Courtesy of BucknellBison.com
LEWISBURG, Pa. – Nana Foulland led a big night for the Bucknell frontcourt with 19 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots, helping the first-place Bison to a 94-66 runaway win over Army West Point before a season-best crowd of 3,513 at Sojka Pavilion. Now 12-9 overall and 9-1 in the Patriot League, Bucknell now has a two-game lead in the loss column over closest-pursuers Navy (6-3) and Colgate (6-4), who both lost earlier in the day.
In Bucknell’s first 84-76 win at West Point back on Jan. 2 it was the Bison guards doing most of the damage, led by a 40-point night from Chris Hass. This time Bucknell took advantage of the absence of Army center Kevin Ferguson and had a field day in the low post. The Bison finished with a whopping 58-16 edge in points in the paint, and the center trio of Foulland (9-for-10), D.J. MacLeay (5-for-6, 11 points) and Ben Oberfeld (3-for-4, 7 points) combined for 37 points on 17-for-20 shooting.
Not that the Bison backcourt didn’t contribute as well. Hass and Ryan Frazier both finished with 10 points, John Azzinaro had nine off the bench, and Stephen Brown tallied seven points, seven assists and five rebounds as part of the team’s fourth 90-point performance of the year.
Bucknell made 21 of its first 27 shots of the night. The Bison hit at a 67.6-percent clip in the first half and finished the game at 59.7 percent after cooling off a bit down the stretch.
“When we are sharing the ball like we did tonight we have a chance to score a lot of points,” said head coach Nathan Davis. “I thought we had tremendous defensive intensity after the first few minutes of the game when we lost some guys. We have a very talented roster, and it’s great as a coach to be able to go to 13 or 14 guys. The balance that we had tonight was key.”
After eight early points from Luke Morrison, Army West Point (12-9, 3-6) took an early 13-6 lead. But the Bison hardly missed over the next 16 minutes, outscoring the Black Knights 47-24 over the remainder of the half.
MacLeay scored on a layup off a nice feed from Azzinaro, then MacLeay stole the ball at the top of the key and broke away for a dunk, giving the Bison the lead for good at the 12:30 mark of the first half. Frazier’s 3-pointer stretched the margin into double digits, and by the time Foulland dunked off another Azzinaro assist, it was 50-31 with 3:37 still to play in the half.
Army scored six straight points as Bucknell went scoreless for a period of 2:13, but Brown’s 3-pointer made it a 53-37 game at the half.
Bucknell blew it open with a 16-4 run to start the second period. Five different Bison scored in the run, with Frazier’s trey opening up a 69-41 cushion. The Bison would go on to lead by as many as 33 after a Matt Banas jumper late in the game, and they finished with their second-highest point total ever against Army.
Bucknell finished with a 44-35 rebounding advantage and had 25 assists on 40 field goals. The Bison hit 9 of 18 from 3-point range, compared to 10-for-33 for Army. Both teams struggled from the foul line, with Bucknell making 5 of 11 and the Black Knights just 8 of 21.
Perhaps overshadowed by the stellar offensive performance was another solid defensive showing for Bucknell. The Bison limited the league’s highest-scoring team to 66 points – more than 14 below their season average of 80.3 – on 34.3-percent shooting from the field.
Morrison led Army with 13 points, all coming in the first half, and 17-points-per-game scorer Kyle Wilson was limited to 12 on 5-for-15 shooting.
Bucknell has now won four straight games and started 9-1 or better after 10 Patriot League contests for the seventh time in 26 years in the league. After going 8-1 in the month of January, the Bison have clinched at least a .500 Patriot League record for the 22nd time in 26 years.
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