Men's Basketball Returns Home Wednesday to Face Navy in Key PL Clash

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bucknell men's basketball squad looks to bounce back from a tough overtime loss at Lafayette and at the same time put to bed an extended run of frustration against Navy when the Midshipmen visit Sojka Pavilion on Wednesday evening. The 7 p.m. contest streams on ESPN+, with local radio coverage on The Valley 100.9 FM.

From 2011 into 2019, Bucknell won 19 of 20 head-to-head meetings with the Midshipmen, winning 12 of those 19 games by at least nine points. Navy has completely reversed ship, however, winning each of the last nine meetings, including five by nine or more points. The last Bison win in the series was a 69-57 verdict almost five years ago to the day (Jan. 30, 2019), with Kimbal Mackenzie and Avi Toomer leading the way with 14 points apiece.

Navy was hit hard by graduation after going 18-13 overall and 11-7 in the Patriot League last season. But led by a pair of sophomores in Austin Benigni and Donovan Draper, the Mids have steadily improved throughout the season and come in with two straight wins and a 4-2 record in the Patriot League. Benigni, this week's Patriot League Player of the Week, scored 32 points in a win over Lehigh last Wednesday, and his 15.6 ppg average is second in the Patriot League to Bucknell's Jack Forrest (16.5). Draper, who joined the basketball team this season after starting out with the football squad as a plebe, averages 9.6 rebounds per game to go with 10.5 points per game.

Forrest will be honored before the game on Wednesday after scoring his 1,000th career point on Saturday at Lafayette. He continues to lead the Patriot League in scoring, free-throw percentage (.881), 3-pointers per game (2.7), and minutes played per game (36.1). Sophomore center Noah Williamson is also coming in hot. He exploded for 23 points, 16 rebounds, and three blocked shots against the Leopards, and over his last four games is averaging 16.8 points and 11.3 rebounds.

Bucknell's coaching staff will be participating in the NABC Coaches vs. Cancer "Suits & Sneakers" week during both of this week's games, at home against Navy and then on the road Saturday at Army West Point. The event supports the American Cancer Society, and this year's primary initiative is to promote regular cancer screenings. Visit Coaches.Cancer.org for more information.

GAME DIGEST
What: Navy (8-9, 4-2 PL) at Bucknell (6-13, 3-3 PL)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa. | BUY TICKETS
When: Wednesday, Jan. 24, 7 p.m.
Watch: ESPN+
Local Radio: The Valley 100.9 FM
Internet Audio: BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com
COMPLETE GAME NOTES

With a Win over Navy, Bucknell Would ...

... improve to 4-3 in the Patriot League and 7-13 overall.
... snap a nine-game series losing streak to the Midshipmen that dates back to 2019.
... improve to 3-6 at home this season and 151-45 all-time against Patriot League opponents at Sojka Pavilion.
... pick up win No. 1,495 in team history.

Headlines

Bucknell looks to rebound from Saturday's gut-wrenching loss at Lafayette when a new-look Navy team visits Sojka Pavilion on Wednesday evening for the first of two regular-season meetings between the two sides. Navy won the most recent meeting 71-65 in Annapolis last February, but only seven of the Midshipmen's 71 points from that game are back this season.
The Bison have alternated wins and losses throughout Patriot League play and enter Wednesday's game in sole possession of fifth place at 3-3. Navy has won two straight, including Saturday's win over arch-rival Army, and is tied for third at 4-2, with the only two losses coming to the top two teams in the standings in Lafayette and Colgate.
Bucknell's coaching staff will be participating in the NABC Coaches vs. Cancer "Suits & Sneakers" week during both of this week's games. The event supports the American Cancer Society, and this year's primary initiative is to promote regular cancer screenings. Visit Coaches.Cancer.org for more information.
Bucknell led for 41 minutes compared to Lafayette's 47 seconds on Saturday, but the Leopards somehow managed to pull out the overtime win to improve to 6-0 in the Patriot League. The Bison led by 16 points early in the second half, fell behind by two with 5:56 to go, then got off the deck to go back up by five with 20 seconds left. However, a couple of rare misses at the free-throw line opened the door for Eric Sondberg to hit a game-tying 3-pointer with 4.6 seconds left, and after the Bison took a six-point lead in overtime, Lafayette scored the final nine points to win 75-72.
The loss in Easton overshadowed a milestone day for Jack Forrest and a monster game from Noah Williamson. Forrest finished with 15 points to put him over 1,000 for his career. Of his 1,002 points, 536 have come in less than two full seasons at Bucknell. Forrest, who has been on the floor for 89.6% of the team's minutes this season, also scored 241 points in one year at Columbia and 225 in two injury- and COVID-shortened seasons at Saint Joseph's.
Meanwhile, Williamson exploded for 23 points, 16 rebounds, and three blocked shots, all career highs. His 16 rebounds were the most by a Bucknell player since Nate Sestina grabbed 17 against Army in 2019. He also became just the third Bison in the last 15 years to collect at least 20 points and 15 rebounds in a game, joining former Patriot League Players of the Year Mike Muscala (4x) and Zach Thomas. The 16 rebounds are also tied for the most by any PL player this year, joining Navy's Donovan Draper, who grabbed 16 against George Washington on Dec. 5.
Bison freshman Brandon McCreesh is coming off his best game as a collegiate player. Picking up some minutes vacated by injured starter Josh Bascoe, McCreesh scored a season-high 10 points at Lafayette without missing a shot. He was 3-for-3 from the field, 2-for-2 from the arc, and 2-for-2 from the foul line. The free throws were big ones, as he made both ends of a 1-and-1 with 20 seconds left in regulation to give the Bison a five-point lead.
Wednesday's game features the Patriot League's top two scorers in Bucknell's Forrest and Navy's Austin Benigni. Forrest leads the way, hitting at a 16.5 ppg clip. He has scored in double figures in all but one game this season (at Marist) and has tallied 15 or more in each of the last five. In addition to leading the league in scoring, he is also No. 1 in made 3-pointers per game (2.7), free-throw percentage (.881), and minutes per game (36.1). Benigni, this week's Patriot League Player of the Week, averages 15.6 ppg. That figure was boosted by a 32-point outburst against Lehigh last week. He also had a 28-point game against William & Mary back in December.
Bucknell will have to be solid with the basketball on Wednesday against a Navy squad that leads the Patriot League with 15.5 forced turnovers and 8.6 steals per game. The Midshipmen's +4.8 turnover margin is far and away the best in the league and ranks 10th in Division I, and that figure leaps to +6.7 in PL play. Opponents shoot only 28.2% from 3-point range against Navy, which is the 13th-best mark in the nation.
Draper has been an excellent find for the Midshipmen this season. He came to Navy to play football but switched to basketball this season, and the sophomore is nearly averaging a double-double with 10.5 ppg and 9.6 rpg. Draper has 57 offensive rebounds for the Patriot League's top offensive rebounding team.
Navy shoots only 29.0% as a team from 3-point range, but the Midshipmen feature three outstanding long-range shooters in Mac MacDonald (24-66, .364), Kam Summers (16-39, .410), and Lysander Rehnstrom (14-37, .378). MacDonald hit seven threes on the way to a 35-point game at Holy Cross, part of a four-game stretch in which he averaged 19.3 ppg.
The Bison have had some difficulty maintaining second-half leads this season, and Navy is a team that plays well from behind. The Midshipmen have erased double-digit deficits in Patriot League wins over Boston University (12), Holy Cross (12), and Lehigh (11).
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.

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Navy game will be streamed live on ESPN+, with "Voice of the Bison" Doug Birdsong and former Bucknell assistant coach Terry Conrad on the call from Sojka Pavilion.
Joe Vasile 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 BucknellBison.com.
Follow @Bucknell_MBB for in-game updates on Twitter.

Notable Numbers

Bucknell has been strong from the free-throw line of late after a slow start to the season. The Bison are 169-207 (.816) from the stripe over the last 11 games.
Bucknell's season FT% is up to 76.5%, which leads the Patriot League and ranks 30th nationally.
Bucknell went 15-for-15 from the foul line against Radford on Dec. 16 and 13-for-13 from the stripe at Boston University last Wednesday. The Bison are one of only three Division I teams to have two perfect free-throw shooting games with at least 10 attempts, joining Wisconsin (14-14 vs. Michigan State; 12-12 vs. Providence) and Stetson (12-12 vs. Johnson; 11-11 vs. Charlotte).
In Patriot League play, Bucknell ranks first in scoring (72.8), second in 3-point percentage (.377), and first in free-throw percentage (.802).
Forrest and 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.
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.
Elvin Edmonds' line of 12 points, 10 assists, and seven rebounds at Boston University was also the first such game since Kaspar's 2014 performance at Navy.

Last Time Out

Patriot League-leading Lafayette rallied three different times in the second half and overtime to stun Bucknell 75-72 on Saturday afternoon at Kirby Sports Center. The heartbreaker spoiled a career game from sophomore center Noah Williamson, who finished with 23 points and 16 rebounds, and a milestone day from senior Jack Forrest, who recorded his 1,000th career point and finished with 15.
The Bison jumped out to a 16-3 advantage and led by as many as 16 early in the second half. Lafayette used a 22-4 run to take its first lead of the day, but the Bison struck back to go ahead by five with 20 seconds left. Two missed free throws followed by an Eric Sondberg 3-pointer sent it to overtime, where the Bison appeared to be in good shape after Forrest's fadeaway in the lane gave them a 72-66 lead. But Lafayette scored the game's final nine points, with the last five coming at the foul line. Bucknell had two good looks at 3-pointers in the closing seconds, but neither fell, and the Bison came up short despite holding the lead for 41:00 compared to Lafayette's 0:47.
This was the fifth overtime meeting in the last six games between the Bison and Leopards.
Bucknell played without starting guard Josh Bascoe due to injury, but freshman Brandon McCreesh filled the gap with a career-high 10 points on perfect shooting (3-3 FG, 2-2 3FG, 2-2 FT). Elvin Edmonds IV added 13 points.
Bucknell outrebounded Lafayette 44-31.
Bucknell shot 41.3% against the league's top-ranked defensive team and went 8-for-21 from downtown.
Lafayette shot 42.9%, including 7-for-26 from deep. After hitting at a 32.1% clip in the first half, the Leopards were 18-for-35 in the second half and overtime.

Bucknell vs. Navy Series Notes

The Bucknell-Navy series could not be any closer. Through 88 all-time meetings, the series is all knotted up at 44 wins apiece.
The 44-44 ledger has been marked by long stretches of dominance by both sides. Navy won the first 10 meetings between 1920-50; the Midshipmen had an 11-2 stretch in the late-90s/early-2000s; and they are currently riding a nine-game winning streak. That active run is right on the heels of Bucknell's 19-1 stretch from 2011-19. The Bison also won 11 of 13 from 2003-08, culminating with current head coach John Griffin's half-court buzzer-beater in an 87-86 triple-overtime thriller in the 2008 Patriot League Tournament quarterfinals.
As conference rivals, Bucknell leads 40-32, with the home team winning most of the time. Since Navy joined the league, Bucknell is 27-8 against the Mids at home but is only 13-24 against Navy in Alumni Hall.
Bucknell is 5-3 all-time against Navy in the Patriot League Tournament, including the Midshipmen's 76-75 win in the 1997 championship game. Navy won the first three postseason clashes, but the Bison have won the last five, including a 70-65 decision in the 2017 semifinal round.
Navy swept last season's series. The first meeting at Sojka Pavilion was a defensive struggle. Bucknell led 7-4 midway through the first half, but while Navy eventually made a run, the Bison just could not get anything going offensively and fell 63-46. Bucknell managed only 12 field goals in 48 attempts, including 5-for-24 from 3-point range. Sean Yoder led Navy with 17 points, while Andre Screen paced the Bison with 12.
The rematch in Annapolis two weeks later was much tighter, with Navy prevailing 71-65 after overcoming an eight-point second-half deficit. Screen led the Bison with 14 points, while Daniel Deaver had 20 for Navy.

Who's Got Next?

The Bison hit the road again on Saturday, traveling to Army West Point for a 1 p.m. contest at Christl Arena. Bucknell swept the season series from the Black Knights a year ago, winning twice by a combined eight points.

Men's Basketball Returns Home Wednesday to Face Navy in Key PL Clash

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Josh Bascoe

Elvin Edmonds IV

Jack Forrest

Brandon McCreesh

Andre Screen

Noah Williamson

Men's Basketball Returns Home Wednesday to Face Navy in Key PL Clash

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Josh Bascoe

Elvin Edmonds IV

Jack Forrest

Brandon McCreesh

Andre Screen

Noah Williamson

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