Bison, Eagles Clash Wednesday in D.C.

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- Bucknell has played 10 of its 18 Patriot League contests, and the Bison are looking for a turnaround as the calendar flips to February. The squad heads to American on Wednesday with a 1-9 Patriot League record, with three straight losses coming on the heels of a good road win over Army. Meanwhile, the Eagles are tied for third place alongside Army with a 6-4 Patriot League mark. American, which ran off eight straight wins during the non-league portion of the schedule, started 4-0 in the Patriot League before dropping four straight. The Eagles have bounced back in the last week, however, posting consecutive close wins over Army and Navy.

This is the first of two meetings between Bucknell and American over the next two weeks. The two sides split last season's series, and in fact have split the last 10 meetings. Bucknell has dropped the last two games in Bender Arena, with its last win there coming in the 2020 Patriot League Tournament quarterfinals.

GAME DIGEST
What: Bucknell (8-15, 1-9 PL) at American (14-7, 6-4 PL)
Where: Bender Arena, Washington, D.C.
When: Wednesday, Feb. 1, 7 p.m.
Streaming: ESPN+
Local Radio: WVLY (100.9 FM)
Internet Audio: BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: A UEagles.com
COMPLETE GAME NOTES

Bucknell Tentative Starters
G: Elvin Edmonds IV (7.1 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 2.3 apg)
G: Xander Rice (14.5 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 3.7 apg)
F: Jack Forrest (7.9 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 1.2 apg)
F: Alex Timmerman (12.0 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 1.7 apg)
C: Andre Screen (10.8 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 1.1 bpg)

With a Win over American, Bucknell Would ...

... halt a three-game losing streak and improve to 9-15 on the season.
... stop a two-game losing streak at Bender Arena and improve to 12-12 all-time in Bender.
... improve to 46-27 all-time against the Eagles.

Headlines

Bucknell and American will get together twice in a span of just 12 days, with the first of those meetings coming up on Wednesday in Washington, D.C. The two teams will square off again in Lewisburg on Monday, Feb. 13 at Sojka Pavilion, in a game that will be televised on CBS Sports Network.
The Bison and Eagles have trended in different directions over the last week. Bucknell had a nice road win at then-second-place Army on Jan. 18 but has dropped its three games since then. American had lost four in a row on the heels of a 4-0 start to Patriot League play, but the Eagles have since gotten back on track with victories over both service academies.
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 19-for-74 (.257) from the arc in the three games since then. The Bison are now shooting 26.3% on threes in Patriot League play.
The Bison have been solid defensively this season and lead the Patriot League in field-goal percentage defense (.428), but they have surrendered 80 points in two of the last three games (Holy Cross, Loyola).
Jack Forrest entered the starting lineup for the first time on Jan. 18 and had a big game against Army. 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 has averaged 14.3 ppg since joining the starting unit.
Alex Timmerman has enjoyed a strong senior season playing both the 4 and 5 spots. Timmerman has seven or more rebounds in seven of the last 10 games and is the Patriot League's second leading rebounder at 6.9 per game. Offensively, he is 20-for-31 from the field over the last four games and has upped his season scoring average to a career-best 12.0 ppg.
Senior Xander Rice, who will play in his 102nd straight game, comes into the contest as the Patriot League's fifth-leading scorer at 14.5 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. Rice is coming off a season-best 21-point effort at Loyola.
American is in the midst of a strong season, as its 14 wins are second-most in the Patriot League behind Colgate's 17. The Eagles put together an eight-game winning streak early in the season and started 4-0 in league play before dropping four straight. Last week, Johnny O'Neil scored at the buzzer in a 63-61 home win over Army, and then AU won 73-69 at Navy on Saturday.
Junior frontcourt man Matt Rogers is enjoying an outstanding junior season. Rogers leads the team in scoring at 13.0 ppg, and he ranks second in the Patriot League in field-goal percentage at 64.2%. Rogers, who was 9-for-9 from the field in an 18-point showing against Navy on Saturday, is also 16-for-32 from the 3-point arc on the season. O'Neil averages 11.2 ppg, a team-best 6.5 rpg, and a league-best 1.7 bpg.
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-American game will be streamed live on ESPN+. Dan Laing and Gordon Austin 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 AUEagles.com.
Follow @Bucknell_MBB for in-game updates on Twitter.

Bucknell vs. American Series Notes

Bucknell has an overall 45-27 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 30-15, including victories in the 2005 and 2006 PL Tournament semifinals.
Bucknell has won 26 of 34 series meetings in Lewisburg, including 18 out of 21 at Sojka Pavilion, but the Bison are just 11-12 at Bender Arena.
Bucknell and American split last year's season series, with the home team winning both times.
American won last year'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.
In the rematch at Sojka Pavilion, Andre Screen scored 20 points and the Bison survived a late AU flurry in a 68-66 victory. Funk tallied 16 points and Xander Rice added 11 for Bucknell, which started the game 15-for-17 from the field on the way to a 37-20 lead. The Bison still led by 15 at 66-51 with 6:20 to play, but the Eagles scored the game's final 11 points and had a shot to win it, but Elijah Stephens's corner three was off the mark at the buzzer. Stacy Beckton Jr. paced American with 18 points.

Notable Numbers

Through 23 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 and fourth in scoring defense.

Scoring Defense Opp. FG% Opp 3FG%
2021-22 79.4 .466 .373
2022-23 68.3 .428 .346

Bucknell has held nine of its 22 opponents under 40% from the field this season and is 7-2 in those games. Bucknell is 1-14 when the opponent shoots 40% or better, with Army (.433) the lone exception.
Jack Forrest needs five 3-point field goals for 100 in his career.
Xander Rice has 116 career 3-pointers and needs four more to jump into the top 20 in team history.
Rice is also on 1,000-point watch, as he now has 957 in his career after Saturday's 21-point game at Loyola.
Rice's .850 career free-throw percentage would be the third-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 (1.6), is one of only 37 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 64.5% mark on the season is sixth-lowest in the nation.

Last Time Out

Loyola's Jaylin Andrews (24) and Deon Perry (20) both hit the 20-point mark to offset a 21-point game from Xander Rice, and the Greyhounds pulled away late for an 80-66 Patriot League win on Saturday afternoon at Reitz Arena.
Jack Forrest tallied 13 points, six rebounds, and six assists for the Bison, who shot 42.4% and hit nine 3-pointers but could not overcome 20 turnovers. Alex Timmerman added 12 points, seven rebounds, and five assists, and Andre Screen also hit double figures with 10 points.
Andrews went 7-for-8 from the floor and 9-for-12 from the foul line, and he added seven rebounds and three steals. Perry, who had 22 in Loyola's win at Bucknell earlier in the month, had 20 more in this one with three assists and three steals. Frontcourt mates Alonso Faure (12) and Golden Dike (10) combined for another 22 points as the Greyhounds shot 57.1% in the second half and 52.9% for the game.
Bucknell trailed 35-33 at the half and took its first lead of the day on Forrest's transition 3-pointer to start the second-half scoring, but five straight points from Faure gave Loyola the lead right back for good.

Who's Got Next?

Bucknell returns home on Saturday to face Army at 7 p.m. at Sojka Pavilion. The game will be televised on WQMY-TV in Northeast PA in addition to the stream on ESPN+.
The Bison will be aiming for a season sweep of the Black Knights after winning 68-66 at West Point on Jan. 18. Army is tied for third place with American at 6-4 in the Patriot League heading into Wednesday's game at red-hot Lehigh.

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Players Mentioned

Elvin Edmonds IV

Jack Forrest

Andrew Funk

Xander Rice

Andre Screen

Alex Timmerman