Men's Basketball Continues Service Academy Week Saturday at West Point

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bison men's basketball squad takes on a service academy for the second time this week when it hits the road to face Army West Point on Saturday at Christl Arena. The 1 p.m. contest will air on ESPN+, with local radio coverage on The Valley 100.9 FM.

Bucknell defeated Navy 71-63 on Wednesday night at Sojka Pavilion, paced by 24 points from Jack Forrest, 14 from Noah Williamson, and 10 big first-half points from Josh Adoh that helped the Bison get out to a big early lead. Forrest, the Patriot League's leading scorer at 16.0 points per game, took over in the second half. He scored 20 of his 24 points in the final 18:21, hitting four 3-pointers in that span, to help Bucknell stave off a Navy rally. It was Forrest's sixth 20-point game of the season.

Army lost to arch-rival Navy 57-53 in Annapolis last Saturday, but the Black Knights bounced back nicely with a come-from-behind 69-59 win at Boston University on Wednesday evening. Army features two of the Patriot League's top freshmen in Josh Scovans and Ryan Curry, and the Black Knights will be looking to gain ground in the Patriot League standings as four of their next six games will be at home. Army sits in a four-way tie for sixth place at 2-5, two games behind Bucknell and Navy for fourth place. Red-hot Lafayette is still unbeaten at 7-0, followed by Colgate at 6-1 and American at 5-2.

GAME DIGEST
What: Bucknell (7-13, 4-3 PL) at Army West Point (6-14, 2-5 PL)
Where: Christl Arena, West Point, N.Y.
When: Saturday, Jan. 27, 1 p.m.
Watch: ESPN+
Local Radio: The Valley 100.9 FM
Internet Audio: BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: GoArmyWestPoint.com
COMPLETE GAME NOTES

With a Win over Army, Bucknell Would ...

... improve to 5-3 in the Patriot League and 8-13 overall.
... win a second straight game for the first time this season.
... improve to 5-7 on the road this season (3-1 in PL).
... win its third straight against the Black Knights and improve to 62-24 all-time against them.
... pick up win No. 1,496 in team history.

Headlines

Two first-year head coaches square off on Saturday as Bucknell's John Griffin III leads his team into Christl Arena to face Army West Point and first-year mentor Kevin Kuwik. Both teams are looking to build on mid-week wins.
Bucknell bounced back nicely from a gut-wrenching overtime loss at Lafayette with a 71-63 home victory over Navy on Wednesday. The Bison led for virtually the entire contest, and a 16-point second-half margin was too much for the Midshipmen to overcome.
The Bison have alternated wins and losses throughout Patriot League play and travel to West Point in a tie for fourth place with Navy at 4-3. Lafayette is still unbeaten at 7-0, followed by Colgate at 6-1 and American at 5-2. Two full games now separate the top five in the standings from the bottom five. Army is one of four teams that enters the weekend at 2-5.
Bucknell's coaching staff is 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 has put together some very good stretches of basketball in Patriot League play. The Bison have built leads of 16 or more points in five of the seven PL games thus far. Bucknell has rarely trailed over the last three games, holding the lead during 94.2% of those contests. The Bison might be looking at a three-game winning streak, but Lafayette somehow stole one in overtime despite leading for only 47 seconds of the 45 minutes.

Time in the Lead
Jan. 24 vs. Navy   Bucknell    38:26   Navy   1:09
Jan. 20 at Lafayette   Bucknell    41:00   Lafayette   0:47
Jan. 17 at Boston U.   Bucknell    38:22   Boston U.    0:00

Jack Forrest scored his 1,000th career point at Lafayette last Saturday, and then the Patriot League's leading scorer remained hot with a game-high 24 points in the win over Navy. Forrest scored 20 of his 24 in the second half, marking his sixth 20-point game of the season. In addition to leading the league in scoring at 16.9 ppg, Forrest is also No. 1 in made 3-pointers (2.8) and minutes played (36.2), while ranking second in free-throw percentage (.844) and fourth in 3-point percentage (.399). Forrest's minutes average is now up to 14th-most in the nation.
Forrest is returning to the site of his breakthrough game from last season. After missing the first part of his first season at Bucknell with an injury, he made his first Bison start at West Point and went off for a then-career-high 25 points, hitting 5-for-7 from downtown.
Noah Williamson exploded for 23 points, 16 rebounds, and three blocked shots, all career highs, against Lafayette, and he followed it up with a 14-point outing against Navy. 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.
Senior Josh Adoh has been a role player throughout most of his career, but he has started the last two games in place of injured guard Josh Bascoe. Adoh gave the Bison a big early lift against Navy, scoring 10 of the team's first 25 points. He finished with a season-high 10 along with five rebounds, four assists, and two steals.
Bucknell will be taking on an Army team that allows a league-low 63.2 points per game but also scores a league-low 61.0. The Black Knights do rank third in the PL with 8.3 made 3-pointers per game, but they have struggled at the free-throw line hitting at just 57.9%, which is the lowest percentage in the country.
Army is coming off a 69-59 victory at Boston University on Wednesday. The Black Knights trailed by seven at the half before outscoring the Terriers 46-29 in the second period. Talented freshmen Josh Scovens and Ryan Curry led the team with 12 points apiece. Scovens, who had a 31-point game against Stony Brook earlier in the campaign, paces the squad in scoring (12.2). Curry tallied 20 points in a close loss to Indiana and averages 10.2 ppg, while TJ Small has a team-high 40 3-pointers and is their top scorer in PL play at 10.3 ppg.
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-Army game will be streamed live on ESPN+. Rich DeMarco will call the action from Christl Arena.
"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 GoArmyWestPoint.com.
Follow @Bucknell_MBB for in-game updates on Twitter.

Notable Numbers

Bucknell has reversed its rebounding fortunes since the start of Patriot League play. In 13 non-conference games, the Bison had a -3.7 average rebounding margin and grabbed only 28.8 boards per game. Against PL foes, the Bison are +3.9 on the glass while pulling down 36.6 rebounds per game.
Bucknell has been strong from the free-throw line of late after a slow start to the season. The Bison are 184-230 (.800) from the stripe over the last 12 games, although they struggled a bit last time out against Navy (15-23, .652).
Bucknell's season FT% is 75.7%, which leads the Patriot League and ranks 38th 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).
Ruot Bijiek is 15-for-15 from the foul line in Patriot League play, and he has made 19 in a row since his last miss at Merrimack on Dec. 22.
In Patriot League play, Bucknell ranks second in scoring (72.6), first in 3-point percentage (.392), and first in free-throw percentage (.773).
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.
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

Jack Forrest scored 20 of his game-high 24 points in the second half and made four of his team's 10 3-point field goals as the Bison defeated Navy 71-63 on Wednesday night at Sojka Pavilion. Noah Williamson continued his strong run with 14 points, and Josh Adoh gave the Bison a huge early lift, scoring all of his season-high 10 points in the first half to help Bucknell snap a nine-game series losing streak to the Midshipmen.
The Midshipmen saw their two-game winning streak come to an end, despite 22 points from Austin Benigni and 11 points and 11 rebounds from Donovan Draper.
The Bison shot 48.9% for the contest, hitting at a 61.9% clip in the second half, while holding the Midshipmen to 35.2%. Bucknell hit half of its 20 3-point tries and led for more than 38 minutes, although the game was not decided until the late stages.
Bucknell stormed out to a 30-15 lead, but Navy shot back with a 15-2 run, with Austin Inge's 3-pointer on the first possession of the second half making it a two-point game at 32-30. The Bison responded well, scoring 17 of the next 21 points to build the margin back to 15 at 49-34. Navy got back within six on a couple of occasions, but the Bison got a couple of key stops in the closing minutes.

Bucknell vs. Army Series Notes

The Bison hold a 61-24 lead in a series that dates back to 1929.
The Bison are 35-6 all-time at home against Army.
Army won the first 10 series showdowns, nine of them coming prior to 1966.
As Patriot League rivals, Bucknell has won 60 of 74 meetings.
In Patriot League Tournament action, Bucknell is 8-2 against Army. Eight of those 10 postseason meetings have come in the quarterfinals.
Bucknell swept the season series from Army a year ago, winning 68-66 at West Point and 73-67 at Sojka Pavilion.
In last year's first meeting at Christl Arena, the insertion of Jack Forrest into the starting lineup paid immediate dividends. Forrest poured in a career-high 25 points and the Bison prevailed 68-66 after Andre Screen hit two free throws with two seconds to go. Bucknell was in the midst of one of its most complete performances of the season, leading by 17 midway through the second half against an Army team that came in with a 5-1 Patriot League record and six wins in its previous seven. The Black Knights made a furious comeback, scoring 10 straight points to tie the game on an Ethan Roberts layup with 15 seconds left. The Bison ran a great play out of a timeout, as Screen rolled to the basket after setting a pick and took a nifty pass from Rice before drawing a foul going up.
In the rematch in Lewisburg, Xander Rice scored 17 points, including his 1,000th career point, to lead the Bison to a 73-67 win over the third-place Black Knights. The Bison led 65-51 with 2:29 to play, but Roberts hit four straight 3-pointers in the final minute to make things interesting. Army got as close as four before Rice sealed the game at the foul line. Roberts finished with 32 points and Coleton Benson had 15 for Army. Screen added 15 points and Ruot Bijiek 12 for the Bison.

Who's Got Next?

The Bison return home to face Loyola on Wednesday at Sojka Pavilion. It will be the first of two regular-season meetings between the Bison and Greyhounds. Tip time is 7 p.m., with coverage on ESPN+.

Men's Basketball Continues Service Academy Week Saturday at West Point

Players Mentioned

Josh Adoh

Josh Bascoe

Ruot Bijiek

Jack Forrest

Xander Rice

Andre Screen

Noah Williamson

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