Bison Look to Build on Win Wednesday Night against Veteran St. Bonaventure Team

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- After playing four road games in a nine-day span, the Bucknell men's basketball team took advantage of a home respite on Monday with a come-from-behind 67-56 victory over Southern Indiana. Now it's back on the road for the Bison, with two away tests this week against St. Bonaventure and Marist. First up is a deep and experienced Bonnies team on Wednesday night at the Reilly Center. The 7 p.m. contest can be seen on ESPN+.

Bucknell improved to 2-4 on the season with Monday's home win, led by a career-high 20 points from junior point guard Josh Bascoe and a 14-point, 12-rebound double-double from senior guard Jack Forrest. Sophomore center Noah Williamson hit 11 of his 13 free-throw attempts and finished with 15 points and eight rebounds, and sophomore forward Ruot Bijiek scored 10 points on the heels of his 11-point outing at Duke. The Bison were held under 40% from the field, but they made up for it with solid rebounding, 10 steals, and some outstanding free-throw shooting down the stretch. Bucknell's final 17 points of the game came at the line, and the team was 20-for-23 in the second half.

St. Bonaventure is 2-2, including an impressive win over Oklahoma State last week at the Legends Classic in Brooklyn. Veteran head coach Mark Schmidt had to completely rebuild his roster last season, and now he has one of the oldest teams in the nation. Cincinnati transfer Mika Adams-Woods became the Bonnies' fourth 1,000-point scorer last week, and he leads the team in scoring at 12.8 ppg.

GAME DIGEST
What: Bucknell (2-4) at St. Bonaventure (2-2)
Where: Reilly Center, St. Bonaventure, N.Y.
When: Wednesday, Nov. 22, 7 p.m.
Streaming: ESPN+
Local Radio: The Valley (100.9 FM)
Internet Audio: BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: GoBonnies.com
COMPLETE GAME NOTES

Bucknell Tentative Starters
G: Josh Bascoe (8.3 ppg, 1.8 rpg, 4.5 apg)
G: Jack Forrest (16.3 ppg, 6.2 rpg, 1.2 apg)
F: Ian Motta (3.0 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 0.8 apg)
F: Ruot Bijiek (6.3 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 0.8 apg)
C: Noah Williamson (11.3 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 0.7 bpg)

With a Win over St. Bonaventure, Bucknell Would ...

... win its second straight game and improve to 3-4 on the season.
... improve to 2-3 on the road this season.
... win its second straight in the series against the Bonnies and improve to 3-5 all-time against them

Headlines

After picking up a hard-fought home win over Southern Indiana on Monday, the Bison head right back out on the road to face St. Bonaventure on Wednesday in a Thanksgiving-eve matchup. Bucknell is playing six of its first eight games of the season on the road, including two this week against the Bonnies and Marist.
Bucknell will be sending out a relatively young team against a St. Bonaventure squad that is one of the nation's most-experienced. The Bonnies feature four 1,000-point scorers and a roster that entered the season with a combined 725 career games and 562 starts. By contrast, Bucknell's roster entered the campaign with 477 games played and 143 starts.
During the first four games of the season junior point guard Josh Bascoe provided good support for Elvin Edmonds IV coming off the bench. Bascoe had an eight-assist game against Delaware and a 15-point game at Niagara in a reserve role. After Edmonds was injured late in the first half at La Salle, Bascoe started the last two games against Duke and Southern Indiana and played 37 minutes in each. He had another eight-assist game at Duke, and then on Monday he scored a career-high 20 points in the win over Southern Indiana.
Bascoe has epitomized Bucknell's second-half success this season. Of his 50 points through six games, 41 have come in the second half. That includes 12 of his 15 in the win at Niagara and 16 of his 20 in the win over Southern Indiana, when he made key shots down the stretch in both. As a team, Bucknell has outscored its foes 202-201 in the second half after a -63 scoring margin in the first half.
Jack Forrest averaged 19.3 ppg in the three games at the Blue Devil Challenge, scoring 27 against La Salle, 17 against Duke, and 14 with a career-high 12 rebounds against Southern Indiana. Forrest leads the Patriot League in scoring (16.3), 3-pointers per game (3.2) and minutes played per game (36.2). He is shooting 45.2% from the arc (19-42) thus far and has now made a 3-pointer in 13 straight games and in 25 of his 28 appearances as a Bison.
Bucknell had been up-and-down from the free-throw line in the early going, but the Bison won the Southern Indiana game at the stripe. The team's final 17 points of the night came at the foul line, and they went 20-for-23 in the second half. Leading the way was center Noah Williamson, who made his first 10 before finishing 11-for-13.
Last week's trip to Duke was productive. Even though the final result was a 90-60 loss to the ninth-ranked Blue Devils, the Bison played very well in long stretches. It was just a four-point game with 3:30 left in the first half, but Duke scored the final 11 points of the stanza and then opened the second half on a 23-7 run to break the game open.
Rebounding has been a key stat for the Bison thus far. They are +24 on the boards in their two wins, but in the four losses Bucknell is -64 on the glass.
Bucknell is just getting going in its 129th season of basketball, dating back to its first game on Feb. 14, 1896, a 16-14 victory over Lock Haven.
Bucknell is looking to rebound from a 12-20 season a year ago. The Bison went 5-13 in Patriot League play and fell 64-59 at American in the first round of the Patriot League Tournament.
The Bison were picked ninth in this year's Patriot League preseason poll, one spot ahead of Army West Point. Defending-champion Colgate was the preseason No. 1 pick. John Griffin III is one of five new head coaches in the Patriot League this season.
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 four straight sub-.500 seasons, something that has not happened since 2000-01 to 2003-04.
St. Bonaventure was picked third in the Atlantic 10 preseason poll. A year ago, the Bonnies did not return a single point on the roster, but they won eight A-10 games and now have one of the oldest teams in the country. The Bonnies are off to a 2-2 start alternating wins over Longwood and Oklahoma State with losses to Canisius and Auburn. The Oklahoma State and Auburn games came at the Legends Classic at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Mika Adams-Woods, a graduate transfer from Cincinnati, was named to the All-Tournament Team after scoring 17 points in the win over Oklahoma State. Adams-Woods became St. Bonaventure's fourth active 1,000-point scorer over the weekend, and he leads a deep team in scoring at 12.8 ppg.
Darryl Banks III and Chad Venning were both Preseason All-Atlantic 10 selections. Banks, who played his first three seasons at Saint Peter's and was a key part of the Peacocks' Elite Eight team, led the team in scoring (15.4) and led the nation in minutes played (38.4) last season.
St. Bonaventure has one familiar face to Bison fans. Junior guard Kyrell Luc is in his second season in Olean after playing his freshman year at Holy Cross. Luc, who has missed the last two games with an injury, scored eight and 14 points in the two meetings with Bucknell that season.

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-St. Bonaventure game will be streamed on ESPN+. Brendan McDaniels and Chris Scheppner will have the call from the Reilly Center.
Doug Birdsong, now in his 24th season as "The Voice of the Bison" will provide the radio call on WVLY 100.9 FM in the Susquehanna Valley.
The audio feed is also available online free of charge via BucknellBison.com.
Live statistics can be accessed via GoBonnies.com.
Follow @Bucknell_MBB for in-game updates on Twitter.

Last Time Out

Josh Bascoe scored a career-high 20 points, Jack Forrest recorded a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds, and Noah Williamson led a free-throw parade with an 11-for-13 showing at the stripe as Bucknell turned back Southern Indiana 67-56 in the first-ever meeting between the two teams on Monday night at Sojka Pavilion.
Ruot Bijiek added 10 points and collected four of Bucknell's 10 steals as the Bison locked down defensively after the Screaming Eagles got out to a hot start. Southern Indiana made its first five 3-pointers of the night, but the Bison held them to 3-for-23 the rest of the way, including 1-for-13 in the second half.
Bucknell shot just 38.3% in the game (9-24 from the arc) but went 22-for-27 at the foul line, boosted by a 20-for-23 showing in the second half. Williamson, who was 8-for-15 on the season, made his first 10 in a row and finished with 15 points and eight rebounds.
Bucknell trailed by as many as 13 points early in the game but outscored USI 41-23 in the second half. Bucknell's final 17 points of the game came at the line, and Southern Indiana never got closer than seven the rest of the way.
The Screaming Eagles shot 33.3% from the field, including a 25.9% clip in the second half. They finished 8-for-28 from 3-point distance and 10-for-15 from the foul line.
Led by Forrest's career-high 12 rebounds, Bucknell finished with a 35-31 edge on the glass. The Bison limited Southern Indiana to five offensive rebounds, only two coming in the second half.

Bucknell vs. St. Bonaventure Series Notes

This will be the eighth meeting between the Bison and Bonnies and the first since the 2018-19 season opener. St. Bonaventure leads the all-time series 5-2, although Bucknell won that most recent clash 88-85 in overtime.
Kimbal Mackenzie scored a career-high 28 points, 21 of them coming after halftime, to lead the Bison to the OT win five years ago. It was a matchup of two teams coming off NCAA Tournament appearances, and Bucknell had to fight back from 13 down in the second half, tying the game in the final minute on a tough layup by Avi Toomer. The Bison went 5-for-5 in overtime and made 10 of their final 12 shots on the night. Nate Sestina, a native of nearby Cameron County, Pa., recorded 15 points and 16 rebounds playing in front of dozens of family and friends at the Reilly Center.
The meeting prior to that one required two overtime sessions, with St. Bonaventure prevailing 90-82 at Sojka Pavilion in Dave Paulsen's first year as head coach in 2008-09. Future NBA first-round draft pick Andrew Nicholson had 22 points, eight rebounds and nine blocked shots for the Bonnies. The nine blocks are still a Sojka Pavilion record. Justin Castleberry scored 23 points, Bryan Cohen had 19, and Patrick Behan added 12 for the Bison.
Current head coach John Griffin III knows St. Bonaventure well after spending the last four seasons in the Atlantic 10 as associate head coach at Saint Joseph's. Griffin also played at the Reilly Center during his senior year at Bucknell, totaling four points and seven rebounds in a 65-62 loss to the Bonnies.
Bucknell's other series win came on Jan. 4, 1990, a 95-82 verdict in Davis Gym. Hall-of-Famer Mike Joseph had 31 points and 10 assists in that game for the Bison.

Who's Got Next?

Bucknell is back on the road on Saturday at Marist. The Red Foxes were 2-1 on the season heading into a Tuesday-night road game at New Hampshire. Marist started the season with wins over Army and UMBC before falling 82-59 at Binghamton last Saturday. The Bucknell game will be Marist's home opener.
Marist defeated Bucknell 60-54 in overtime last season at Sojka Pavilion.

Bison Look to Build on Win Wednesday Night against Veteran St. Bonaventure Team

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Josh Bascoe

Ruot Bijiek

Elvin Edmonds IV

Jack Forrest

Ian Motta

Noah Williamson

Bison Look to Build on Win Wednesday Night against Veteran St. Bonaventure Team

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Josh Bascoe

Ruot Bijiek

Elvin Edmonds IV

Jack Forrest

Ian Motta

Noah Williamson

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