Men's Basketball Back on Sojka Hardwood Saturday to Host Boston University

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bucknell men's basketball squad improved to 7-4 in the Patriot League with an impressive road win over Navy on Wednesday, and now the Bison look to keep their strong recent run going with two key home games on tap in a three-day stretch. Bucknell hosts Boston University on Saturday at 2 p.m., and then Lehigh comes to town for a 7 p.m. game on Monday that will be televised on CBS Sports Network. Fans can purchase tickets to both games for the price of one by using the promo code "ORANGEOUT" at the Campus Box Office online shop.

Saturday's game will feature a Bucky's Birthday Party celebration, presented by Red Robin, for all Junior Bison Club members, and there will be the always-fun mascot game at halftime. Monday's game will feature a rally towel giveaway, sponsored by Geisinger, and it is also Youth Sports Night at Sojka Pavilion.

Bucknell built a 20-point lead on the way to a 73-57 win at Boston University on Jan. 17. Patriot League scoring leader Jack Forrest tallied 26 in that game, and now the Bison will be vying for their first season sweep of the Terriers since 2017.

Bucknell has won four of its last five games and five of its last seven, with the two losses both coming in overtime. The Bison enter the weekend tied for third place with American, although the Eagles do hold the head-to-head tiebreaker. Bucknell is three games behind league-leading Colgate and two in back of second-place Lafayette. Just as crucial, the Bison have now opened up a three-game gap over the rest of the league, as Boston University, Navy, Holy Cross, and Lehigh all sit in a tie for fifth place at 4-7. The top four teams will host quarterfinal games in the Patriot League Tournament.

GAME DIGEST
What: Boston University (9-15, 4-7 PL) at Bucknell (10-4, 7-4 PL)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa. | BUY TICKETS
When: Saturday, Feb. 10, 2 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 Boston University, Bucknell Would ...

... win its fifth game in the last six and improve to 11-14 overall and 8-4 in the Patriot League.
... sweep the season series from the Terriers for the first time since 2017.
... maintain at least a tie for third place in the Patriot League, or move into sole possession of third with an American loss a Holy Cross
... improve to 153-45 against Patriot League opponents at Sojka Pavilion.
... pick up win No. 1,499 in team history.

Headlines

Bucknell starts a quick two-game homestand on Saturday when Boston University visits Sojka Pavilion. The Bison then turn right back around and host Lehigh on Monday night in the CBS Sports Network game of the week. Bucknell defeated both the Terriers and Mountain Hawks on the road last month and now will be going for season sweeps this week.
Bucknell has played good basketball of late, winning five of its last seven with the two losses both coming in overtime to Lafayette and American. The Bison bounced back from last week's tough loss at AU with a 13-point win at Navy on Wednesday.
Bucknell and American are tied for third place in the Patriot League with 7-4 records, although the Eagles hold the tiebreaker by virtue of a season sweep of the Bison. There is now a three-game cushion between Bucknell and the next-closest teams. Navy, Holy Cross, Lehigh, and Boston University all lost on Wednesday to fall to 4-7. Colgate (10-1) and Lafayette (9-2) continue to occupy the top two spots.
The Bison are 7-0 against the six teams below them in the standings and 0-4 against the top three squads.
Bucknell has been solid on the road in league play, posting a 4-2 record with both losses coming in overtime.
Jack Forrest continues to lead the league in scoring at 16.7 ppg, as he vies to become Bucknell's first Patriot League scoring champion since Zach Thomas in 2017-18. Forrest, who scored 18 points on Wednesday at Navy, has carried a heavy minutes load this season. He ranks 13th nationally in minutes per game (36.5), and last time out in Annapolis he became the first Bison to play all 40 minutes in a game since Bryan Cohen against Delaware in 2009.
Noah Williamson has had a couple of monster games in recent weeks, highlighted by his 28-point outburst against Loyola in the most recent home game on Jan. 31. Williamson scored 18 of his career-high 28 points in the first half and finished 10-for-15 from the field, 3-for-5 from the 3-point arc, and 5-for-6 from the foul line. Williamson logged 23 points, 16 rebounds, and three blocked shots against Lafayette earlier in the campaign. 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 tied for the most by any PL player this year, joining Navy's Draper, who grabbed 16 against George Washington on Dec. 5.
Elvin Edmonds IV has been on an assists flurry in recent weeks. He dished out a career-high 12 dimes on Wednesday at Navy, his third double-digit assist performance in the last seven games. The first of those was a 10-assist game at Boston University, and he also handed out 10 at Army. Edmonds is averaging 6.0 apg in Patriot League play, the second-best figure in the league behind Colgate's Braeden Smith (6.5). The 12 assists were the most by a Bison since Jimmy Sotos had 12 in a win over UNLV at the 2018 Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu.
Boston University fell to 4-7 in Patriot League play after a 74-64 home loss to first-place Colgate on Wednesday. The Terriers trailed by only one point with 4:23 left in the game but then went scoreless for nearly four minutes as Colgate pulled away. Miles Brewster matched his career-high with 21 points in the loss.
Brewster leads the Terriers in scoring at 10.4 ppg. Anthony Morales is next at 9.0 ppg, although he has not played since Jan. 20 due to injury. In the game just before he was injured, Morales scored 21 points against Bucknell.
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-Boston University game will be streamed live on ESPN+. "Voice of the Bison" Doug Birdsong and former Bison assistant coach Terry Conrad will call the action 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

Over the last six games, Noah Williamson is averaging 18.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks per game while shooting 65.2% from the field.
Bucknell has been the Patriot League's best free-throw shooting team all season, but the Bison have struggled a bit in the last five games, hitting 57 of 89 (.640). Missed free throws in the final seconds of regulation proved costly in the overtime losses at Lafayette and American.
Bucknell's season FT% is 73.6%, which still leads the Patriot League and ranks 88th 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. 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).
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

Led by 18 points from Jack Forrest, 17 points and nine rebounds from Noah Williamson, and 14 points and a career-high 12 assists from Elvin Edmonds IV, Bucknell used a big second half to run past Navy 80-67 on Wednesday night at Alumni Hall.
The Bison trailed by as many as 10 in the first half when Williamson was limited to five minutes due to foul trouble, but Williamson scored 13 points in the second half, including a big 3-pointer that sparked a game-changing 15-2 run. Edmonds canned two treys in that surge as well, as the Bison turned a 48-all tie into a 63-50 lead. Bucknell led by at least nine the rest of the way and snapped a five-game losing streak at Alumni Hall.
The Bison shot 69.6% in the second half and a season-best 61.2% overall, buoyed by 11-for-21 accuracy from 3-point range. It was the team's highest field-goal percentage since hitting at an even 60% in last year's season-opener against Lebanon Valley.
Williamson hit all six of his second-half shots and finished 8-for-9. Forrest, the Patriot League's scoring leader at 16.7 coming in, surpassed that total with 18 and became the first Bison to play all 40 minutes in a game since Bryan Cohen against Delaware on Feb. 21, 2009.

Bucknell vs. Boston University Series Notes

Bucknell and Boston University have met 26 times previously in men's basketball, and the Bison have a 15-11 lead in the series.
Bucknell is 7-5 at home in the series, 7-6 on the road and 1-0 at neutral sites. In games played in Boston, Bucknell is 2-1 at Agganis Arena and 5-5 at Case Gym.
The two teams met for the first time at the 2005 Cable Car Classic at Santa Clara. The Bison won that one 63-57 behind 20 points from Chris McNaughton and 15 from Charles Lee.
Boston University won both games last season, 69-61 in Lewisburg and 77-61 in Boston, even though Bucknell had double-digit leads in both.
Bucknell built a 13-point first-half lead in last year's first meeting with Boston University on Jan. 2 at Sojka Pavilion, but the Terriers started the second half on a 30-12 run and went on to win 69-61. Bucknell shot 51.9% in the first half but just 33.3% in the second. Alex Timmerman led the Bison with 14 points and Xander Rice added 10, while Jonas Harper led the Terriers with 17.
In the rematch at Case Gym in mid-February, Timmerman recorded a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds, but the Terriers flipped the game around with a 28-8 run over the final nine minutes to turn a close game into a rout. Ruot Bijiek added 12 points for Bucknell, while Walter Whyte led the Terriers with 16 points.
In this year's first meeting at Case Gym, Bucknell won 73-57 behind 26 points from Jack Forrest and a near triple-double from Elvin Edmonds IV, who finished with 12 points, seven rebounds, and 10 assists. Noah Williamson (13) and Ruot Bijiek (12) also scored in double figures, and Ian Motta added eight off the bench, including a dagger 3-pointer with 3:37 to go. Anthony Morales scored 19 of his 21 in the second half to lead the Terriers.

Who's Got Next?

Bucknell entertains Lehigh on Monday at Sojka Pavilion in a game that will be televised on CBS Sports Network. The Bison defeated the Mountain Hawks 86-80 in the first round of league play on Jan. 10.

Men's Basketball Back on Sojka Hardwood Saturday to Host Boston University

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Josh Bascoe

Ruot Bijiek

Elvin Edmonds IV

Jack Forrest

Ian Motta

Xander Rice

Alex Timmerman

Noah Williamson

Men's Basketball Back on Sojka Hardwood Saturday to Host Boston University

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Josh Bascoe

Ruot Bijiek

Elvin Edmonds IV

Jack Forrest

Ian Motta

Xander Rice

Alex Timmerman

Noah Williamson

Related Videos