Men's Basketball Set for Friday Matinee at Merrimack

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bucknell men's basketball squad is back on the road for a holiday-week matinee on Friday, as the Bison take on Merrimack at Lawlor Arena at 2 p.m. The game will be streamed on the NEC Front Row platform and can also be seen throughout New England on NESN+. Doug Birdsong will have the local call on WKOK 1070 AM and BucknellBison.com (see broadcast links below).

Both teams will be looking to rebound from losses. The Bison dropped a 70-63 decision at home to Radford last Saturday. It was an entertaining game with eight ties and seven lead changes, but the Highlanders made the final run, scoring seven straight to break open a 55-55 tie around the four-minute mark. Jack Forrest, the Patriot League's No. 2 scorer at 16.5 points per game, led the Bison with 19 points. Merrimack fell 65-49 at Cincinnati on Tuesday, despite 18 points from top scorer Jordan Derkack (17.0 ppg). The Warriors were held to 34.0% shooting, but they hung around by forcing 18 turnovers, which is their strength. Merrimack ranks 14th nationally with 10.0 steals per game. Bucknell defeated the Warriors 61-55 at home last season despite committing 20 turnovers. Merrimack, the defending Northeast Conference regular-season and tournament champion, brings a 10-game home winning streak into Friday's matchup.

The Bison are down to just two non-conference games remaining, Friday at Merrimack and Dec. 30 at home against Saint Peter's. Former head coach Dave Paulsen brings his Holy Cross Crusaders to Sojka Pavilion to start Patriot League play on Jan. 3.

GAME DIGEST
What: Bucknell (3-8) at Merrimack (5-7)
Where: Lawler Arena, North Andover, Mass.
When: Friday, Dec. 22, 2 p.m.
Watch: NEC Front Row and NESN+
Local Radio: WKOK 1070 AM
Internet Audio: BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: MerrimackAthletics.com
COMPLETE GAME NOTES

Bucknell Tentative Starters
G: Josh Bascoe (9.2 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 5.3 apg)
G: Jack Forrest (16.5 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 1.5 apg)
F: Brady Muller (0.6 ppg, 0.4 rpg, 0.1 apg)
F: Ruot Bijiek (6.9 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 0.9 apg)
C: Noah Williamson (11.2 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 0.6 bpg)

With a Win over Merrimack, Bucknell Would ...

... win its second straight road game and improve to 4-8 on the season.
... defeat the Warriors for the second straight season and improve to 2-0 all-time against them.
... improve to 3-5 on the road this season.
... snap the Warriors' 10-game home winning streak.

Headlines

Bucknell's challenging non-league slate continues on Friday with a matinee against defending Northeast Conference champion Merrimack. This will be Bucknell's first-ever trip to Lawler Arena. Formerly a Division II power, the Warriors moved up to Division I in 2019-20, and the two teams met for the first time last season with the Bison prevailing 61-55 at Sojka Pavilion.
Bucknell's 11 opponents had a combined 74-46 (.617) record through Tuesday's games. Eight of the 11 have winning records, and one of the three that doesn't is Penn State (5-6), which can get back to .500 when it hosts Le Moyne on Thursday.
Bucknell came out of the two-week final exams break with a 70-63 home loss to a 9-4 Radford team that is one of the favorites in the Big South Conference. That game was tied with 4:24 to go before the Highlanders ran off a 7-0 run to take command.
Bucknell's last game before finals was a satisfying 76-67 win at Penn State. It was the team's first win over the Nittany Lions since 2013 and snapped an eight-game losing streak to Big Ten opponents.
The Bison have begun to shoot the ball very well of late. In their last three games, against quality opponents in Princeton, Penn State, and Radford, the Bison have shot 50.0% from the field, 46.8% from 3-point range, and 85.4% from the foul line.
Bucknell's free throw resurgence dates back even further, as the team has shot at least 80% from the foul line in five of the last six games. The Bison now lead the Patriot League in free-throw accuracy at 74.7% on the season after a perfect 15-for-15 performance against Radford.
Jack Forrest earned Patriot League Player of the Week honors on Dec. 4 after eclipsing the 20-point mark against both Princeton (21) and Penn State (23), and he just missed making it three straight with a 19-point outing against Radford on Saturday. It was the first career PL Player of the Week honor for Forrest, who now ranks second in the Patriot League in scoring at 16.5 ppg. Forrest leads the league in free-throw percentage (.886), 3-pointers per game (2.9), and minutes per game (35.9).
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 scored a career-high 20 points in the win over Southern Indiana, and in the win over Penn State he had 11 points, 10 assists, five rebounds, and three steals. Bascoe is now second in the Patriot League in assists at 5.3 apg.
Edmonds returned to action against Radford after a six-game absence. He came off the bench and tallied nine points and three assists in 24 minutes.
The only other Bison besides Bascoe in the last 20 years to have a game with at least 10 points, 10 assists, five rebounds, and three steals was Steven Kaspar, who went 12-10-7-3 against Navy on Jan. 15, 2014. Bascoe is the only Patriot League player with a 10-assist game this season.
Bascoe is one of only 16 players in the nation with at least four games of eight or more assists this season.

Most Games with 8+ Assists
Savion Lewis, Quinnipiac   8
Jaquan Carlos, Hofstra   7
Darius Brown, Utah State   6
Elijah Hawkins, Minnesota   5
Daniss Jenkins, St. John's   5
Jamal Shead, Houston   5
Braden Smith, Purdue   5
Isaiah Stevens, Colorado State   5
Stephan Swenson, Stetson   5
Rollie Worster, Utah   5
Josh Bascoe, Bucknell   4
Rayj Dennis, Baylor   4
Dajuan Harris, Kansas   4
Isaiah Hill, Fresno State   4
Noah Reynolds, Green Bay   4
Alex Schumacher, Seattle   4

Bucknell is in the midst of 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.
Merrimack went 18-16 overall and 12-4 in the Northeast Conference last season. The Warriors captured the NEC regular-season and tournament titles, but they were not eligible for the NCAA Tournament in their final season of transition status to Division I. That opened the door for runner-up Fairleigh Dickinson to not only make it into the NCAA field, but the 16th-seeded Knights defeated Texas Southern in a First Four game in Dayton and then shocked top-seeded Purdue 63-58 in the First Round.
Merrimack brings a 5-7 record into Friday's game after falling 65-49 at Cincinnati on Tuesday. The Warriors have also played Florida, Georgetown, and Ohio State on the road.
Merrimack is 3-0 at home this season and has won 10 straight at home dating back to last season. That streak includes three wins in the 2023 NEC Tournament. The Warriors play their home games in two different facilities. Lawler Arena, where Friday's game will take place, is also the home to Merrimack's hockey teams. They also play a number of games at Hammel Court.
Jordan Derkack, a 6'5" sophomore guard, leads the team in both scoring (17.0 ppg) and rebounding (6.2 rpg). Derkack had a 33-point game in a win over UMass-Lowell, and he has done a great deal of his scoring at the foul line, where he is 56-for-75 (.747) on the season. Adam "Budd" Clark (11.7) and Devon Savage (10.8) also score in double figures for the Warriors, who shoot a solid 44.0% as a team despite hitting at only a 27.1% clip from 3-point distance.
Bucknell will have to be sound with the basketball against a Merrimack team that ranks 14th nationally in steals at 10.0 per game. Clark's 34 steals are fourth-most in the country,

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Merrimack game can be seen on both NEC Front Row and NESN+. Thomas Zinzarella will call the action from North Andover.
"Voice of the Bison" Doug Birdsong will provide the radio call on WKOK 1070 AM in the Susquehanna Valley.
The audio feed is also available online free of charge via BucknellBison.com.
Live statistics can be accessed via MerrimackAthletics.com.
Follow @Bucknell_MBB for in-game updates on Twitter.

Notable Numbers

Rebounding has been a key stat for the Bison thus far. They are +25 on the boards in their three wins, but in the eight losses Bucknell is -85 on the glass.
Bucknell has been strong from the free-throw line of late after a slow start to the season. The Bison are 77-92 (.837) from the stripe over the last six games. Center Noah Williamson has been a big part of that resurgence, as he is 26-30 (.867) during that span.
Bucknell went 15-for-15 from the foul line against Radford on Dec. 16. That is tied for the sixth-most made free throws without a miss in team history. The record is 22-for-22 against Lafayette on Feb. 1, 1989.
Williamson has been an X-factor for the Bison thus far. In the team's three wins, he is averaging 19.3 points and 7.0 rebounds while shooting 66.7% from the field (20-30) and 89.5% from the foul line (17-19).
Ian Motta is 8-for-8 from the field in his last two games, 10-for-11 in his last three, and 15-for-21 in his last five. Motta enters the Merrimack game having made 10 straight shots dating back to a first-half missed three against Princeton.
Quin Berger is 8 for his last 16 from 3-point range after a 1-for-7 start to the season.
Jack Forrest is one of only 33 guards in the nation and the only one in the Patriot League averaging at least 16.0 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. Merrimack's Jordan Derkack is also on that list.
Bucknell has shot the three much better at home (40.9%) than on the road (30.8%) this season.

Last Time Out

Bucknell battled a tough Radford opponent and came up just short, falling 70-63 on Saturday afternoon at Sojka Pavilion despite 19 points from Jack Forrest. The veteran Highlanders, now 9-4 on the season, scored seven straight points around the four-minute mark of the second half to break open a 55-55 tie and then iced the game at the free-throw line on a day when the two teams combined to go 26-for-26 from the stripe.
Forrest entered the day ranked second in the Patriot League in scoring at 16.2 points per game, and he upped that mark with 19 on 5-for-8 shooting from the field, 3-for-5 from the 3-point arc, and 6-for-6 from the foul line. Noah Williamson added 13 points to go along with four rebounds and four assists, while Ian Motta added 11 points off the bench. Elvin Edmonds IV came off the bench in his first appearance after a six-game injury absence and tallied nine points and three assists in 24 minutes of action.
Bucknell shot 40.4% (19-for-47) for the game, including 10-for-23 (43.5%) from 3-point territory, while the Highlanders shot 43.9% (25-for-57) from the field and 34.6% (9-for-26) from behind the arc. Radford outrebounded Bucknell 31-24 and converted 12 offensive rebounds into 17 second-chance points. Eleven of the Highlanders' first 13 points of the game came off the offensive glass.
The Bison turned the ball over 13 times, while the Highlanders committed eight miscues. Bucknell did capitalize by turning those eight turnovers into 20 points.

Bucknell vs. Merrimack Series Notes

The Bison and Warriors are meeting for just the second time. Bucknell won 61-55 last season at Sojka Pavilion in the team's first game back after the final exams break.
Alex Timmerman led the Bison with 15 points, followed by Xander Rice with 11 points and nine assists. Bucknell overcame 20 turnovers thanks to a 37-21 rebounding edge and limiting Merrimack to 35.2% shooting. Ziggy Reid scored 20 and Jordan Minor had nine points, eight blocked shots and five steals for the Warriors, who committed 15 turnovers of their own. Despite the 20 giveaways, the Bison finished with a 24-10 edge in points off turnovers.

Who's Got Next?

Following the Merrimack game, the Bison will take a few days off for Christmas before reconvening in Lewisburg for an evening practice on Dec. 26.
Bucknell will have one more non-conference game on Dec. 30 at home against Saint Peter's, and then the Bison kick off Patriot League play with home dates with Holy Cross (Jan. 3) and American (Jan. 6).

Men's Basketball Set for Friday Matinee at Merrimack

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Josh Bascoe

Quin Berger

Ruot Bijiek

Elvin Edmonds IV

Jack Forrest

Ian Motta

Brady Muller

Xander Rice

Alex Timmerman

Noah Williamson

Men's Basketball Set for Friday Matinee at Merrimack

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Josh Bascoe

Quin Berger

Ruot Bijiek

Elvin Edmonds IV

Jack Forrest

Ian Motta

Brady Muller

Xander Rice

Alex Timmerman

Noah Williamson

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