Bison Start Road Stretch Wednesday at Boston University

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bucknell men's basketball squad kicks off a busy road stretch on Wednesday night at Boston University. The 7 p.m. contest will be streamed on ESPN+, with local radio coverage on The Valley 100.9 FM. The Bison will play five of their next seven games away from home, including two this week against Boston University and first-place Lafayette.

The Bison and Terriers both come in with 2-2 records in the Patriot League. Bucknell has alternated wins and losses, beating Holy Cross and Lehigh with the setbacks coming against American and Colgate. Boston University started 0-2 after losses to Navy and Lafayette, but the Terriers have bounced back with two straight wins over American and Loyola. They trailed by 18 points in the second half at Loyola this past Saturday before rallying to win behind a career-high 24 points from Anthony Morales.

Bucknell was tied with Colgate in the final minute of the first half on Saturday, but the Raiders canned a three at the buzzer going into halftime and then scored the first eight points of the second half to take an 11-point lead. The Bison clawed back within four but could not get over the hump. Jack Forrest and Elvin Edmonds IV scored 17 points apiece, and Noah Williamson had 13 points and nine rebounds. Forrest continues to lead the Patriot League in scoring at 16.0 points per game.

GAME DIGEST
What: Bucknell (5-12, 2-2 PL) at Boston University (7-10, 2-2 PL)
Where: Case Gym, Boston, Mass.
When: Wednesday, Jan. 17, 7 p.m.
Watch: ESPN+
Local Radio: The Valley 100.9 FM
Internet Audio: BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: GoTerriers.com
COMPLETE GAME NOTES

Bucknell Tentative Starters
G: Josh Bascoe (10.4 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 4.3 apg)
G: Elvin Edmonds IV (10.1 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 3.3 apg)
G: Jack Forrest (16.0 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 1.4 apg)
F: Ruot Bijiek (7.6 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 1.0 apg)
C: Noah Williamson (10.9 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 0.6 bpg)

With a Win over Boston University, Bucknell Would ...

... improve to 3-2 in the Patriot League and 6-12 overall.
... win its second straight road game and improve to 4-6 away from home this season.
... snap a five-game losing streak at Case Gym and improve to 15-11 all-time against the Terriers.

Headlines

Two of the Patriot League's three 2-2 teams square off on Wednesday night when Bucknell visits Boston University in the first of two meetings this season. The Bison and Terriers are two games behind league-leading Lafayette, which is off to a stunning 4-0 start after going 1-12 in non-league play. American and Colgate are 3-1, and Bucknell, Boston University, and Navy are all tied for fourth at 2-2.
The Bison have alternated wins and losses in league play thus far, with wins over Holy Cross and Lehigh and losses to American and Colgate. Bucknell played two high-scoring affairs last week, beating Lehigh 86-80 in Bethlehem before falling 84-73 at home to Colgate.
Jack Forrest has reclaimed the Patriot League scoring lead (16.0 ppg) after posting 57 points in his last three games, including a game-high 24 at Lehigh. Forrest also leads the conference in made 3-pointers per game (2.8), and minutes per game (35.7), and he is a close second to Loyola's Deon Perry in free-throw percentage (.862).
Forrest, who played in his 100th career game on Jan. 6 against American, is now on 1,000-point watch. He has 961 career points, including his stints at Columbia and Saint Joseph's.
Junior guard Josh Bascoe has continued his breakout season with 20-point games in two of the first four Patriot League contests. Bascoe, who is averaging 15.0 ppg in league games, scored a career-high 21 points in the win over Holy Cross, and then he surpassed that mark with 23 at Lehigh last Wednesday. In Bucknell's five wins this season, Bascoe is averaging 18.0 ppg while shooting 60.0% from the field (30-50), 55.6% from the 3-point arc (10-18), and 80.0% from the foul line (20-25).
Bascoe now ranks third in the league in minutes per game (32.5), despite playing reserve minutes in the first four games of the season. Since joining the starting lineup at Duke on Nov. 17, he is averaging 36.0 minutes per game. Prior to this season, he had played more than 19 minutes in a game only once.
Sophomore 7-footer Noah Williamson, who is in his first season as a starter, is the team's second-leading scorer (10.9) and leading rebounder (5.8). Williamson has two double-doubles this season, including an 18-point, 12-rebound effort in the win over Lehigh. He just missed a second straight double-double with 13 and 9 in Saturday's loss to Colgate.
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. 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.
Boston University started league play with losses to Navy and Lafayette, but the Terriers have bounced back with consecutive wins over American and Loyola. On Saturday in Baltimore, they stormed back from 18 points down to beat the Greyhounds 60-58 behind a career-high 24 points from Anthony Morales.
Miles Brewster, who tallied 21 points in the win over American, is the team's top scorer at 10.4 ppg. Otto Landrum averages 8.2 ppg and a team-best 5.9 rpg.
Boston University ranks second in the Patriot League in scoring defense (65.2 ppg) and opponent field-goal percentage (.417), and the Terriers are third in opponent 3-point percentage (.325) and rebound margin (+2.9).

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Boston University game will be streamed live on ESPN+, with Doug Brown and Brian Maurer calling the action from Case Gym.
"Voice of the Bison" Doug Birdsong will have the local 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 GoTerriers.com.
Follow @Bucknell_MBB for in-game updates on Twitter.

Notable Numbers

In Patriot League play, Bucknell ranks fourth in scoring (73.0) and third in 3-point percentage (.383).
Jack Forrest and Josh Bascoe against Lehigh became the first Bison tandem to both score at least 23 points in a game since Nate Sestina (25) and Kimbal Mackenzie (23) did it against the Mountain Hawks in a 97-75 win in the 2019 Patriot League Tournament semifinals.
Bucknell has been strong from the free-throw line of late after a slow start to the season. The Bison are 144-178 (.809) from the stripe over the last nine games.
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.
Bucknell has shot the three much better at home (37.0%) than on the road (31.3%) this season.
Bascoe in the win over Penn State had 11 points, 10 assists, five rebounds, and three steals. 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.

Last Time Out

Colgate took advantage of a key 11-0 run around the halftime break along with some accurate free-throw shooting on the way to an 84-73 win over Bucknell on Saturday afternoon at Sojka Pavilion. Jack Forrest and Elvin Edmonds IV both scored 17 points to pace the Bison.
Noah Williamson just missed his second straight double-double with 13 points and nine rebounds, and Josh Bascoe added 10 points for the Bison. Bucknell made four more total field goals than Colgate (28-24), but the Raiders outscored the Bison 27-18 from the 3-point arc and 27-11 from the foul line.
The first half saw five lead changes, and Bucknell was locked up in a 34-34 draw with the three-time defending Patriot League champs after Edmonds' pull-up jumper capped an 8-3 Bison run. Colgate had the last possession of the half, and Cummins beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer to give the Raiders a three-point cushion at the break. The visitors then scored the first eight points of the second stanza to gain some separation.
The Bison pulled within four at 59-55, but over the next four minutes, they went 1-for-6 from the foul line and were off the mark on a couple of three attempts. Still, Bucknell was getting plenty of defensive stops and was only down by six at 64-58 after another layup by Edmonds, but the Raiders got a timely three and hit 15 of 18 at the stripe in the final 1:34. The Raiders came into the day shooting just 65.9 percent from the line as a team, but they were 27-for-31 (.871) in this one.

Bucknell vs. Boston University Series Notes

Bucknell and Boston University have met 25 times previously in men's basketball, and the Bison have a 14-11 lead in the series.
Bucknell is 7-5 at home in the series, 6-6 on the road and 1-0 at neutral sites. In games played in Boston, Bucknell is 2-1 at Agganis Arena and 4-5 at Case Gym. The Bison were once 4-0 at Case Gym, but have since lost five straight there.
The two teams met for the first time at the 2005 Cable Car Classic at Santa Clara. The Bison won that one 63-57 behind 20 points from Chris McNaughton and 15 from Charles Lee.
Boston University won both games last season, 69-61 in Lewisburg and 77-61 in Boston, even though Bucknell had double-digit leads in both.
Bucknell built a 13-point first-half lead in last year's first meeting with Boston University on Jan. 2 at Sojka Pavilion, but the Terriers started the second half on a 30-12 run and went on to win 69-61. Bucknell shot 51.9% in the first half but just 33.3% in the second. Alex Timmerman led the Bison with 14 points and Xander Rice added 10, while Jonas Harper led the Terriers with 17.
In the rematch at Case Gym in mid-February, Timmerman recorded a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds, but the Terriers flipped the game around with a 28-8 run over the final nine minutes to turn a close game into a rout. Ruot Bijiek added 12 points for Bucknell, while Walter Whyte led the Terriers with 16 points.

Who's Got Next?

The Bison are back on the road on Saturday with a much shorter trip to Lafayette for a 2 p.m. start.
The Leopards have been the surprise of the league thus far, winning their first four Patriot League games after going 1-12 in non-league play, with the lone win coming against Division III Wilkes. Lafayette has been getting it done with defense, allowing only 56.0 ppg in its four PL contests.

Bison Start Road Stretch Wednesday at Boston University

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Josh Bascoe

Ruot Bijiek

Elvin Edmonds IV

Jack Forrest

Xander Rice

Alex Timmerman

Noah Williamson

Bison Start Road Stretch Wednesday at Boston University

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Josh Bascoe

Ruot Bijiek

Elvin Edmonds IV

Jack Forrest

Xander Rice

Alex Timmerman

Noah Williamson

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