Men's Basketball Heads to the Big Apple to Face No. 14/16 St. John's Thursday Night

GAME DIGEST
What: Bucknell (2-3) at #14/16 St. John's (2-1)
Where: Carnesecca Arena, Queens, N.Y.
When: Thursday, Nov. 20, 7 p.m.
Watch: TNT/TruTV
Listen: Eagle 107 and BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: RedStormSports.com
TICKETS
COMPLETE GAME NOTES

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- After dropping three straight games on the heels of a 2-0 start, Bucknell continues a busy November stretch with a trip to New York City to face St. John's on Thursday night. The Red Storm, who are averaging 99.0 points per game, are ranked No. 14 in the Associated Press poll and No. 16 in the USA TODAY coaches' poll this week. The Bucknell-St. John's game will be televised nationally on TNT and TruTV. Spero Dedes and Robbie Hummel will call the action, with Jared Greenberg working as the sideline reporter.

The Bison will be playing their second major conference opponent of the week after falling 84-50 at Pittsburgh on Monday. That was just a four-point game with six minutes to go in the first half, but the Panthers stretched the margin to 13 at halftime and then blew it open with a 22-2 run to start the second half. Playing at Pitt for the first time since a 69-66 win over the seventh-ranked Panthers in 2004-05, the Bison were held to 27.7% shooting in this one, while the Panthers converted at a 50.8% clip. Pitt went 13-for-25 from the 3-point arc while holding Bucknell to 6-for-21. Ruot Bijiek led the Bison with 11 points, while Amon Dörries tallied nine and Aleksander Pachucki a career-high eight off the bench. Barry Dunning Jr., who came into the game 2-for-15 from the field and 1-for-8 from the arc on the season, hit 4 of 5 from deep and scored 14 points in the first half as the Panthers opened up a 38-25 lead at the break. The game got away from the Bison in the early stages of the second half, as a 1-for-11 shooting drought led to a 22-2 Pitt run. Dunning hit two more threes in that stretch, including a bank shot off the glass with a hand in his face, and he went on to finish with seven treys and 23 points.

Freshman center Amon Dörries continues to lead the Bison in scoring at 14.2 points per game, and Bijiek (12.8) and Jayden Williams (10.2 are also scoring in double figures. Williams leads the Patriot League in 3-point percentage (.643) and assist-to-turnover ratio (4.0), and Bijiek is first in the league in free-throw percentage, hitting all 16 of his attempts so far.

This will be the first time Bucknell has ever encountered a Rick Pitino team, be it as a player, assistant coach, or head coach. Thursday's game will also be a homecoming for both of Bucknell's starting guards, as Brandon McCreesh and Jayden Williams both hail from The Bronx. Reserve guard Aleksander Pachucki is a native of Scarborough, Ontario, but he attended the Hoosac School in Upstate New York and then started his college career at Fordham in The Bronx for one season before transferring to Bucknell this year.

Bucknell will be looking to beat a nationally ranked team for the first time since a 74-79 victory over No. 17/19 Syracuse on Nov. 22, 2005. Bucknell's last win over any Power 5 conference foe was a 75-72 verdict at Vanderbilt in 201-17, and its last win over a Big East squad was a 57-52 triumph at DePaul in 2005-06. The Bison did win at Xavier the following season, but the Musketeers were still playing in the Atlantic 10 at the time.

St. John's is off to a 2-1 start, with wins over Quinnipiac (108-74) and William & Mary (93-60) surrounding a 103-96 loss to No. 15/16 Alabama. Last time out, St. John's broke open a five-point game at the half with a 27-2 run to start the second period and went on to rout William & Mary. It was the Red Storm's 33rd straight non-conference win at Carnesecca Arena, and the team is now 16-0 in that facility under coach Rick Pitino. St. John's has six players with double-digit scoring averages and seven at 9.5 ppg or better. Zuby Ejiofor leads the way with 18.3 ppg and 7.0 rpg, and he is shooting a robust 67.9% from the field (19-28). Ejiofor, a 6'9" senior who started his career at Kansas, led the nation in offensive rebounding (4.4) last season. He had 27 points in the loss to Alabama.

Bryce Hopkins (14.0), Ian Jackson (12.7), Joson Sanon (12.0), Oziyah Sellers (11.0), and Dillon Mitchell (11.0) also score in double figures. Jackson was an ACC All-Rookie selection at North Carolina last season.
How to Get the Game

These two teams have met only twice previously, with a 102-season gap in between. That is the largest spread between games of any opponent in Bucknell history. St. John's won both games, 28-18 on Feb. 10, 1912 and 67-63 on Nov. 19, 2013.

In the most recent meeting, Cameron Ayers scored a career-high 25 points for Bucknell, but the Red Storm overcame a nine-point second-half deficit thanks to a late 11-0 run. Phil Greene led St. John's with 16 points, including two key 3-pointers in the second half. Rim protection was a big key for the Red Storm, who blocked 13 shots in the game. The Bison shot a solid 46.4% from the field, but 13 of their 30 misses came on blocked shots. Brian Fitzpatrick (12) and Dom Hoffman (10) also scored in double figures for Bucknell.

The Orange & Blue student newspaper covered the 1912 game, noting that "Burchill for St. John's proved a destructive opponent with three baskets." The paper also opined, surely without bias, that "a great deal of trouble was experienced with the referee, who did not possess more than a working knowledge of the game."

Next up for the Bison is a trip to Florida for the Skechers Fort Myers Tip-Off. The team will fly out on Saturday and play games on Monday and Wednesday. Both opponents will be from the Mid-American Conference, as the Bison will face Bowling Green on Monday and Buffalo on Wednesday. The Falcons (3-1) and Bulls (5-0) are a combined 8-1 on the season. Both games will be played at the Suncoast Credit Union Arena on the campus of Florida SouthWestern State College.

Men's Basketball Heads to the Big Apple to Face No. 14/16 St. John's Thursday Night

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Ruot Bijiek

Brandon McCreesh

Aleksander Pachucki

Jayden Williams