Men's Basketball Hosts Navy Monday at 6 p.m. on CBS SN; Bison Celebrate Military Appreciation & First Responders Night, Presented by Belfor

Monday, February 9

Lewisburg, Pa.

6 p.m.

Bucknell University

Navy

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Photo by: Lauren Medeiros

Men's Basketball Hosts Navy Monday at 6 p.m. on CBS SN; Bison Celebrate Military Appreciation & First Responders Night, Presented by Belfor

2/8/2026 12:10:00 PM | Men's Basketball

GAME DIGEST
What: Navy (19-6, 11-1 PL) at Bucknell (8-17, 5-7 PL)
When: Monday, Feb. 9, 6 p.m.
Where: Sojka Pavilion
Watch: CBS Sports Network
Listen: Eagle 107 and BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com
COMPLETE GAME NOTES
TICKETS

Happenings: First Responders & Military Appreciation Night, presented by Balfor. Bucknell Athletics would like to show its appreciation to all veterans, active-duty military, first responders, doctors, and nurses with two free tickets. Thank you for your service!

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- Bucknell wraps up a tough three-games-in-five-days stretch against the top three teams in the Patriot League standings when Navy visits Sojka Pavilion on Monday night on CBS Sports Network. Note the special start time of 6 p.m. for this nationally televised game. Bucknell stunned third-place American 60-59 last Wednesday on Achile Spadone's 3-point buzzer beater, but then the Bison bowed to second-place Colgate 78-59 on Saturday. Now the league's hottest team comes to town, as Navy has a two-game lead over the Raiders at 11-1. The Midshipmen have won seven straight games and 15 of their last 16 since the start of December.

Colgate hit its first three 3-pointers of the night while the Bison struggled out of the gates (0-for-16 start from the arc), and the Raiders led wire-to-wire on Saturday. Prior to that, Bucknell's previous five games were all decided in the final seconds. The Bison lost on a buzzer-beater to Army, won on a buzzer-beater at American, beat Boston University in double overtime, and lost to Loyola and Lafayette where they had a shot in the air to tie or take the lead.

Spadone made the headlines with his 37-foot bank shot to beat American — it was No. 1 on SportsCenter's Top 10 Plays of the Day — but perhaps lost in that fanfare is that the senior from Switzerland is currently playing the best basketball of his career. Over his last seven games, Spadone is averaging 16.0 points and 8.4 rebounds per game while shooting a solid 47.6% from the field. The Bison are very thin in the froncourt without injured regulars Ruot Bijiek and Grgur Brcic, so Spadone has been playing the 4 spot at 6'4", and he has now pulled down six or more rebounds in nine straight games, including 11 at American and 10 at Lafayette. Spadone is averaging 7.4 rpg in Patriot League play to rank fifth in the league.

Bucknell's top two scorers in PL play are freshmen: Amon Dörries (17.9 ppg) and Pat Curtin (14.6 ppg). Dörries scored 25 points in Saturday's loss to Colgate, his third straight game and sixth this season with 20+ points. There are six freshmen who rank in the top 25 in the Patriot League in scoring (all games), and the Bison have two of them.

Patriot League Freshman Scoring Leaders, 2025-26
1. Amon Dörries, Bucknell   15.2
2. Andrew Alekseyenko, Colgate   14.7
3. Chance Gladden, Boston U. 13.8
4. Madden Collins, American 13.0
5. Emmett Adair, Loyola 12.9
6. Pat Curtin, Bucknell 11.6

Dörries has moved into third place in Bucknell history in points by a freshman with 379.

Most Points, Freshman Season
1. Gerald Purnell   1974-75   467
2. Bob Barry   1976-77   441
3. Amon Dörries 2025-26   379
4. Al Leslie 1977-78   367
5. Bryan Cohen 2008-09   353
6. Nana Foulland 2014-15   346
7. Chris McNaughton 2003-04   334
8. Kevin Bettencourt 2002-03   321
9. Mike Bright 1989-90   314
10.Mike Muscala 2009-10   296

Navy's only Patriot League loss was a 65-51 verdict at American on Jan. 12, and the Midshipmen have not lost since then. On Saturday in Annapolis, the Midshipmen avenged that loss to the Eagles with an 82-73 win behind 22 points and 10 rebounds from Aidan Kehoe and 18 points and 14 rebounds off the bench from Donovan Draper. Kehoe went 8-for-10 from the field against AU, and that barely raised his season field-goal percentage to an NCAA-best 74.5%. No other Division I player is better than 69.3%. In Patriot League play, the 6'11" center is shooting a whopping 79.8% (91-114). Navy also features Preseason PL Player of the Year Austin Benigni, who is second in the league in scoring at 18.1 ppg. Benigni shoots a league-best 46.6% from the 3-point arc, and he has a knack for getting to the foul line, where he shoots 87.9%.

Navy shoots 47.4% from the field as a team in support of the Patriot League's top-ranked defense. The Midshipmen allow only 63.6 ppg, the eighth-best figure in the nation. They also rank 10th nationally in 3-point percentage defense (.291) and 16th in fewest fouls per game (14.6).

This is the 95th all-time meeting between Bucknell and Navy, with the Bison hanging on to a slim 48-46 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 44-34, 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 15-25 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.

Navy avenged last season's two regular-season 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 Austin 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. Noah Williamson (22), Achile Spadone (21), and Josh Bascoe (16) carried most of the scoring load for Bucknell.

In this season's first meeting at Alumni Hall on Jan. 7, Jordan Pennick hit seven 3-pointers and scored 23 points to lift Navy to a 76-55 win. Ruot Bijiek tallied 16 points and six rebounds for the Bison, who trailed by just one point at halftime before the Midshipmen blew it open with a 20-3 run to start the second half.

After playing three games in five days, the Bison will have some extra rest before traveling to Boston University next Saturday.