Men's Basketball Visits Navy Wednesday in Annapolis

GAME DIGEST
What: Bucknell (4-11, 1-1 PL) at Navy (10-5, 2-0 PL)
When: Wednesday, Jan. 7, 7 p.m.
Where: Alumni Hall, Annapolis, Md.
Watch: ESPN+
Listen: Eagle 107 and BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: NavySports.com
COMPLETE GAME NOTES

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- Fresh off an uplifting come-from-behind win over Lehigh, Bucknell is back on the road on Wednesday to face Patriot League preseason favorite Navy. This will be the first meeting between the teams since the fifth-seeded Midshipmen upset the top-seeded Bison in last year's Patriot League Tournament semifinals. Navy is one of three teams off to 2-0 starts in conference play. American and Colgate have also won their first two, and those two teams will square off on Wednesday night in Hamilton, N.Y. The Bison are one of four teams at 1-1 with a seven-point loss at Holy Cross on New Year's Eve followed by Saturday's seven-point win over Lehigh.

Bucknell has struggled offensively at times this season and comes into Wednesday's game averaging 64.1 ppg while shooting 39.8% as a team. Now the Bison will go up against the Patriot League's top-ranked defensive squad. Navy leads the league in scoring defense (64.9), field-goal percentage defense (.413), 3-point defense (.307), and rebound margin (+5.4).

Senior Ruot Bijiek is coming off arguably the best game of his career. He was the catalyst in the rally from 13 points down against the Mountain Hawks, matching his career high with 20 points — his most ever in a Patriot League game — while setting a new personal best with 10 rebounds. Six of those boards came on the offensive end of the floor, four of which resulted in put-back buckets. Bijiek, who also had 20-point efforts against Maryland and Richmond last season, is now tied with Amon Dörries for the team scoring lead at 11.9 ppg.

Freshman Pat Curtin missed the final four non-conference games due to a lower leg injury, but since returning he has made his first two career starts and scored in double figures both times. Curtin, an Ellicott City, Md., native who will be returning to his home state on Wednesday, stuffed the stat sheet with 14 points, four rebounds, four assists, and five steals in 29 minutes of action against Lehigh. The five steals were the most by a Bison since Jimmy Sotos had six against Colgate in 2019. Curtin averaged 29.8 ppg for Glenelg Country School season and was named Baltimore Sun Metro Player of the Year, MIAA A Conference Player of the Year, and Howard County Times Player of the Year. Aleksander Pachucki has also been a nice addition as a long-range threat off the bench. The Fordham transfer hit five 3-pointers in a game for the second time this season against Holy Cross, and he now has a team-high 21 treys in 52 attempts (.404).

Bucknell struggled to defend the 3-point arc in non-conference play, as opponents hit 128 treys (9.8 per game) and shot 40.1%. In the two Patriot League games, however, the opponents are just 5-for-25 (.200) from downtown. The Bison set season highs with 14 steals and 21 forced turnovers on Saturday against Lehigh. The 14 thefts were one shy of their Sojka Pavilion record, and it is tied for the highest total by any Patriot League team against a Division I opponent this season.

Navy returned all five starters from last year's team that made a run to the Patriot League Tournament final, including PL Preseason Player of the Year Austin Benigni. The senior point guard was named PL Player of the Week on Monday after recording 27 points and eight assists in an 82-77 win over Boston University and 23 points and five assists in a 65-58 win at Holy Cross. For the season, he is averaging 17.5 ppg while shooting a league-best 47.6% from the 3-point arc, and he once again ranks among the NCAA leaders in free throws made (99), attempted (112), and percentage (.884). Navy also features one of the league's top frontcourt players in Aidan Kehoe, who averages 13.3 points and a league-high 9.7 rebounds per game. Kehoe shoots a PL-best 70.6% from the field.

This is the 94th all-time meeting between Bucknell and Navy, with the Bison hanging on to a slim 48-45 lead in a rivalry that dates back to 1920. The series has been marked by long stretches of dominance by both sides. Navy won the first 10 meetings between 1920-50; the Midshipmen had an 11-2 stretch in the late-90s/early-2000s; and they were riding a nine-game winning streak until Bucknell swept the last two regular-season series. That recent Navy run came right on the heels of Bucknell's 19-1 stretch from 2011-19. The Bison also won 11 of 13 from 2003-08, culminating with current head coach John Griffin's half-court buzzer-beater in an 87-86 triple-overtime thriller in the 2008 Patriot League Tournament quarterfinals.

As conference rivals, Bucknell leads 44-33, with the home team winning most of the time. Since Navy joined the league, Bucknell is 29-9 against the Mids at home but is only 15-24 against Navy in Alumni Hall. Bucknell is 5-4 all-time against Navy in the Patriot League Tournament, including the Midshipmen's 76-75 win in the 1997 championship game. Navy won the first three postseason clashes, the Bison won the next five, and then Navy prevailed in last year's semifinal round.

In last year's first meeting at Sojka Pavilion, Josh Bascoe and Noah Williamson scored 29 of their combined 43 points in the second half, leading the Bison to a 73-69 victory. The Bison turned a 39-27 second-half deficit into a 58-51 lead thanks to a 31-12 run over 12 minutes of game time. Williamson finished with a game-high 25 points and eight rebounds. Several of his nine made field goals came on nifty drives to the basket, including two straight in the final five minutes, and his dunk with 50 seconds remaining off of a great feed from Bascoe gave the Bison a 72-67 lead. Austin Benigni, who led Navy with 23 points, had just hit a 3-pointer and finished a 3-point play to get the Midshipmen within three.

In the rematch at Alumni Hall on Feb. 1, Williamson piled up 29 points and 12 rebounds, and Bucknell parlayed a monster first half into an 85-75 win. Williamson notched his eighth double-double by halftime, and Elvin Edmonds IV scored all 14 of his points in a sensational first half. Edmonds splashed a 3-pointer on the game's first possession, setting the tone for Bucknell's best 20 minutes of the season. The Bison shot a whopping 75% (21-28) from the field and went 5-for-7 from the 3-point arc on the way to a 51-26 halftime lead. Things got a bit nervy in a disjointed second half that was littered with fouls at both ends. The Bison couldn't keep the hot shooting going, starting the second half 4-for-17 as Navy crept closer. Benigni was held to one point in the first half before scoring 20 in the second. He tallied 13 of his team's 16 points in one stretch, and his layup at the 2:03 mark made it a seven-point game at 72-65, but the Bison were able to close it out. In the final two minutes, Williamson scored twice on breakaways to beat the press, and Bucknell went 9-for-12 at the foul line to finish it off.

Navy avenged those two losses with an 83-77 upset over the top-seeded Bison in the Patriot League Tournament semifinals at Sojka Pavilion. Bucknell carried a seven-game winning streak and a 10-game home winning streak into the contest, but Benigni's record-setting free-throw bonanza carried the Midshipmen to victory. The Bison held Benigni to 2-for-12 shooting in the game, but the crafty guard went 17-for-18 from the line in the final 3:31 and finished 20-for-22 (all in the second half) to break the PL Tournament record for made free throws. Williamson (22), Achile Spadone (21), and Bascoe (16) carried most of the scoring load for Bucknell.

Bucknell returns home to face Loyola on Saturday at 5 p.m. It will be the 21st Annual Dirk Sojka's Slam Dunk with Bison Basketball, with proceeds from a large silent auction and raffle drawing benefiting Suncom Industries, the area's largest employer of adults with developmental disabilities.

Men's Basketball Visits Navy Wednesday in Annapolis

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Players Mentioned

Josh Bascoe

Ruot Bijiek

Pat Curtin

Elvin Edmonds IV

Aleksander Pachucki

Achile Spadone

Noah Williamson