Men's Basketball Hosts Colgate Saturday on Dirk Sojka's Slam Dunk with Bison Basketball

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bison men's basketball squad has two home games in a three-day span, with first-place Colgate coming to Sojka Pavilion on Saturday followed by a Monday-night date with American on CBS Sports Network.

Bucknell had won two straight before falling 71-65 at Navy on Wednesday, and now the Bison will be vying for a season split with Colgate on Saturday. The Raiders, who defeated Bucknell 71-65 in Hamilton on Jan. 14, are 18-8 overall and 12-1 in the Patriot League. Colgate saw its national-best 26-game conference winning streak come to an end last Saturday with a one-point loss at American, but the Raiders rebounded with a 28-point rout of second-place Lehigh on Wednesday.

Saturday's game will feature one of the annual highlights of the home schedule, "Dirk Sojka's Slam Dunk with Bison Basketball". All proceeds from the game, including a raffle drawing and silent auction, will benefit SUNCOM Industries, a local organization that provides a workplace for people with developmental and physical disabilities. The late Dirk Sojka, son of former Bucknell University president Gary Sojka and his wife Sandy, was employed by SUNCOM prior to his passing.

GAME DIGEST
What: Colgate (18-8, 12-1 PL) at Bucknell (10-16, 3-10 PL)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa.
When: Saturday, Feb. 11, 12 p.m.
Streaming: ESPN+
Local Radio: The Valley (100.9 FM)
Internet Audio: BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com
TICKETS
COMPLETE GAME NOTES
DIGITAL GAME PROGRAM

Bucknell Tentative Starters
G: Xander Rice (14.7 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 3.7 apg)
G: Jack Forrest (8.4 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 1.6 apg)
F: Ian Motta (5.3 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 0.7 apg)
F: Alex Timmerman (11.7 ppg, 6.7 rpg, 1.7 apg)
C: Andre Screen (11.0 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 1.2 bpg)

With a Win over Colgate, Bucknell Would ...

... gain a season split with the Raiders and improve to 11-16 on the season.
... snap a five-game series losing streak.
... improve to 70-52 all-time against the Raiders.
... improve to 148-42 all-time at home against Patriot League opponents.

Headlines

Bucknell's two-game winning streak came to an end with Wednesday's 71-65 loss to a red-hot Navy team that has now won six of its last seven. The Bison played well for long stretches in that game and held the lead for more than 22 minutes, but Navy's 24-7 second-half run was the difference.
Next up is first-place Colgate, which rebounded nicely from its first Patriot League loss of the season at American with an 81-53 rout of second-place Lehigh on Wednesday. The Raiders defeated Bucknell 71-65 in Hamilton back on Jan. 14.
Saturday's game will feature one of the annual highlights of the home schedule, "Dirk Sojka's Slam Dunk with Bison Basketball". All proceeds, including a raffle drawing and silent auction, will benefit SUNCOM Industries, a local organization that provides a workplace for people with developmental and physical disabilities. The late Dirk Sojka, son of former Bucknell University president Gary Sojka and his wife Sandy, was employed by SUNCOM prior to his passing.
All three of Bucknell's Patriot League victories have come against teams currently in the top four in the standings. On Feb. 1 at Bender Arena, the Bison defeated American 78-71, ending the Eagles' two-game winning streak. American came right back three days later and handed first-place Colgate its first conference loss in more than a year. Later that evening, the Bison defeated Army 73-67 to sweep that season series.
Senior Xander Rice became the 45th member of Bucknell's 1,000-point club on Wednesday at Navy. He entered the game needing only three points for 1,000 and hit the mark with a deep 3-pointer about six minutes into the contest.
Since being held to a season-low four points by Navy on Jan. 25, Rice has scored 70 in the last four contests. After posting back-to-back 20+ point performances against Loyola and American, Rice had 17 points, six assists, and no turnovers last Saturday's win over Army. Rice, who is set to play in his 105th consecutive game, is the Patriot League's third-leading scorer at 14.7 ppg.
Since moving to the point guard spot as part of a starting lineup shuffle three games ago, Rice has 12 assists and only three turnovers in that span.
Jack Forrest entered the starting lineup for the first time at Army and had a huge night. 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 12.7 ppg since joining the starting unit.
Andre Screen is 13-for-14 from the field over the last two games and is now shooting 67.1% in Patriot League play. That is the best mark in the league, well ahead of Matt Rogers of American at 64.2%.
Colgate had a national-best 26-game conference winning streak snapped with a 61-60 loss at American last Saturday. The Eagles erased a 14-point deficit with an 18-0 second-half run.
Tucker Richardson leads the team in scoring (14.2) and assists (5.1). Richardson, a fifth-year senior, is Colgate's all-time leader in assists and steals, and he is one of four active players with 1,600 points, 700 rebounds, and 500 assists.
The Raiders are an experienced team that starts two fifth-year seniors in Richardson and Oliver Lynch-Daniels (11.7 ppg), two fourth-year seniors in Keegan Records (12.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg) and Ryan Moffatt (9.8 ppg), and a freshman point guard in Braeden Smith (11.8 ppg, 4.3 apg).
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-Colgate game will be streamed on ESPN+, with "Voice of the Bison" Doug Birdsong and former Bison assistant coach Terry Conrad on the call.
Kevin Foedinger 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 BucknellBison.com.
Follow @Bucknell_MBB for in-game updates on Twitter.

Bucknell vs. Colgate Series Notes

This will be the 122nd all-time meeting between Bucknell and Colgate in a series that dates back 103 years to 1920. The Bison have a 69-52 series lead. The only other opponents that Bucknell has played at least 100 times are Lehigh (183), Lafayette (176), Gettysburg (126) and Penn State (104).
As Patriot League rivals, Bucknell is 48-26, including 28-6 in Lewisburg.
These two teams recently met in back-to-back Patriot League championship games. Bucknell won 83-54 in the 2018 title tilt at Sojka Pavilion, and Colgate returned the favor with a 94-80 win at Cotterell Court in 2019.
Colgate swept both regular-season meetings from the Bison last year and then added a third win in the Patriot League Tournament quarterfinals. The Raiders won 75-56 in Lewisburg in a see-saw battle. Colgate jumped out to an 18-2 lead, Bucknell outscored them 48-33 in the middle 22 minutes to pull within 51-50, and then the Raiders finished the game on a 24-6 run. Bucknell raced to a 27-11 lead in the rematch in Hamilton on Feb. 2, but Colgate rallied to win 83-69 thanks to 14-for-28 shooting from 3-point range. The Raiders won 96-68 in the postseason meeting, led by 28 points from eventual Tournament MVP Jack Ferguson.
Xander Rice had three terrific performances against Colgate last season, scoring 20, 18, and 17 points for an 18.3 average. He went 10-for-17 from 3-point distance in the three games, including 7-for-11 in the two games at Cotterell Court. Rice had 14 points in the first meeting with the Raiders this season.
Colgate won this year's first meeting 71-65 in Hamilton. Andre Screen matched his career high with 20 points for the Bison, but Tucker Richardson scored 23 for the Raiders. Colgate broke open a tight game with a 12-4 run about four minutes into the second half.

Notable Numbers

Through 26 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 fifth in scoring defense.

    Scoring Defense   Opp. FG%    Opp 3FG%
2021-22 79.4   .466 .373
2022-23 68.5   .432   .348

Bucknell has held nine of its 25 opponents under 40% from the field this season and is 7-2 in those games. Bucknell is 3-15 when the opponent shoots 40% or better.
Jack Forrest needs one 3-point field goals for 100 in his career.
Xander Rice has 124 career 3-pointers and is now 19th on Bucknell's all-time list.
Rice's .835 career free-throw percentage would be the fourth-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 (1.7), is one of only 45 Division I players — Lafayette's CJ Fulton and Navy's Sean Yoder are the only other Patriot League players 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 57.3% from the foul line at Sojka Pavilion, and their overall 64.1% mark on the season is sixth-lowest in the nation.

Last Time Out

Andre Screen recorded 14 points and eight rebounds and Xander Rice joined the 1,000-point club, but red-hot Navy used a late run to defeat Bucknell 71-65 on Wednesday night at Alumni Hall.
Screen was 7-for-8 from the field after a 6-for-6 effort in Saturday's win over Army. Alex Timmerman recorded 12 points and nine rebounds, Jack Forrest had 12 points, seven rebounds, four assists, and three blocked shots, and Rice and Josh Adoh scored nine points apiece.
Bucknell led for the bulk of the first half and by five at the break at 37-32. That extended the margin to eight with a quick start to the second stanza, but about seven minutes into the half Navy turned three straight steals into transition buckets, tying the game at 48 on a Christian Jones layup.
Forrest's 3-pointer just past the 10-minute mark gave the Bison a 53-52 lead, but a 1-for-10 stretch led to a 13-2 run that sent Navy on its way. Tyler Nelson's 3-pointer made it a 65-55 game with 4:45 to go, and the Midshipmen led by at least six the rest of the way.
The Midshipmen shot 58.6% in the second half after shooting 37.1% in the first. They finished at 46.9%, compared to Bucknell's 45.6%. The Bison went 10-for-26 from the arc, while Navy went 7-for-18.
Bucknell finished with a 38-33 rebounding edge but had 14 turnovers to Navy's six.

Who's Got Next?

Bucknell has a short turnaround before hosting American on Monday night in a game that will stream live on CBS Sports Network.
The Bison will be going for the season sweep after beating the Eagles 78-71 in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 1.

Men's Basketball Hosts Colgate Saturday on Dirk Sojka's Slam Dunk with Bison Basketball

Players Mentioned

Josh Adoh

Jack Forrest

Ian Motta

Xander Rice

Andre Screen

Alex Timmerman

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