Bison Host Saint Peter's Saturday in Final Non-Conference Game of Regular Season

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bucknell men's basketball team will ring in the New Year with the start of Patriot League play, but first the Bison have one more non-conference game coming up on Saturday at home against Saint Peter's. It will be a 2 p.m. tip from Sojka Pavilion, with live coverage on ESPN+ and The Valley 100.9 FM.

After playing 10 games in the first four weeks of the season, Bucknell will be playing for just the third time in the month of December thanks to breaks for final exams and Christmas. The squad reconvened on campus for an evening practice on Dec. 26 in preparation for a Saint Peter's team that has won two straight and four of its last five. Now 5-5 overall, the Peacocks are one of the nation's best offensive rebounding teams, and they also excel defensively, holding opponents to just 64.6 points per game.

Bucknell put together three straight good offensive performances against quality competition in Princeton, Penn State, and Radford, but the Bison struggled at that end of the floor in their most recent outing, a 68-52 loss to Merrimack. The defending Northeast Conference champs forced 20 turnovers and held Bucknell to 2-for-17 shooting from the 3-point arc. Noah Williamson led the Bison with 14 points and eight rebounds in that game, and Jack Forrest added 12 points and six boards. Forrest continues to lead the team and rank second in the Patriot League in scoring at 16.1 points per game.

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GAME DIGEST
What: Saint Peter's (5-5) at Bucknell (3-9)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa.
When: Saturday, Dec. 30, 2 p.m.
Watch: 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, 2.3 rpg, 5.0 apg)
G: Elvin Edmonds IV (9.3 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 2.3 apg)
G: Jack Forrest (16.1 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 1.3 apg)
F: Ruot Bijiek (6.8 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 0.9 apg)
C: Noah Williamson (11.4 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 0.6 bpg)

With a Win over Saint Peter's, Bucknell Would ...

... close out the non-conference portion of the schedule with a 4-9 record.
... avenge last year's loss to the Peacocks and improve to 2-1 all-time against them.
... improve to 2-3 at home this season and 209-80 all-time at Sojka Pavilion.

Headlines

Bucknell wraps up a challenging non-league ledger on Saturday when Saint Peter's makes its first-ever trip to Lewisburg. Both teams are coming off eight-day layoffs. The Bison are looking to bounce back from a 68-52 loss at Merrimack on Dec. 22, while Saint Peter's got by Division III Kean 73-70 on the same day.
Of Bucknell's 13 non-league games, this will be just the team's fifth at home. The Bison are embarking on a three-game homestand, however, as the first two games of the Patriot League schedule will also be at Sojka Pavilion against Holy Cross (Jan. 3) and American (Jan. 6).
Bucknell's 12 opponents had a combined 87-57 (.604) record through Wednesday's games. Nine of the 12 have records of .500 or better.
Bucknell had been on the upswing offensively before running into a tough Merrimack defense last time out. The defending Northeast Conference champs are a top-15 team nationally in forcing turnovers, and the Warriors harassed the Bison into 20 giveaways. After shooting 46.8% from the 3-point arc in its previous three games, Bucknell hit just 2 of 17 against Merrimack.
Bucknell has been strong from the free-throw line of late. The Bison have shot at least 80% from the foul line in six of the last seven games and now lead the Patriot League in free-throw accuracy at 75.1% on the season. Bucknell is 21-for-22 in its last two games, including a perfect 15-for-15 performance against Radford on Dec. 16.
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. It was the first career PL Player of the Week honor for Forrest, who now ranks second in the Patriot League in scoring at 16.1 ppg. Forrest leads the league in free-throw percentage (.895), 3-pointers per game (2.8), and minutes per game (35.7).
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 third in the Patriot League in assists at 5.0 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, and then he returned to the starting backcourt along with Bascoe and Forrest against Merrimack.
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.
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.
Saint Peter's is just two years removed from a Cinderella run to the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight. After winning the MAAC Tournament title, the Peacocks upset No. 2 seed Kentucky, No. 7 Murray State, and No. 3 Purdue before falling to No. 8 North Carolina in the regional final. Saint Peter's had never won an NCAA Tournament game before that remarkable run.
Head coach Bashir Mason, a former star player at Drexel, is in his second year at Saint Peter's after succeeding Shaheen Holloway, who moved on to Seton Hall after the 2022 NCAA run. Mason had a successful 10-year stint as head coach at Wagner before coming to Jersey City.
Saint Peter's is 5-5 overall and brings a two-game winning streak into Saturday's game. The Peacocks are off to a 2-0 start in MAAC play after a road sweep of Niagara and Canisius to kick off the month of December. Like Bucknell, it will be nothing but league play from here on out, as Saint Peter's gets back to MAAC action at home against Iona on Jan. 5.
Corey Washington (12.0), Latrell Reid (11.1), and Michael Houge (10.7) all score in double figures for a Peacocks team that scores 62.9 points per game. The Bison will have to be strong on the glass, as Saint Peter's ranks 31st nationally in offensive rebounds per game (13.5) and 19th in OR percentage (35.7%). The Peacocks shoot only 38.2% as a team (27.3% from 3FG), but they get a large percentage of those misses back.

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Saint Peter's game can be seen on ESPN+. Doug Birdsong and former Bucknell assistant coach Terry Conrad will call the action from Sojka Pavilion.
Sam Kuperman will provide the radio call on The Valley 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.

Notable Numbers

Josh Bascoe is one of only 19 players in the nation with at least four games of eight or more assists this season.
Bucknell has been strong from the free-throw line of late after a slow start to the season. The Bison are 83-99 (.838) from the stripe over the last seven games. Center Noah Williamson has been a big part of that resurgence, as he is 28-32 (.875) during that span.
Williamson ranks sixth nationally in free-throw percentage among all 7-footers with a minimum 2.5 makes per game.

Free-Throw Percentage, Players 7'0" or Taller
1. Quinten Post, Boston College 7-0   .829
2. Kennan Fitzmorris, Stony Brook   7-0   .810
3. Branden Carlson, Utah 7-0   .800
4. Will Baker, LSU    7-0   .773
5. Zach Edey, Purdue    7-4   .767
6. Noah Williamson, Bucknell 7-0   .766

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 three games, 10-for-11 in his last four, and 15-for-21 in his last six. Motta enters the Saint Peter's 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 26 guards in the nation and the only one in the Patriot League averaging at least 16.0 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.
Bucknell has shot the three much better at home (40.9%) than on the road (29.0%) this season.

Last Time Out

Bucknell had a tough day against defending Northeast Conference champion Merrimack on Dec. 22. Jordan Derkack logged 21 points, six rebounds, seven assists, and five steals to lead the Warriors to a 68-52 win at Lawler Arena. Noah Williamson had 14 points and eight rebounds, and Jack Forrest finished with 12 points and six boards for the Bison in their final non-conference road game of the regular season.
Merrimack came into the game ranked 14th nationally in steals thanks to an active zone that creates havoc in the half-court, and Bucknell had ball-control issues right from the start. The Warriors led 6-0 before the Bison attempted their first shot of the game, and seven turnovers in the first seven minutes led to a quick 16-2 lead for the home team.
uMerrimack led by as many as 26 in the second half before the Bison went on a 14-5 run, pulling within 59-42 on Forrest's set of three free throws. Bucknell got as close as 15 on an Edmonds layup with just over a minute to go.
Bucknell turned the ball over 20 times, and Merrimack finished with a 28-3 edge in points off turnovers. The offensive disruption also led to some shooting struggles, as the Bison hit 2 of 17 attempts from the 3-point arc and shot 40.7% overall. Merrimack shot 45.6% from the floor and went 9-for-30 from downtown.
The Bison did amass a 42-24 rebounding edge, led by Williamson's eight and six from Forrest and Pip Ajayi.

Bucknell vs. Saint Peter's Series Notes

Bucknell and Saint Peter's are meeting for the second straight year but for just the third time ever and for the first time in Lewisburg. Both teams have a win in the brief head-to-head series.
The first clash came on Jan. 3, 1973 in the consolation game of the Stetson Hatter Tournament in Deland, Fla. Led by first-year head coach Jim Valvano, Bucknell won 92-75. Harvey Carter paced the Bison with 21 points on 10-for-14 shooting in that game. James Donovan logged a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds.
Saint Peter's won last season's meeting 82-71 in Jersey City behind 22 points and seven assists from Jaylen Murray, who now averages better than 15 ppg for No. 24 Ole Miss, which is off to a 12-0 start. Xander Rice had 19 points and six assists for the Bison, who shot 54.1% but could not overcome an 18-4 discrepancy in second-chance points.

Who's Got next?

The 34th season of Patriot League basketball tips off next Wednesday, when the Bison host former head coach Dave Paulsen and the Holy Cross Crusaders in the conference opener.
The Bison will be looking to snap a three-game series losing streak to the Crusaders, which is their longest since a four-game slide bridging the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons. Holy Cross (2-10) has battled injuries of late but is coming off a close two-point loss to Harvard. The Crusaders host Division III Elms College on Friday before heading to Lewisburg.

Bison Host Saint Peter's Saturday in Final Non-Conference Game of Regular Season

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Pip Ajayi

Josh Bascoe

Quin Berger

Ruot Bijiek

Elvin Edmonds IV

Jack Forrest

Ian Motta

Xander Rice

Noah Williamson

Bison Host Saint Peter's Saturday in Final Non-Conference Game of Regular Season

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Pip Ajayi

Josh Bascoe

Quin Berger

Ruot Bijiek

Elvin Edmonds IV

Jack Forrest

Ian Motta

Xander Rice

Noah Williamson

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