Men's Hoops Makes Patriot League Debut Thursday at Lehigh

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- One of the most challenging non-conference schedules in Bucknell men's basketball history is now in the rear-view mirror, and now the Bison turn their attention to Patriot League play. Bucknell opens the Patriot League's 35th season on Thursday evening at Lehigh, as the two in-state rivals meet for the 187th time dating back to 1902. The 7 p.m. contest can be seen on ESPN+, with radio coverage on Eagle 107.

Bucknell enters league play with a 4-9 record and will be looking to shed a seven-game losing streak. It was a rigorous slate, however, as the Bison took on the likes of Kentucky, Maryland, Gonzaga, and Syracuse, along with mid-majors such as 12-1 St. Bonaventure and 10-5 Radford. Bucknell's two most recent games were on the road at No. 13/14 Gonzaga and Syracuse, and the Bison played well in long stretches in both games.

Senior guard Josh Bascoe scored a season-high 22 points and hit a career-high six 3-pointers in Saturday's 75-63 loss at Syracuse. Bascoe leads the team and ranks sixth in the Patriot League in scoring at 14.7 ppg, and on Thursday he returns to the site of the best game of his career. Bascoe scored 18 of his personal-best 23 points in the first half to lead the Bison to an 86-80 win at Stabler Arena last season. Lehigh won the rematch at Sojka Pavilion in overtime, but the Bison played that game without Bascoe and All-Patriot League center Noah Williamson.

The Mountain Hawks are 5-6 on the season and have won five of their last seven after an 0-4 start. Lehigh is coming off a 20-point win over Division III Neumann on Sunday. The high-scoring Mountain Hawks have a guard-heavy lineup, led by the outstanding senior tandem of Keith Higgins Jr. (18.2 ppg) and Tyler Whitney-Sidney (13.1 ppg).

Bison fans should mark their calendars for a couple of key home dates coming up in January. The Jan. 5 game against Colgate will be the 20th Annual Dirk Sojka's Slam Dunk with Bison Basketball. The festivities include a silent auction and raffle drawing, with proceeds benefiting Suncom Industries. Bucknell will hold Alumni Day on Jan. 18 when Navy visits Sojka Pavilion. The program will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the landmark 2005 NCAA Tournament win over Kansas.

GAME DIGEST
What: Bucknell (4-9, 0-0 PL) at Lehigh (5-6, 0-0 PL)
Where: Stabler Arena, Bethlehem, Pa.
When: Thursday, Jan. 2, 7 p.m.
Watch: ESPN+
Local Radio: Eagle 107
Internet Audio: BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: LehighSports.com
COMPLETE GAME NOTES

With a Win over Lehigh, Bucknell Would ...

... start Patriot League play 1-0 for the second straight year.
... snap a seven-game losing streak and improve to 5-9 on the season.
... improve to 3-5 on the road.
... improve to 113-74 all-time against Lehigh.
... win at Stabler Arena for the second straight year.

Headlines

After navigating a very difficult non-league schedule, Bucknell travels to Lehigh on Thursday night to start the 35th season of Patriot League play. All 10 teams are in action on Thursday in the first of 18 rounds of league competition.
Bucknell's 13 non-conference opponents have a combined record of 97-83 (.539), through Monday's games, including five teams that have already won at least 10 games: St. Bonaventure (12-1), Maryland (11-2), Kentucky (10-2), Gonzaga (10-4), and Radford (10-5). Nine of the 13 teams are .500 or better.
The Bison have logged some major miles in recent weeks. The team has played in three different time zones this season, and the Lehigh game will be Bucknell's sixth out of the last seven away from home.
Bucknell started the season 4-2 but has dropped seven straight to Rider, Maryland, Siena, St. Bonaventure, Radford, Gonzaga, and Syracuse (combined record 59-34). The Bison have struggled offensively during this stretch. After averaging 80.3 points per game in their first six, over the last seven outings they have averaged 60.4 ppg while shooting 39.4% from the field, 27.2% from 3-point range, and 60.4% from the foul line. In this stretch, the Bison have 108 turnovers to 79 assists.
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 13.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, and a league-high 1.3 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 recently surpassed Williamson as the team's leading scorer. After tallying 19 points against Radford, 14 at Gonzaga, and a game-high 22 at Syracuse, Bascoe is now averaging a career-high 14.7 ppg. Bascoe ranks sixth in the Patriot League in scoring and ranks in the top 10 in the PL in five different categories.
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.
Lehigh went 5-6 in non-league play, winning four of its last six after an 0-4 start. Most recently, the Mountain Hawks defeated Division III Neumann 87-67 on Sunday.
Lehigh features one of the league's top backcourts, led by the senior tandem of Keith Higgins Jr. (18.2 ppg) and Tyler Whitney-Sidney (13.1 ppg). Both have eclipsed the 1,000-point mark in their careers. Higgins in the league's No. 2 scorer, and he has been deadly from downtown this season, hitting at a 43.7% clip (31-71). Lehigh also starts two other guards in Cam Gillus, who is second on the team in scoring at 9.0 ppg, and Ben Knostman, who is second in the league in assists at 4.0 apg.
Lehigh comes in as the league's second-highest scoring team at 72.2 ppg, and the Mountain Hawks lead the league in field-goal percentage (.460). They will be going up against a Bucknell squad that leads the PL in field-goal percentage defense (.433).

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Lehigh game will be streamed on ESPN+, with Matt Markus handling the play-by-play.
"Voice of the Bison" Doug Birdsong 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 LehighSports.com.
Follow @Bucknell_MBB for in-game updates on Twitter.

Last Time Out

Josh Bascoe hit a career-high six 3-pointers and scored a game-high 22 points, but the Bison couldn't overcome a couple of untimely offensive droughts and fell 75-63 at Syracuse on Saturday afternoon before 15,987 fans at the JMA Wireless Dome.
Bascoe came within one point of his career scoring high, and his six treys were the most by a Bison since Elvin Edmonds IV canned six against Lebanon Valley in the 2022-23 season opener. Noah Williamson added 12 points and eight rebounds, and Pip Ajayi and Ruot Bijiek scored eight points each.
Big center Eddie Lampkin, who led Colorado to the NCAA Tournament a year ago, tallied 18 points and 11 rebounds to lead Syracuse (6-6). Donnie Freeman added 15 points and 11 boards as the Orange outrebounded Bucknell 43-27 and led 14-9 in second-chance points.
Both teams struggled to hold on to the ball, as Syracuse committed 21 turnovers and the Bison 17. Bucknell's 12 teals were a season high.
Bucknell shot 38.2% from the field and went 10-for-29 from 3-point range and 11-for-15 from the foul line. Syracuse shot 47.4% overall and finished 7-for-23 from the arc and 14-for-23 from the line.

Bucknell vs. Lehigh Series Notes

Bucknell has played more games (186) and won more games (112) against Lehigh than any other school. The Bison have a 112-74 lead in a series that originated in 1902.
Since the start of Patriot League play in 1990-91, Bucknell holds a 52-28 advantage, including a 29-11 mark at home.
Lehigh is responsible for snapping Bucknell's 35-game home winning streak against Patriot League foes. The Bison had not lost to a conference opponent at Sojka Pavilion in nearly five years, until the Mountain Hawks won 56-54 in Lewisburg on Jan. 30, 2008.
Lehigh also won the first game ever played in Sojka Pavilion, a 60-56 decision on Jan. 15, 2003. Including that game, Bucknell is 15-10 against the Mountain Hawks in Sojka.
Bucknell is 7-3 against Lehigh in Patriot League Tournament action, including an 81-65 win in the 2017 championship game.
Bucknell and Lehigh split two close contests last season, with the road team winning each time.
In last year's clash at Stabler Arena, Josh Bascoe recorded 18 of his career-high 23 points in the first half, Jack Forrest finished with 24, and Noah Williamson had 18 points and 12 rebounds as the Bison prevailed 86-80. Lehigh did cut a 19-point deficit down to three with 4:24 to go, but Williamson scored six big points down the stretch to hold off the comeback bid. Jalin Sinclair paced the Mountain Hawks with 20 points, followed by Bube Momah with 19 and Burke Chebuhar and Tyler Whitney-Sidney with 10 each.
Lehigh returned the favor with a 71-63 overtime win at Sojka Pavilion later in the season. The Bison took a 59-58 lead with 25.9 seconds to go in regulation on a Forrest three-pointer. The Mountain Hawks tied it on a Dominic Parolin free throw with 12.3 seconds remaining, and Forrest's contested jumper was off the mark as time expired in regulation. Whitney-Sidney converted a 3-point play on the first possession of overtime, and Lehigh never trailed in the extra session as the Bison went 1-for-7 from the field. Elvin Edmonds IV set career highs with 20 points and 10 rebounds, but the Bucknell played without Bascoe and Williamson, who combined for 41 points in the first meeting. Joshua Ingram led Lehigh with 22 points.

Facts & Figures

Bucknell shot the three better against its "high major" opponents this season. The Bison shot 35.0% (41-117) from the arc against Kentucky, Maryland, and Gonzaga, compared with 28.1% (61-217) in all other games.
Bucknell has been a much better second-half team this season. The Bison have scored 101 more points in the second halves of games (473) than in the first halves (372).
The Bison lead the Patriot League in field-goal percentage defense, allowing opponents to shoot just 43.3% on the season.
Bucknell has played four overtime games this season, which are the most in all of Division I basketball. Bucknell's six OT periods, which include back-to-back 2OT games against Mount St. Mary's and Richmond, are also the most in the nation.
Noah Williamson against Richmond became the first Bison to block five shots in a game since Nana Foulland against Loyola in 2018.
Williamson's 85 free-throw attempts are 30th-most in the nation.
Free-throw shooting has been a good news/bad news situation for Bucknell this season. The positive is that the team is getting to the line frequently. The Bison rank 91st out of 355 Division I teams in free-throw attempts per game with 21.6, and they rank 74th in FT attempts per FG attempt (.381). The latter figure is up from .290 last season. The negative is that Bucknell has really struggled at the charity stripe, with a team FT% of .637 that ranks 339th nationally.
Williamson has certainly been a catalyst for the Bison thus far. 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 eight losses, he is averaging 9.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, and shooting 37.0%.
Bucknell is shooting 33.9% from 3-point range on the road but just 28.7% at home this season.

Patriot League Success

Bucknell is 326-172 (.655) all-time in Patriot League regular-season games, the best record of any league team. Last year marked the 27th time in 34 years that the Bison finished with a PL record of .500 or better.
Bucknell won three straight Patriot League regular-season titles from 2011-13, becoming the first team in league history to accomplish that feat. The Bison had won five in a row and eight of the previous nine before finishing T-6th in 2019-20.
Bucknell has made nine Patriot League Tournament appearances as the No. 1 seed and seven as the No. 2 seed.
Bucknell won Patriot League Tournament titles in 2005, 2006, 2011, 2013, 2017 and 2018. The Bison have made it to the semifinals 25 times and to the championship game 13 times in the league's first 34 years.
The Bison are the only team to go unbeaten in league play in a season (14-0 in 2006).

Who's Got Next?

Bucknell returns home on Sunday, Jan. 5 at 2 p.m. against Colgate. That will be the 20th Annual Dirk Sojka's Slam Dunk with Bison Basketball. The festivities include a silent auction and raffle drawing, with proceeds benefiting Suncom Industries.
Also of note, Bucknell will hold Alumni Day on Jan. 18 when Navy visits Sojka Pavilion. The program will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the landmark 2005 NCAA Tournament win over Kansas.

Men's Hoops Makes Patriot League Debut Thursday at Lehigh

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Pip Ajayi

Josh Bascoe

Ruot Bijiek

Elvin Edmonds IV

Jack Forrest

Noah Williamson

Men's Hoops Makes Patriot League Debut Thursday at Lehigh

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Pip Ajayi

Josh Bascoe

Ruot Bijiek

Elvin Edmonds IV

Jack Forrest

Noah Williamson

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