Courtesy of BucknellBison.com
LEWISBURG, Pa. – Nana Foulland led four Bucknell players in double figures with 18 points, helping the Bison to a 72-54 home victory over American and a 3-0 start in Patriot League play. On a night when the long-range shots were not falling, Bucknell pounded the ball inside, outscoring the Eagles 40-16 in the paint to remain in a first-place tie with Loyola atop the league standings.
One game removed from a 40-point performance in a win at Army West Point, Chris Hass struggled from the outside in this one, but he went 12-for-12 at the foul line and finished with 16 points. Point guard Stephen Brown had a perfect shooting night — 5-for-5 from the field and 5-for-5 from the foul line – and scored 15 points, while Dom Hoffman chipped in 11 points and a game-high eight rebounds.
The Bison (6-8, 3-0) went 1-for-11 from 3-point range, but the frontcourt trio of Foulland, Hoffman and D.J. MacLeay combined for 33 points and 18 rebounds.
Bucknell led 35-31 at the half but fell behind 38-36 in the opening minutes of the second period. From that point forward, the Bison doubled their point total and outscored the Eagles (2-12, 0-3) 36-16. Bucknell’s last field goal came on a Brown layup at the 9:20 mark, but from there it went 19-for-22 from the foul line, including 10-for-10 in the final 1:32, to wrap up a third straight victory.
This was Bucknell’s best defensive effort of the season, particularly in the second half when it held American to 25.0 percent shooting. The 54 points allowed were a season-low, and the Eagles shot just 32.8 percent for the game. After American took that brief lead early in the second half, the Bison conceded only four more field goals in the final 16:45.
“When we decide we want to guard, we are pretty good at it,” said head coach Nathan Davis afterward. “We got a string of stops in the second half and that allowed us to get a little run going. We have been a much better defensive team since the start of league play, and that is a real credit to our guys for their commitment on the defensive end.”
Most of American’s first-half offense came from the perimeter. Seven of its 11 field goals came from 3-point distance in the opening stanza, including three from all-league guard Jesse Reed. The Eagles made only 1 of 7 attempts from the arc in the second half, with the lone make a desperation heave from Charlie Jones as the shot-clock expired. The shot was originally waived off, then overturned on replay review.
Reed had 11 points in the first half, but just two in the second when the Bison outscored the Eagles 37-23.
American led by as many as seven points early at 12-5, before Bucknell responded with a 9-0 run that included its only trey of the night from Nate Jones. There would be seven ties and nine lead changes in the first half, and buckets by Hoffman and Hass gave the Bison a four-point cushion at the break.
The Jones 3-pointer and layups from Leon Tolksdorf and Reed comprised a 7-1 run to start the second half, giving the Eagles a 38-36 lead. But the Bison would hold American scoreless for the next 6:32, while rattling off 13 straight points.
Foulland was the catalyst, scoring seven of those points right around the rim, including a 3-point play that stretched the margin out to nine and another layup that made it 49-38.
Brown’s slashing layup at the 9:20 mark gave Bucknell a 53-40 lead, and then the parade to the free-throw line began. American did creep within eight points at 62-54 with 2:00 to play, but the Bison shut them out from there while finishing it off at the line.
Bucknell shot 46.8 percent overall and 58.3 percent inside the 3-point line. The Bison committed a season-low seven turnovers while coming up with eight steals, and they outrebounded the Eagles 34-32.
Loyola topped Lehigh 52-51 on an Andre Walker layup with 4.1 seconds remaining in Baltimore, while Colgate suffered its first Patriot League loss, 65-63 at Holy Cross. That leaves the Bison and Greyhounds in first place after three rounds of league play, with Navy, Holy Cross and Colgate all one game back.
This is the ninth time Bucknell has been 3-0 in the 26-year history of the Patriot League, and the first time since 2012-13.
Bucknell is back in action on Saturday against Holy Cross at 2 p.m. at Sojka Pavilion. That will also be the 12th Annual “Dirk Sojka’s Slam Dunk with Bison Basketball” event, with silent auction and raffle items available to benefit Suncom Industries.
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