Men's Basketball Welcomes St. Bonaventure Wednesday Evening

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bison men's basketball team returns home to face red-hot St. Bonaventure on Wednesday night at Sojka Pavilion. Tip time is 7 p.m., with coverage on ESPN+ and Eagle 107. The game is the back half of a day-night doubleheader at Sojka, as the Bucknell women host Vermont in their annual Education Day game at 11 a.m.

The men's squad is looking to break out of a recent offensive slump that has led to a three-game losing streak dating back to an 81-64 win over NJIT on Nov. 21. After scoring 80 or more points in five of the first six games of the season, the Bison have tallied 59.3 ppg over the last three. Center Noah Williamson continues to lead the team in scoring (14.6) and rebounding (7.2), and he leads the Patriot League in blocked shots at 1.7 per game. Josh Bascoe scored a team-high 15 points in Saturday's 71-58 loss to Siena in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., his sixth game of the season with at least 15.

Meanwhile, St. Bonaventure comes in with a 7-1 record. After starting 6-0, the Bonnies fell to Utah State at the ESPN NIT Tip-Off in Orlando, but they bounced right back with a good 68-56 win over Northern Iowa the following day. Four Bonnies score in double figures, led by Chance Moore at 15.4 ppg. St. Bonaventure is a tough opponent for a team looking to bust out of an offensive rut. The Bonnies rank 28th nationally and second in the Atlantic 10 in scoring defense allowing 62.9 ppg, and they have held foes to 40.0 percent shooting on the season.

As the calendar flips to December, the Bison have just two games left before final exams and only four remaining before the start of Patriot League play. Bucknell visits Radford on Sunday -- the Highlanders are 7-2 heading into Thursday's road game at North Carolina Central -- and then after a 13-day break for finals, the Bison travel to Gonzaga and Syracuse to close out the non-conference slate.

GAME DIGEST
What: St. Bonaventure (7-1) at Bucknell (4-5)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa.
When: Wednesday, Dec. 4, 7 p.m.
Watch: ESPN+
Local Radio: Eagle 107
Internet Audio: BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com
COMPLETE GAME NOTES | BUY TICKETS

With a Win over St. Bonaventure, Bucknell Would ...

... snap a three-game losing streak and move back to .500 on the season at 5-5.
... improve to 2-0 against the Atlantic 10 this season.
... improve to 3-6 all-time against the Bonnies.
... improve to 3-2 at home this season and 216-87 all-time at Sojka Pavilion.

Headlines

Bucknell and St. Bonaventure get together on Wednesday for the ninth meeting between the programs.
Bucknell is looking to shed a three-game losing streak, while St. Bonaventure looks to improve to 8-1 in its great start to the season.
Bucknell and St. Bonaventure played last season where the Bison fell on the road 67-61.
Bucknell is looking to go 2-0 against the Atlantic 10 conference this season. The Bison took down Richmond 80-76 in double overtime on Nov. 16. This was also Bucknell's last win.
The Bison are coming off a 71-58 loss to Siena on Saturday in a neutral-site game at Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilke-Barre, Pa. Bucknell's offensive slump continued, as the Bison shot just 43.1% overall and 3-for-22 from 3-point range. During this three-game losing streak, the Bison have shot 40.8% from the field, 25.7% from the arc, and 61.4% from the foul line, and their season scoring average has dropped seven points from 80.3 ppg to 73.3 ppg.
Two of Bucknell's four losses have come against major conference opponents in Kentucky and Maryland. The Bison fell 91-67 in College Park last Wednesday. Next month they will travel to Gonzaga and Syracuse as part of a challenging non-conference schedule.
The schedule says Bucknell has competed in nine games so far this month, but in reality it's 9.6 games when factoring in the five overtime periods the team has already played. The Bison lead all Division I teams in overtime games (3) and overtime periods (5), and they even played back-to-back 2OT games in a span of four days against Mount St. Mary's and Richmond. It was the first time Bucknell played consecutive 2OT games since 1978-79, when the Bison defeated Saint Joseph's and American.
Three of Bucknell's wins this season have featured dramatic second-half comebacks. The Bison trailed by as many as 12 at Delaware on opening night before ending the game on a 12-0 run to win 85-73. At Southern Indiana, Bucknell held the Screaming Eagles to one point in the last 3:58 of regulation and then led from the first possession on in overtime. At home against Richmond, the Bison trailed by as many as 21 in the first half and by 18 at the break before storming back to win 80-76 in 2OT.
Noah Williamson was a preseason All-Patriot League selection and is averaging 14.6 points, 7.2 rebounds, and a league-high 1.7 blocks per game. Williamson scored a career-high 32 points in the win over Southern Indiana, and he scored 22 of his 26 after halftime to lead the comeback charge against Richmond.
Josh Bascoe (14.3 ppg) scored at least 15 points in the first five games of the season and is the league's No. 7 scorer. Bascoe ranks in the top 10 in the league in six statistical categories, and he ranks ninth in the nation in minutes played at 36.4 per game. At only 6'0", Bascoe ranks 15th in the PL with 4.6 rebounds per game.
Ruot Bijiek has upped his offensive production this season and comes in averaging 10.7 ppg. That includes a 13.7 ppg mark over his last six games. Entering the season, the junior forward had never scored more than 14 points in a game, but in the last three weeks he has posted a pair of 20-point games against Richmond and Maryland.
This is year No. 2 under head coach John Griffin III, a 2008 Bucknell graduate who was a standout guard for the Bison. Bucknell went 14-19 overall and 10-8 in the Patriot League last season. The Bison were playing their best basketball at the end of the year and finished in a four-way tie for second place, although tiebreakers relegated them to the No. 5 seed in the Patriot League Tournament. An 80-57 rout of American in the PL quarterfinals was the team's fourth straight victory, and then the Bison took top-seeded Colgate to the final seconds in a 68-65 loss in the semifinals.
The Bison returned all but three members of last year's team. Josh Adoh graduated and is using his extra COVID year at Cal State San Bernardino, a reigning Division II Final Four team. Also graduated from last year's team were top scorer Jack Forrest (16.0 ppg, First Team All-Patriot League) and walk-on Alek Delev.
That continuity leaves the Bison with one of its oldest teams in several years. Of the 15 players on the roster, 10 are either seniors (4) or juniors (6).
St. Bonaventure has gotten off to a strong 7-1 mark to begin the season. The Bonnies won their first six, outscoring its opponents 463-375 over that span. Their first loss came against another undefeated opponent in Utah State as part of the the ESPN NIT Tip-Off tournament. The Bonnies are most recently coming off a 68-56 win over Northern Iowa in that tournament in Orlando.
St. Bonaventure has four double-digit scorers, led by Chance Moore at 15.4 ppg. Moore also leads the Bonnies with 7.5 rebounds per game. Noel Brown averages 12.6 points per game on a .727 shooting percentage. Melvin Council Jr. has posted 12.4 points per game to go along with 5.6 rebounds per game. Dasonte Bowen averages 11.8 points per game.

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-St. Bonaventure game will be streamed on ESPN+ with "Voice of the Bison" Doug Birdsong joined by analyst Terry Conrad.
Joe Vasile and Luke Smith will have the local radio call on Eagle 107.
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.

Last Time Out

Bucknell dropped a 71-58 decision to Siena on Saturday evening at Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza.
Josh Bascoe recorded 15 points and eight rebounds, but the Bison could not overcome a cold shooting night from both the 3-point arc and the foul line. Siena, meanwhile, hit 8 of 17 from downtown and 23 of 28 from the line, and the Saints received 40 points from their backcourt duo of Major Freeman (21) and Wilkes-Barre native Justice Shoats (19).
The key stretch in the game came just after the seven-minute mark of the first half. Brandon McCreesh's steal and breakaway layup capped a 13-4 run and gave the Bison their first lead of the night at 19-17, but they were held scoreless for the next six minutes as Siena rattled off 12 straight points. That run included a 10-for-10 showing at the charity stripe, and Siena took a 31-21 lead to the locker room.
Siena canned its first four 3-pointers of the second half, three of them coming from Brendan Coyle, a 45-percent long-range shooter coming in. Shoats' layup with 11:46 remaining made the Saints 7-for-9 in the half and gave them their largest lead of the night, 18 points at 50-32.
The Bison chipped away, cutting the lead in half thanks to an 11-1 run sparked by a McCreesh 3-pointer and a Bascoe 3-point play. Bucknell lamented four straight missed free throws in that stretch, however, and it just could not get enough threes to fall to get any closer down the stretch. Ruot Bijiek's free throws kept the margin at eight at 60-52 with 2:30 to go, but Shoats hit a dagger pull-up jumper at the end of the shot clock, and after a Bison miss, Freeman got loose for a transition layup to make it a 12-point game.
While Siena shot 46.5% from the field, the Bison finished at 43.1%. They were 19-for-29 inside the arc but just 3-for-22 from deep and 11-for-18 from the foul line. Bucknell finished with a 28-25 rebounding edge and a 36-14 lead in points in the paint.

Bucknell vs. St. Bonaventure Series Notes

St. Bonaventure leads the all-time series 6-2, but the two sides have met only twice in the last 15 years.
The two teams first met in 1988, when St. Bonaventure defeated Bucknell 75-73.
The Bonnies won the most recent matchup in Olean, defeating the Bison 67-61 last season. Mika Adams-Woods scored 12 of his 16 points in the second half and hit two 3-pointers in St. Bonaventure's lone extended run of the night. Jack Forrest scored a game-high 18 points, Ian Motta tallied 12, and Josh Bascoe dished out eight assists for the Bison.
The Bison most recently won in 2018, defeating the Bonnies 88-85 in overtime. Kimbal Mackenzie scored a career-high 28 points, including 21 points after halftime. It was a matchup of two teams coming off NCAA Tournament appearances, and Bucknell had to fight back from 13 down in the second half, tying the game in the final minute on a tough layup by Avi Toomer. The Bison went 5-for-5 in overtime and made 10 of their final 12 shots on the night. Nate Sestina, a native of nearby Cameron County, Pa., recorded 15 points and 16 rebounds playing in front of dozens of family and friends at the Reilly Center.
Current head coach John Griffin III knows St. Bonaventure well after spending four seasons in the Atlantic 10 as associate head coach at Saint Joseph's before returning to Bucknell last season. Griffin also played at the Reilly Center during his senior year at Bucknell, totaling four points and seven rebounds in a 65-62 loss to the Bonnies.
Bucknell's other series win came on Jan. 4, 1990, a 95-82 verdict in Davis Gym. Hall-of-Famer Mike Joseph had 31 points and 10 assists in that game for the Bison.

Facts & Figures

Noah Williamson against Richmond became the first Bison to block five shots in a game since Nana Foulland against Loyola in 2018.
Williamson's 69 free-throw attempts are fourth-most in the nation, trailing only Ketron Shaw from UMES (85), John Tonje of Wisconsin (73), and Delonnie Hunt of Richmond (70).
Williamson has certainly been a catalyst for the Bison thus fall. In the team's four wins, he is averaging 22.8 points and 8.5 rebounds while shooting 63.6% from the field. In the five losses, he is averaging 8.0 points, 6.2 rebounds, and shooting 31.8%.
Bucknell is shooting 37.6% from 3-point range on the road but just 30.3% at home this season.
Bucknell was picked fourth in this year's Patriot League preseason poll.

Men's Basketball Welcomes St. Bonaventure Wednesday Evening

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Josh Adoh

Josh Bascoe

Ruot Bijiek

Alek Delev

Jack Forrest

Brandon McCreesh

Ian Motta

Noah Williamson

Men's Basketball Welcomes St. Bonaventure Wednesday Evening

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Josh Adoh

Josh Bascoe

Ruot Bijiek

Alek Delev

Jack Forrest

Brandon McCreesh

Ian Motta

Noah Williamson

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