Men's Basketball Rings in New Year Wednesday with Patriot League Opener at Home vs. Holy Cross

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bison make their 2024 debut on Wednesday night at home against Holy Cross in the first of 18 rounds of Patriot League action. These are two of the five Patriot League squads featuring first-year head coaches, with former Bucknell mentor Dave Paulsen now in charge at Holy Cross. Both teams are in growth mode with young squads and new coaching staffs, and both come into Wednesday's game with 3-10 records. Both teams do have wins over power conference teams to their credit, as Holy Cross beat Georgetown in early November, while the Bison won at Penn State to kick off the month of December.

The Bison have dropped three straight, including a 67-58 home setback to Saint Peter's on Saturday. Bucknell led that game for more than 22 minutes, but the Peacocks flipped the game around with a 10-0 run six minutes into the second half, and then they stretched a three-point margin up to 10 with a 7-0 run late in the contest. Ruot Bijiek scored a career-high 13 points to lead four Bison in double figures. Bucknell shot 50 percent from the field but struggled from 3-point distance (5-19) for the second straight game.

Holy Cross had dropped six in a row before routing Division III Elms College 88-60 in its final non-conference tuneup last Friday. The Crusaders have been starting three freshmen in recent games, with two other first-years seeing significant minutes off the bench. Senior Joe Octave has been the team's most productive player thus far. He leads the squad in both scoring (14.9) and rebounding (6.4). Sophomore Will Batchelder was a thorn in Bucknell's side last year, when Holy Cross swept the season series. Batchelder hit the winning shot in the first meeting in Worcester and then hit 5 of 7 3-point attempts on the way to 21 points in game two in Lewisburg.

Bucknell's holiday ticket sale continues through Jan. 10. Click on the image below to purchase tickets, and use the promo code RAY4SNOW to get 50% off all tickets.

GAME DIGEST
What: Holy Cross (3-10, 0-0 PL) at Bucknell (3-10, 0-0 PL)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa.
When: Wednesday, Jan. 3, 7 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, 2.6 rpg, 5.0 apg)
G: Elvin Edmonds IV (9.4 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 2.7 apg)
G: Jack Forrest (15.6 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 1.3 apg)
F: Ruot Bijiek (7.2 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 0.8 apg)
C: Noah Williamson (11.3 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 0.7 bpg)

With a Win over Holy Cross, Bucknell Would ...

... snap a three-game losing streak and improve to 4-10 on the season.
... start 1-0 in Patriot League play for the first time since 2019-20.
... snap a three-game series losing streak to the Crusaders and improve to 49-33 all-time against them.
... improve to 2-4 at home this season and 209-81 all-time at Sojka Pavilion.

Headlines

After a 13-game non-conference lead-in, Bucknell and Holy Cross square off on Wednesday on the opening night of Patriot League play. This is the 34th season of Patriot League men's basketball, and the Bison and Crusaders (along with Colgate) are tied for the league lead with six championships apiece.
Bucknell and Holy Cross enter 2024 in similar positions. Both squads are growing under new head coaches, both have fairly young rosters, both have battled through some injuries, and both come in with 3-10 records.
The Bison will welcome back some friendly faces on Wednesday. Holy Cross head coach Dave Paulsen guided the Bison for seven seasons from 2008-15, winning two Patriot League titles (2011, 2013) on the way to a 134-94 record and three Patriot League Coach of the Year honors. Paulsen's .588 winning percentage is second-best in program history among coaches with 40 or more games, trailing only Hall-of-Famer Charlie Woollum (.590). Paulsen's associate head coach at Holy Cross is Bryson Johnson '13, who is the most prolific 3-point shooter in Bucknell history. Johnson played a key role on the 2011 and 2013 championship teams and his 323 career 3-pointers are 29 more than any other player in team history. Johnson ranks 14th on Bucknell's all-time scoring list with 1,384 points, and he was one of three 1,000-point scorers in his class, along with Mike Muscala (1st, 2036) and Joe Willman (30th, 1162).
Bucknell faced some very good competition in November and December. The team's 13 non-league opponents had a combined 99-69 (.584) record through Monday's games. Ten of the 13 have records of .500 or better.
Bucknell had started to heat up from long range but struggled from the arc in the last two outings. After shooting 46.8% (29-62) from the 3-point line in its previous three games against Princeton, Penn State, and Radford, the Bison hit just 19.4% (7-36) in the last two contests against Merrimack and Saint Peter's.
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 15.6 ppg. Forrest leads the league in free-throw percentage (.895), 3-pointers per game (2.7), and minutes per game (35.5).
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, while Holy Cross was slotted No. 4. 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.
Holy Cross snapped a six-game losing streak with an 88-60 win over Elms College in its most recent outing on Dec. 29. The Crusaders shot 53.8% from the field and had six players score in double figures.
Holy Cross features the Patriot League's fourth-leading scorer in senior Joe Octave, who averages 14.9 ppg. Octave recorded 33 points in a win over Georgetown in the second game of the season, and he recently scored 25 in a two-point loss to Harvard, which earned him his second Patriot League Player of the Week citation of the season. Octave, who is in his second season at Holy Cross after transferring from Air Force, also tops the team in rebounding, ranking fifth in the league with 6.4 rpg.
Senior Bo Montgomery is the team's No. 2 scorer at 9.1 ppg, but Montgomery has not played since Dec. 2 due to injury. Freshmen Joe Nugent has started all 13 games, and rookies A.J. Wills, Kahlil Singleton, Declan Ryan, and DeAndre Williams have all seen significant time. Singleton has emerged of late, scoring 57 points in the last five games, including 21 against Harvard, after totaling five points in the first eight games of the season.
Holy Cross has been one of the Patriot League's better offensive teams thus far, ranking sixth in scoring (66.2), fourth in field-goal percentage (.434), and third in 3-point percentage (.342). At the other end of the floor, however, the Crusaders rank 10th in points allowed (77.2), ninth in field-goal percentage defense (.468), and 10th in 3-point defense (.390).

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Holy Cross game can be seen on ESPN+. Doug Birdsong and former Bucknell assistant coach Terry Conrad will call the action from Sojka Pavilion.
Joe Vasile 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 24 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 92-112 (.821) from the stripe over the last seven games. Center Noah Williamson has been a big part of that resurgence, as he is 30-36 (.833) 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   .778
3. Branden Carlson, Utah 7-0   .768
4. Will Baker, LSU 7-0   .760
5. Zach Edey, Purdue 7-4   .761
6. Noah Williamson, Bucknell 7-0   .745

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-9 from the field in his last four games, 10-for-12 in his last five, and 15-for-22 in his last seven. Motta's streak of 10 straight made shots came to an end last time out against Saint Peter's.
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 44 guards in the nation and the only one in the Patriot League averaging at least 15.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.
Bucknell has shot the three much better at home (38.5%) than on the road (29.0%) this season.
Josh 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. Bascoe is the only Patriot League player with a 10-assist game this season.

Last Time Out

Bucknell fell 67-58 to Saint Peter's on Saturday afternoon at Sojka Pavilion. The Bison led the Peacocks 40-36 with 14 minutes to go in the second half, but Saint Peter's scored on its next four possessions en route to a game-changing 10-0 run. The Bison cut that margin to three a few times, but the Peacocks made several tough shots down the stretch to pull away.
The Bison shot 50.0% (22-44) from the field, but only 5-for-19 on 3-pointers, while the Peacocks shot 44.9% (22-49) and 6-for-14 behind the arc. After hitting at a 34.6% clip in the first half, Saint Peter's shot 56.5% in the second, including 4-for-7 from long range.
Ruot Bijiek scored a career-high 13 points for Bucknell, while Elvin Edmonds IV, Jack Forrest, and Noah Williamson each scored 10 points. Josh Bascoe finished with nine points, six rebounds, and five assists, while Edmonds added five assists and three steals. Latrell Reid scored a game-high 16 points for Saint Peter's, making five of his six free throw attempts in the final minute of play to help seal the victory.

Bucknell vs. Holy Cross Series Notes
The Bucknell-Holy Cross rivalry has been one of the league's best through the years. Some of the highlights:

The Bison and Crusaders have combined to win 11 of the last 23 Patriot League titles.
These two teams have met 17 times in the 33 Patriot League Tournaments, with Bucknell winning nine of the 17. That includes four times in the championship game. Bucknell defeated Holy Cross in the 2005 and 2006 title tilts, while the Crusaders topped the Bison in the final in 1993 and 2007.
The Bison and Crusaders had never met until the formation of the Patriot League in 1990-91, but this will be the 82nd meeting in 33 years. The two teams did not play during the 2020-21 season under the COVID-modified Patriot League schedule that placed them in different divisions.
Bucknell leads the series 48-33, although Holy Cross has won the last three. This is the Crusaders' longest series winning streak since taking four in a row bridging the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons.
Bucknell is 25-13 against Holy Cross in Lewisburg and 18-7 at Sojka Pavilion. Bucknell is 18-17 vs. Holy Cross at the Hart Center, with one of the wins coming in the 2005 Patriot League championship game.
Holy Cross last season swept the regular-season series for the first time since 2002-03.
Last season's first meeting came right down to the wire, as Holy Cross's 60-58 win was not decided until Xander Rice's 3-point try came off the back iron at the buzzer. The Bison stormed back from 18 points down to tie the game at 57 on a Jake van der Heijden layup with 2:00 remaining. Will Batchelder put Holy Cross back in front with a shot in the lane with 1:28 left, and then the Crusaders benefitted from Bucknell's three missed layups in the final minute. Alex Timmerman led the Bison with 18 points and nine rebounds, while Gerrale Gates had 23 points and 14 rebounds for the Crusaders at the Hart Center.
Last year's second matchup was a higher-scoring affair, with Holy Cross winning 80-73 at Sojka Pavilion. Batchelder paced the hot-shooting Crusaders with 21 points, hitting 5 of 7 from downtown. Alex Timmerman had 17 points and Jack Forrest 14 for the Bison, who hit only 5 of 23 shots from beyond the arc, compared to Holy Cross' 10 of 19. Bucknell cut a 10-point second-half deficit down to one but could not get over the hump.

Who's Got Next?

Bucknell hosts American on Saturday at 2 p.m. The game will be nationally televised on CBS Sports Network.
The Bison swept the Eagles in the regular season a year ago, but American won 64-59 in a Patriot League Tournament first-round matchup at Bender Arena.
Saturday's game will feature one of the annual highlights of the home schedule, the 19th Annual "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 before his passing.

Men's Basketball Rings in New Year Wednesday with Patriot League Opener at Home vs. Holy Cross

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Josh Bascoe

Quin Berger

Ruot Bijiek

Elvin Edmonds IV

Jack Forrest

Ian Motta

Xander Rice

Alex Timmerman

Jake van der Heijden

Noah Williamson

Men's Basketball Rings in New Year Wednesday with Patriot League Opener at Home vs. Holy Cross

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Josh Bascoe

Quin Berger

Ruot Bijiek

Elvin Edmonds IV

Jack Forrest

Ian Motta

Xander Rice

Alex Timmerman

Jake van der Heijden

Noah Williamson

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