are coming off 46-point outputs in losses on Wednesday night. The Bison fell 63-46 to Navy, while the Greyhounds went down by an almost-identical score, 62-46 at Lafayette. These two squads will be looking to get going with road games up next for both. The Bison head to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to face American for the first time this season. Loyola has a much shorter turnaround with a Monday-night affair at first-place Colgate on deck.

GAME DIGEST
What: Bucknell (8-14, 1-8 PL) at Loyola (7-15, 2-7 PL)
Where: Reitz Arena, Baltimore, Md.
When: Saturday, Jan. 28, 1 p.m.
Streaming: ESPN+
Local Radio: WVLY (100.9 FM)
Internet Audio: BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: LoyolaGreyhounds.com
COMPLETE GAME NOTES

Bucknell Tentative Starters
G: Elvin Edmonds IV (7.1 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 2.3 apg)
G: Xander Rice (14.2 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 3.9 apg)
F: Jack Forrest (7.5 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 0.8 apg)
F: Alex Timmerman (12.0 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 1.6 apg)
C: Andre Screen (10.8 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 1.1 bpg)

With a Win over Loyola, Bucknell Would ...

... win its second straight road game and improve to 9-14 on the season.
... gain a season split with the Greyhounds and improve to 21-6 all-time against them.
... snap a two-game losing streak at Reitz Arena.

Headlines

Bucknell and Loyola get together on Saturday in the second of two regular-season meetings. The Greyhounds won 67-57 on Jan. 11 to snap a nine-game losing streak at Sojka Pavilion.
The Bison and Greyhounds are separated by just one game at the bottom of the Patriot League standings. Bucknell can move into a tie for ninth place with Loyola with a win on Saturday.
Both teams are looking to get back on track offensively, as both were held to 46 points in losses on Wednesday. The Bison were held to 25.0% shooting in a 63-46 loss to Navy, while Loyola shot 32.7% in a 62-46 setback at Lafayette.
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 put an end to an eight-game losing streak on Jan. 18 at Army, but the Bison could not build on the victory, dropping back-to-back home games to Holy Cross and Navy.
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, however, hitting just 10-for-47 (.213) from the arc in the two games since then. The Bison are now shooting 25.3% on threes in Patriot League play.
The Bison have been solid defensively this season and lead the Patriot League in field-goal percentage defense (.424).
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 last Saturday.
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 seven games and is the Patriot League's second leading rebounder at 6.9 per game. Offensively, he is 15-for-24 from the field over the last three games and has upped his season scoring average to a career-best 12.0 ppg.
Andre Screen has 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 22 of 28 (.786) in his last seven appearances.
Senior Xander Rice, who played in his 100th straight game on Wednesday, comes into the game as the Patriot League's sixth-leading scorer at 14.2 ppg. 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 recently ended at Army.
Loyola followed up its Jan. 11 win at Bucknell with a dramatic 69-67 victory over Navy, but the Greyhounds have dropped three straight since then.
Since scoring two points at Sojka Pavilion earlier this month, Kenneth Jones has averaged 16.8 ppg in the four games since then, and he has taken over the team scoring lead at 11.6 ppg. Jaylin Andrews, who hit the game-winning layup with 2.7 seconds left against Navy, is next at 9.8 ppg.
The Greyhounds are adept at turning teams over, as they lead the Patriot League in steals at 7.6 per game, but they also commit a league-high 14.8 turnovers per game of their own.
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-Loyola game will be streamed live on ESPN+. Gary Lambrecht and Jim Chivers will have the call from Reitz Arena.
"Voice of the Bison" Doug Birdsong 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 LoyolaGreyhounds.com.
Follow @Bucknell_MBB for in-game updates on Twitter.

Bucknell vs. Loyola Series Notes

The Bison and Greyhounds have met 26 times previously. Bucknell leads 20-6 in the series, including a 14-4 mark since Loyola joined the Patriot League in 2013-14, but the Greyhounds have captured three of the last four.
Bucknell is 9-3 all-time at Loyola's Reitz Arena and 11-3 at home (2-0 in Davis Gym, 9-3 at Sojka Pavilion). The Bison had won the last nine in Lewisburg until Loyola won 67-57 earlier this season.
The first series meeting came on Jan. 7, 1987 in Lewisburg. The Bison prevailed that day 72-70. A year later Bucknell won 80-60 on Loyola's home floor.
Bucknell and Loyola played twice within the 1992-93 season. The Bison won 75-59 in Baltimore, and in late February at Davis Gym the Bison rolled to a 116-85 victory. In the latter game, the Bison produced what was then their second-highest point total in program history, led by an incredible 9-for-10 3-point shooting performance by Hall-of-Famer Mike Bright.
Bucknell and Loyola split two meetings last season, with the home team winning both times.
In Baltimore on Jan. 10, Loyola prevailed 71-67 in a game that was not decided until the final seconds. Down 69-67 inside 10 seconds to play, the Bison had an open cutter on the baseline but could not connect on the pass, and Cam Spencer hit two free throws to ice the game. Spencer (26 points) and Andrew Funk (20) — the league's top two scorers who are now both starring in the Big Ten — engaged in quite a battle throughout.
In the rematch in Lewisburg, Funk scored 27 of his game-high 34 points after halftime, and Xander Rice went 4-for-4 from the foul line in the final 13 seconds of overtime to lift the Bison to an 82-80 OT win. The game featured 12 ties and 12 lead changes, most of them coming in crunch time. Bucknell shot 53.2% for the game, including a 9-for-21 (.429) showing from the 3-point arc. The Bison were almost done in by turnovers, however, as 20 giveaways led to a remarkable 27-0 edge for Loyola in points off turnovers. Jaylin Andrews led Loyola with 19 points. The Bison limited Spencer to 11 points, but he did have six assists and five steals.
In this season's first meeting on Jan. 11 at Sojka Pavilion, Loyola led wire-to-wire in a 67-57 verdict. Freshman guard Deon Perry enjoyed the best game of his young career, finishing with 22 points on 7 of 13 shooting, including 5 of 10 from 3-point range. Rice had 18 points to lead the Bison, who were held to 36.7% shooting on the night.

Notable Numbers
Through 22 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 sixth in 3-point defense.

Scoring Defense Opp. FG% Opp 3FG%
2021-22 79.4 .466 .373
2022-23 67.8 .424 .342

Bucknell has held nine of its 22 opponents under 40% from the field this season and is 7-2 in those games. Bucknell is 1-13 when the opponent shoots 40% or better, with Army (.433) the lone exception.
Jack Forrest needs eight 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 .848 career free-throw percentage would be the fourth-best in school history.
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 (1.7), 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 58.2% 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

The Bison saw their shooting struggles continue in Wednesday's 63-46 loss to Navy, as they were held to 12 field goals in 48 attempts, while the Midshipmen got going in the second half after some early offensive woes of their own.
Andre Screen scored a team-high 12 points for the Bison. Josh Bascoe contributed six points, four assists, and a career-high four steals off the bench. Sean Yoder scored a game-high 17 points for Navy, eight coming in the first three minutes of the second half that helped the Midshipmen break the game open. Daniel Deaver added 12 points and nine rebounds, and Tyler Nelson contributed eight points, 10 rebounds, and four assists.
Bucknell looked good early, holding Navy to 2-for-13 shooting while building an 11-4 lead midway through the opening half. But after Screen scored to make it 11-4, the Bison managed only two more field goals for the rest of the half. Navy used a 14-2 run to take the lead, and then Austin Inge's buzzer-beating layup made it a 25-18 game at intermission. The Midshipmen then used a 14-0 run early in the second half to take control.
Bucknell logged a season-high 12 steals from Navy's 14 turnovers.
The Bison went 17-for-23 from the foul line, compared to Navy's 4-for-6.

Who's Got Next?

Bucknell faces American for the first time this season on Wednesday at Bender Arena in Washington, D.C.
The Eagles are enjoying a strong season at 13-7 overall and 5-4 in Patriot League play, good for a tie for third place entering Saturday's game at Navy. American is particularly tough at home, where it is 6-2 on the season.

Bison Men Travel to Baltimore Saturday to Face Loyola

Players Mentioned

Josh Bascoe

Elvin Edmonds IV

Jack Forrest

Andrew Funk

Xander Rice

Andre Screen

Alex Timmerman

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