Men's Basketball Looks to Bounce Back at Home Wednesday vs. Loyola

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The halfway point of the Patriot League men's basketball schedule arrives this week, as Bucknell hosts Loyola on Wednesday in the ninth of 18 regular-season league contests. Home teams have dominated in Patriot League play to the tune of a 30-10 record so far, and the Bison have fit that trend with a 4-0 ledger at home and an 0-4 mark on the road. All four road losses have been agonizing, as Bucknell has led by at least eight points in all of them only to fall victim to late rallies by the opponent. The good news is that the squad has played very good basketball in building those leads, but the Bison will need to find a way to finish games on the road with five more trips still on the schedule.

Bucknell enters the week in a three-way tie for fourth place in the Patriot League alongside Boston University and Navy. American and Colgate are the co-leaders at 6-2, with Army third at 5-3. Loyola is also in a three-way tie with Holy Cross and Lafayette, all with 3-5 records.

Noah Williamson scored 26 points in Bucknell's 85-82 overtime loss at Boston University on Saturday. Williamson leads the Patriot League in scoring in conference games at 20.1 ppg, and he is suddenly on fire from long range. The 7'0" center is 8-for-8 from the 3-point arc over the last two games, and if he makes his first attempt on Wednesday he will tie Mike Bright's 32-year-old school record for consecutive made threes. Bright went 9-for-10 with nine straight makes in a 116-85 win over Loyola in Davis Gym on Feb. 24, 1993.

Williamson has upped his season 3-point percentage nearly 100 points from .207 to .303 in just two games. He is riding a streak of three straight 20-point games, and now he faces a Loyola team against whom he scored 28 points in Sojka Pavilion last season. Williamson leads the team in scoring over the full season at 16.0 ppg, followed closely by Josh Bascoe at 15.4 ppg. Bascoe has also shot the ball well from deep in recent games. He was 0-for-2 against Boston University on Saturday, but in the three games before that, he was 10-for-18. Bascoe has 35 assists and only 16 turnovers while averaging 16.6 ppg in league play.

Loyola this season has some new faces on the court and on the bench, where Josh Loeffler is in his first year as head coach. Loeffler had successful head coaching stints at Johns Hopkins and Stevens, and he is familiar with the Patriot League from his four-year stint as an assistant coach at Lafayette under Fran O'Hanlon from 2008-12. Milos Ilic is the only Patriot League player to lead his team in scoring (13.5), rebounding (7.5), and assists (2.8). Jordan Stiemke is the team's No. 2 scorer at 12.8 ppg coming off the bench. Loyola is looking to shed a two-game losing streak after falling to Lafayette and Holy Cross at home last week.

GAME DIGEST
What: Loyola (8-11, 3-5 PL) at Bucknell (8-13, 4-4 PL)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa.
When: Wednesday, Jan. 29, 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 Loyola, Bucknell Would ...

... improve to 5-4 in the Patriot League.
... win its fifth straight home game and improve to 5-0 against Patriot League foes at home this season.
... improve to 159-47 all-time against Patriot League opponents at Sojka Pavilion.
... defeat the Greyhounds for the third straight time and improve to 23-7 all-time against them.
... improve to 13-3 against the Greyhounds at home (11-3 at Sojka Pavilion).

Headlines

Bucknell looks to keep its home winning streak going when Loyola comes to Lewisburg on Wednesday night for the first of two meetings between the Bison and Greyhounds. The Bison are 4-4 in the Patriot League — 4-0 at home and 0-4 on the road — and sit in a three-way tie for fourth place after eight rounds of conference action. Wednesday's game marks the halfway point of the Patriot League schedule.
Bucknell's game at Boston University followed an all-too-familiar storyline. The Bison not only played an NCAA-high seventh overtime game of the season, but they played very good basketball in building a big lead on the road, only to see the opponent rally late.
At Case Gym on Saturday, Bucknell shot 60.4% in regulation and led the game for 36 minutes, but the Terriers forced OT with 12 seconds left and then held the Bison to 1-4 shooting in the extra period on the way to the 85-82 win. Earlier in Patriot League play, Bucknell had a 20-point lead with 11:00 remaining at Lehigh; the Bison had an 11-point lead with just over 17:00 to play at American; and they led by eight early in the second half at Colgate. Bucknell led at the half in all four losses and led by at least eight in all four.
Bucknell and Loyola are both looking to break out of a crowded middle portion of the Patriot League standings. American and Colgate are tied for first at 6-2, followed by Army at 5-3. Bucknell, Boston University, and Navy are all 4-4, and then Loyola, Holy Cross, and Lafayette sit in a three-way tie for seventh place at 3-5.
Home teams are 30-10 in Patriot League games through Sunday. The Bison are 6-3 at home this season and have not lost to a Patriot League foe at home since last Feb. 12, when Lehigh won in overtime at Sojka Pavilion.
Bucknell has picked up the pace offensively over the last four games. Since going 2-for-19 from 3-point range and being held to 58 points in a loss at American on Jan. 11, the Bison have put up these offensive numbers in the four games since then:

Scoring Average 80.3
FG% .505
3FG% .436
ASST/TO 55/37

Saturday's game in Boston was Bucknell's seventh overtime game and ninth overtime period this season. Both of those figures are the most in all of Division I men's basketball, and it means that the Bison have played 45 minutes of extra time this season. Bucknell is now within one of the NCAA record for overtime games in a season. Western Kentucky (1978), Portland (1984), and Valparaiso (1993) all played eight in a season. The seven OT games are a new school record. The Bison played six in 2008-09 and 2021-22.

Most Overtime Games, 2024-25 Season
Bucknell    7
Tennessee-Martin   5
DePaul 4
Hofstra   4
Missouri State 4
Northwestern 4

Noah Williamson was a preseason All-Patriot League selection and is averaging a team-high 16.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 1.0 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. After scoring 26 points at Boston University on Saturday, he is on a run of three straight 20-point games and now leads the league in PL scoring average at 20.1 ppg.
Williamson has been on a tear from the 3-point arc, going 8-for-8 over the last two games. He was 6-for-6 at Colgate and then made both of his long-range attempts at Boston University. The school record for consecutive made threes is nine, set by Mike Bright on the night when he went 9-for-10 against Loyola in Davis Gym in 1993.
Josh Bascoe is averaging a career-high 15.4 ppg, including 17.1 ppg in his last 11 games. Bascoe ranks sixth in the Patriot League in scoring and is in the top 15 in the PL in seven different categories. He leads the league and ranks ninth nationally in minutes played at 37.0 per game. He has played more than 40 minutes in a game six times this season.

NCAA Leaders, Minutes per Game
1. Bennett Stirtz, Drake    38:28
2. Gibson Jimerson, Saint Louis   37:35
3. Mitch Mascari, Drake   37:14
4. Nick Martinelli, Northwestern    37:13
5. Ethan Taylor, Air Force    37:13
6. Johnathan Lawson, Little Rock    37:11
7. Jalen Terry, Eastern Michigan    37:06
8. RJ Johnson, Charleston Southern   37:01
9. Josh Bascoe, Bucknell 36:55
10. Brooks Barnhizer, Northwestern   36:55

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.
Loyola is under the direction of first-year head coach Josh Loeffler, who was previously a head coach at Baltimore schools Johns Hopkins (2017-23) and Stevens (2006-08), where he won 80 percent of his games. His first season as head coach at Johns Hopkins was the senior year for current Bucknell assistant coach Jesse Flannery, who was an outstanding guard for the Blue Jays.
In Patriot League play, Loyola has swept Lehigh and also beat Navy 75-74 on a late tip-in by freshman Braedan Speed.
After beating Lehigh 76-60 on the road on Jan. 18, Loyola has dropped consecutive home games to Lafayette (80-59) and Holy Cross (70-65).
Loyola averages 69.7 points per game, led by Milos Ilic (13.9), Jordan Stiemke (12.6) and Wyoming transfer Jacob Theodosiou (11.7).

How to Get the Game

The Bucknell-Loyola game will be streamed on ESPN+ with "Voice of the Bison" Doug Birdsong and former Bison assistant coach Terry Conrad on the call from Sojka Pavilion.
Joe Vasile 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's close-but-no-cigar road struggles continued on Saturday, as Boston University rallied to force overtime and went on to win 85-82 at Case Gym. It was Bucknell's national-leading seventh overtime game of the season — a new school record — and the Bison fell to 4-4 in Patriot League play, with all four losses coming on the road.
Noah Williamson scored a game-high 26 points, shooting 8-for-11 from the field, 2-for-2 from the 3-point arc, and 8-for-10 from the foul line. Josh Bascoe added 16 points and Ruot Bijiek had 12 for the Bison.
Kyrone Alexander paced Boston University with 16 points, including two free throws with five seconds left in OT that gave the Terriers a four-point lead.
A big difference in the game was offensive rebounding. Boston University led 21-6 in second-chance points, and the Terriers' five straight points to start overtime all came as a result of offensive boards. Boston University only led for 21 seconds in regulation, but Miles Brewster's corner three off an inbounds play got them going in OT.
Bucknell shot 60.4% in regulation but was just 1-for-4 in overtime to finish at 57.7%. Boston University shot 47.5% overall and shot very well from both the 3-point arc (11-25) and foul line (18-21).
Bucknell got out to a piping-hot start, hitting 11 of its first 13 shots from the field. Williamson was 6-for-6 in that stretch, and his second 3-pointer of the day gave the Bison their largest lead of the game, 11 points at 26-15.

Bucknell vs. Loyola Series Notes

The Bison and Greyhounds have met 29 times previously. Bucknell leads 22-7 in the series, including a 16-5 mark since Loyola joined the Patriot League in 2013-14.
Bucknell is 10-4 all-time at Loyola's Reitz Arena and 12-3 at home (2-0 in Davis Gym, 10-3 at Sojka Pavilion).
The first series meeting came on Jan. 7, 1987 in Lewisburg. The Bison prevailed that day 72-70. A year later Bucknell won 80-60 on Loyola's home floor.
Bucknell and Loyola played twice within the 1992-93 season. The Bison won 75-59 in Baltimore, and in late February at Davis Gym the Bison rolled to a 116-85 victory. In the latter game, the Bison produced what was then their second-highest point total in program history, led by an incredible 9-for-10 3-point shooting performance by Hall-of-Famer Mike Bright.
Bucknell swept the season series a year ago, winning the two games by a combined 37 points.
In last year's first meeting in Lewisburg, Noah Williamson scored a then-career-high 28 points to lead the Bison to a 67-52 win. Williamson scored 18 of Bucknell's 33 first-half points. The Bison led 33-31 at the half and pulled away with an 11-2 run to start the second. Loyola pulled within six on a few occasions but could get no closer. Deon Perry led Loyola with 22 points.
In the rematch at Reitz Arena, Bucknell won 68-46 behind 18 points from Jack Forrest. Bucknell finished the game at 54.0% from the field and hit 11 of 27 (.407) from downtown. Loyola shot 34.0%, including a 4-for-15 (.267) clip from the arc.

Facts & Figures

The Bison lead the Patriot League in free-throw attempts (20.5) and made free throws (13.4) per game, even though they rank eighth in free-throw percentage (.656).
Bucknell also leads the PL in opponent turnovers (13.0) per game.
Pip Ajayi has been a big factor off the bench for the Bison. The reserve frontcourt player tallied 13 points — his most in a Bucknell uniform — five rebounds, and three steals in 18 minutes at Lehigh. After starting the season 3-for-8 from the field, Ajayi is 28-for-40 (.700) since then, including 26-for-36 (.722) over his last 14 games.
The Bison have struggled in the turnover department this season, but they committed a season-low five miscues in the win over Holy Cross and then had only eight against Navy. Bucknell has had a positive or even assist-to-turnover ratio in four straight games.
Noah Williamson against Richmond became the first Bison to block five shots in a game since Nana Foulland against Loyola in 2018.
Williamson's six double-doubles are second-most in the Patriot League, trailing only Navy's Aidan Kehoe with seven.

Who's Got Next?

Bucknell heads back on the road on Saturday to face Navy at 2 p.m. at Alumni Hall. The Bison defeated the Midshipmen 73-69 at Sojka Pavilion on Jan. 18.

Men's Basketball Looks to Bounce Back at Home Wednesday vs. Loyola

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Pip Ajayi

Josh Bascoe

Ruot Bijiek

Jack Forrest

Noah Williamson

Men's Basketball Looks to Bounce Back at Home Wednesday vs. Loyola

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Pip Ajayi

Josh Bascoe

Ruot Bijiek

Jack Forrest

Noah Williamson

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