Men's Basketball Back on Road Wednesday at Lafayette in Doubleheader Nightcap

Wednesday, January 28

Easton, Pa.

7 p.m.

Bucknell University

Lafayette

Photo by: Isabelle Roes

Men's Basketball Back on Road Wednesday at Lafayette in Doubleheader Nightcap

1/26/2026 6:31:00 PM | Men's Basketball

GAME DIGEST
What: Bucknell (6-15, 3-5 PL) at Lafayette (5-16 2-6 PL)
When: Wednesday, Jan. 28, 7 p.m.
Where: Kirby Sports Center, Easton, Pa.
Watch: ESPN+
Listen: Eagle 107 and BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: GoLeopards.com
COMPLETE GAME NOTES

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- Bucknell returns to the road on Wednesday to face Lafayette in a game that was postponed from Monday due to the snowstorm that blanketed the region. The game was originally set to be televised on CBS Sports Network, but with the rescheduling, it will now be shown on ESPN+. The men's game will be the back half of a hoops doubleheader, as the Bison women take on the Leopards at 4:30 p.m.

After winning three of four games to get to 3-1 in Patriot League play, the Bison have dropped three in a row to Colgate, Army, and Loyola. The last two have been tight affairs. Bucknell fell to the Black Knights 87-84 on a 3-pointer in the final second of overtime last Wednesday, and the Bison had a look at a potential tying 3-pointer in the last five seconds at Loyola on Saturday, but it would not go. Bucknell enters the ninth round of Patriot League play in a four-way tie for fifth place along with Holy Cross, Boston University, and Loyola. Navy has sole possession of first place at 7-1, with American and Colgate one game back.

The Bison and Leopards are meeting for the second time in 14 days. The two teams clashed on Jan. 14 at Sojka Pavilion, with Bucknell prevailing 76-69 behind 17 points from Pat Curtin and 15 from Amon Dörries. Dörries was named Patriot League Rookie of the Week on Monday following his season-best 26-point outing at Loyola. With the Bison thin in the frontcourt due to injury, Dörries played 38 minutes against the Greyhounds and went 11-for-19 from the field. He scored 15 of his 26 points in the second half to help the Bison erase a 10-point deficit. Earlier in the week, Dörries had 13 points against Army, including a tiebreaking drive to the hoop with 11 seconds left in regulation.

Curtin was averaging 17.3 ppg in Patriot League play, including a pair of 25-points games, heading into Saturday's game at Loyola, but he left the game with an injury just 2:27 into the contest and did not return. That meant the Bison played the bulk of that game without six scholarship players. Bucknell has now lost 67 man-games due to injury this season. While the two freshmen have been carrying much of the scoring load of late, the Bison have received significant offensive production from Achile Spadone and Jayden Williams in the last week. Williams scored a career-high 17 points against Army, and then at Loyola he set new career highs with seven rebounds and eight assists (with no turnovers). Spadone tallied 18 points with a career-high nine rebounds against Army, followed by another 18-point outing with a career-high five steals at Loyola. With two key frontcourt men out with injuries, Spadone has helped fill the void on the glass. He has recorded at least seven rebounds in each of the last five games.

Wednesday's game features the Patriot League's top two in assist/turnover ratio. Lafayette's Mark Butler leads the league at 3.8, followed by Williams at 2.4. Williams has 85 assists and Butler 84 through 21 games.

Lafayette is 2-6 in Patriot League action after Saturday night's 64-59 loss to at arch-rival Lehigh. The Leopards' two conference wins have both been routs: 79-64 at Loyola and 74-55 at home against Holy Cross. Lafayette has four players scoring in double figures on the season, led by Caleb Williams at 16.4 ppg. Andrew Phillips (13.8), Butler (10.2), and Shareef Jackson (10.2) also score at least 10 ppg, and that list does not include freshman Christian Humphrey-Rembert (8.6), who hit five 3-pointers and scored 21 points against Bucknell two weeks ago. Humphrey-Rembert also leads the team and ranks in the top-10 in the PL in rebounding at 6.4 per game.

Bucknell will see an old friend on Wednesday, as former Bison standout Cameron Ayers '14 is in his fourth year as a member of the Lafayette coaching staff. Ayers was the 2014 Patriot League Player of the Year and was a key member of Bucknell's 2011 and 2013 PL championship squads. He is Bucknell's No. 10 all-time scorer with 1,526 career points.

Bucknell and Lafayette have met 181 times previously, making the Leopards Bucknell's second most-played opponent (the Bison have played Lehigh 189 times). Since the series began in 1915, Lafayette leads 95-87. Since the start of Patriot League play in 1990-91, however, Bucknell has won 58 of 81 meetings. Lafayette won 33 of the first 37 meetings and led the series 60-14 at one point.

Bucknell and Lafayette recently had a remarkable stretch of four straight meetings that were decided in overtime, and six of the last 10 have required OT. All three 2021-22 meetings went beyond 40 minutes, including a Bison win in the Patriot League Tournament. The Bison swept the season series a year ago and has won four straight head-to-head matchups.

After Wednesday's game in Easton, Bucknell returns home on Saturday to face Boston University at 2 p.m. It will be Scout Day and Teacher Appreciation Day at Sojka Pavilion.