Men's Basketball Hosts Unbeaten Princeton Wednesday at Sojka Pavilion

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- Bucknell's challenging non-conference schedule continues on Wednesday when 6-0 Princeton visits Sojka Pavilion for a 7 p.m. tip. The game will be streamed on ESPN+ along with radio coverage on The Valley 100.9 FM.

Bucknell is looking to bounce back from its frostiest shooting game of the season. The Bison hit at a 28.8 percent clip and went just 7-for-35 from the 3-point line in Saturday's 73-49 loss at Marist on Saturday. The Red Foxes, who were playing at home for the first time all season, shot 56.0 percent and used nine first-half 3-pointers to gain some early separation. Josh Bascoe continues his good November play with a team-high 14 points.

The Bison are looking forward to playing at home for just the third time this season, and for the first time since beating Southern Indiana on Nov. 20. Their opponent comes in red hot. Princeton suffered some significant graduation hits from last year's squad that won the Ivy League championship and advanced to the NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen as a No. 15 seed. But the Tigers have hardly skipped a beat, winning six straight to open the campaign, including a season-opening win over Rutgers. The 6-0 start is even more impressive considering their first five games came away from home. Saturday's 14-point win over Northeastern was Princeton's first game at Jadwin Gym.

After playing a school-record-tying ninth game in the month of November, Bucknell kicks off December on Saturday at Penn State, another team that won an NCAA Tournament game last season. The Nittany Lions blitzed Texas A&M in the first round behind former Bison Andrew Funk's sensational 8-for-10 performance from 3-point range. Saturday's game at the Bryce Jordan Center tips off at noon and will be televised on the Big Ten Network. It will be Bucknell's final contest before a two-week layoff for final exams.

GAME DIGEST
What: Princeton (6-0) at Bucknell (2-5)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa. | TICKETS
When: Wednesday, Nov. 29, 7 p.m.
Streaming: ESPN+
Local Radio: The Valley (100.9 FM)
Internet Audio: BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com
COMPLETE GAME NOTES

Bucknell Tentative Starters
G: Josh Bascoe (8.9 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 4.8 apg)
G: Jack Forrest (14.8 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 1.1 apg)
F: Ian Motta (4.0 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 0.8 apg)
F: Ruot Bijiek (6.9 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 0.9 apg)
C: Noah Williamson (9.9 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 0.6 bpg)

With a Win over Princeton, Bucknell Would ...

... improve to 3-6 on the season.
... improve to 2-1 at home this season and 209-78 all-time in Sojka Pavilion.
... snap a six-game series losing streak to the Tigers and improve to 5-16 all-time against them.

Headlines

Bucknell closes out a hectic month of November when unbeaten Princeton visits Sojka Pavilion on Wednesday. This is the team's ninth game of the season, and the nine November games tie the school record previously set in 2019-20.
Through Monday's games, Bucknell was one of only 25 teams in the nation to have played eight games already, and none had played more than eight.
The Bison were also one of only eight teams to have played at least six true road games. By contrast, the six road games are more than the total of six entire conferences: Big 12 (1), Big Ten (3), Pac 12 (3), ACC (4), Big East (5), and SEC (5).
Bucknell had put together some good stretches of basketball in recent games but had a tough go on Saturday at Marist. The Red Foxes never trailed in the 73-49 win in their home opener, and they shot 56.0% from the field while holding the Bison to 28.8%.
Jack Forrest entered the Marist game as the Patriot League's leading scorer at 16.6 ppg, but much like the rest of the team, nothing was falling on this particular day. Forrest finished with two points on 1-for-14 shooting from the field and 0-for-8 from the 3-point arc. He is now fourth in the Patriot League in scoring at 14.8 ppg.
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 has started and played heavy minutes in each game since. He had two more eight-assist games against Duke and St. Bonaventure, and 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 71 points through eight games, 51 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 a -11 scoring margin in the second half after a -81 scoring margin in the first half.
Bascoe is one of only 13 players in the nation with at least three games of eight or more assists this season.

Most Games with 8+ Assists
Darius Brown, Utah State   4
Savion Lewis, Quinnipiac   4
Stephan Swenson, Stetson   4
Josh Bascoe, Bucknell   3
Jared Bynum, Stanford   3
Jaquan Carlos, Hofstra   3
Rayj Dennis, Baylor   3
Dajuan Harris, Kansas   3
Daniss Jenkins, St. John's   3
Johannes Kirsipuu, Central Arkansas   3
Jamal Shead, Houston   3
Elijah Stephens, American   3
Isaiah Stevens, Colorado State   3

Rebounding has been a key stat for the Bison thus far. They are +24 on the boards in their two wins, but in the five losses Bucknell is -78 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.
Princeton is off to a terrific start on the heels of an Ivy League title and a run to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen a year ago. The Tigers are a perfect 6-0 on the season and received 14 votes in this week's Associated Press poll. Off to their best start since 1997-98, the Tigers opened the season with close wins over Rutgers, Hofstra, and Duquesne, and most recently they have run away from Monmouth, Old Dominion, and Northeastern.
Sophomore Xaivian Lee took over the team scoring lead at 18.8 ppg after pouring in 30 in Saturday's 80-66 win over Northeastern in Princeton's home opener. Matt Allocco averages 17.5 ppg while shooting 63.9% from the field and 54.2% from 3-point distance. Caden Pierce averages a double-double with 13.7 ppg and 11.7 rpg, and Blake Peters also scores in double figures with 10.0 ppg. Each of those five starters plays at least 30.0 minutes per game, with only three reserves averaging more than 2.2 mpg. The five starters have accounted for 90% of the team's scoring thus far.
Princeton averages better than 10 made 3-pointers per game and shoots 37.0% as a team. The Tigers also rarely miss at the foul line. They rank seventh nationally at 82.4%.
Last season, Princeton defeated top-seeded Yale 74-65 in the Ivy League championship game, and then the 15th-seeded Tigers dispatched No. 2 Arizona (59-55) and No. 7 Missouri (78-63) before falling to No. 6 Creighton (86-75) in the Sweet Sixteen.

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Princeton game will be streamed on ESPN+. The "Voice of the Bison" Doug Birdsong will call the play-by-play alongside former Bucknell assistant coach Terry Conrad in the analyst chair.
Joe Vasile 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 BucknellBison.com.
Follow @Bucknell_MBB for in-game updates on Twitter.

Last Time Out

Noah Harris made five of Marist's nine first-half 3-pointers to send the hot-shooting Red Foxes to a 73-49 win over Bucknell on Saturday afternoon at McCann Arena. Josh Bascoe tallied 14 points and Ruot Bijiek had 10 for the Bison, who found clean looks at the basket hard to come by all day.
Marist outshot Bucknell from the field 56.0% to 28.8% and hit 12 of 23 from the 3-point arc to Bucknell's 7 for 35. Harris scored all 15 of his points in the first half, and Jaden Daughtry added 12 to lead a balanced Marist scoring ledger.
The Red Foxes were playing at home for the first time all season, and they found their home rims to be friendly with a red-hot start from downtown. Harris started 5-for-6 from the arc and the team hit nine of its first 13 en route to an early 15-point lead.
Quin Berger scored a career-high eight points off the bench, and Pip Ajayi led the Bison with five rebounds.

Bucknell vs. Princeton Series Notes

The Bison are 4-16 all-time against Princeton, with the Tigers claiming the last six series clashes.
The last meeting came two seasons ago at Jadwin Gym, and Princeton prevailed 82-69 on a night when both teams shot better than 50% from the field. Alex Timmerman led Bucknell with 17 points, while Jaelin Llewellyn scored 20 for the Tigers.
The Bison and Tigers last met at Sojka Pavilion in 2020-21, and Princeton rode some hot 3-point shooting and a big second-half run to an 87-77 victory. The Bison led by six early in the second half, but Princeton scored 17 points in a row as part of a 25-3 run to take control. Princeton went 9-for-15 from the arc in the second half and 13-for-25 for the game. Avi Toomer had 19 points and seven rebounds for Bucknell, while Llewellyn and Ryan Schwieger tallied 17 apiece for the Tigers.
Bucknell's most recent series win came in 2010-11 at Sojka Pavilion as part of the TicketCity Legends Classic. Bucknell triumphed 62-56 behind 25 points and 12 rebounds from Mike Muscala. That snapped a five-game series losing streak and was Bucknell's first win over Princeton since a 74-62 overtime decision at Jadwin Gym in December 1996, a game in which the Bison rallied from 19 points down. That loss was one of only four all season for the Tigers (the others were Indiana, North Carolina and California).
These two teams first met on Feb. 12, 1902. Princeton won a 19-18 thriller on its home floor. Bucknell led 15-13 at the half but was held to just three free throws in the second half. That was one of only two losses in a 12-2 season for Bucknell.

Who's Got Next?

Bucknell visits Penn State on Saturday in the final game before the final exams break. The 12 p.m. contest will be televised on the Big Ten Network.

Men's Basketball Hosts Unbeaten Princeton Wednesday at Sojka Pavilion

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Pip Ajayi

Josh Bascoe

Quin Berger

Ruot Bijiek

Elvin Edmonds IV

Jack Forrest

Ian Motta

Alex Timmerman

Noah Williamson

Men's Basketball Hosts Unbeaten Princeton Wednesday at Sojka Pavilion

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Pip Ajayi

Josh Bascoe

Quin Berger

Ruot Bijiek

Elvin Edmonds IV

Jack Forrest

Ian Motta

Alex Timmerman

Noah Williamson

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