Army Ends Regular Season With Loss At Bucknell

Saturday, February 26

Lewisburg, Pa.

7 PM

Army West Point

Bucknell

Army Ends Regular Season With Loss At Bucknell

February 26, 2011 | Men's Basketball

LEWISBURG, Pa. – Bucknell avenged its only Patriot League loss of the season, earning a season split with Army after its 78-64 win over the Black Knights Saturday evening at Sojka Pavilion in the regular-season finale for both schools.

Army (11-18, 3-11 PL) has now dropped seven in a row, while Bucknell (22-8, 13-1 PL) scored its 20th victory in its last 22 games.

Senior F Jeremy Hence led all players with 26 points, matching his career high. Hence also tied for the team lead with seven rebounds. Sophomore Ella Ellis tallied 22 points, including a career-best six three-pointers, and also pulled down seven boards. It was the second time this season the Black Knights had two 20-point scorers in the same game.

Bryan Cohen led a balanced Bucknell attack with 12 points. Mike Muscala, Bryson Johnson and Cameron Ayers scored 11 points each. Muscala completed the double-double with a game-high 10 rebounds.

Army struggled from the field, making 36.7 percent of its shots for the game. The Black Knights rallied from an 0-8 start from three-point range to finish 10-of-27 from deep (.370). Ellis was 6-for-13 from behind the arc. Bucknell shot 47.2 percent, including 55.2 percent in the second half.

Both offenses struggled early, going scoreless for the first three minutes, 10 seconds. Hence scored the game’s first basket to put Army on top 2-0, but after Muscala scored Bucknell’s first basket four minutes, three seconds in the Bison began to get their footing. The basket started a spurt of 12 straight points to give Bucknell a 10-point lead with 10:36 left on the first-half clock.

Hence converted a three-point play to stop Army’s eight-minute, 12-second scoring drought. The Bison re-opened a 10-point lead at 17-7 with 6:05 to go, but five straight points by Hence, including Army’s first three-pointer, trimmed the Black Knights’ deficit to 17-12 with 5:04 to go. Hence’s three-pointer snapped Army’s 0-for-8 start from behind the arc.

Johnson’s first three of the half capped a 9-4 Bucknell run that put the Bison back on top by 10 at 26-16 with 2:31 to go. Army answered with six straight points on back-to-back triples by Hence and Ellis to claw within four points with 1:04 left in the half. The Bison ended the first period with four straight points, including Johnson’s second triple with only three seconds left, to go into the locker room with a 30-22 lead.

After a 2-for-17 start from the field, Army connected on seven of its last 12 shots, including three of its final four three-point tries, to finish the first half at 31.0 percent from the floor. Bucknell was 9-for-24 (.375) overall and 2-for-12 (.167) in the opening stanza.

Hence led all players with 15 first-half points. Johnson and Ayers led the Bison with eight points each.

The two teams exchanged three-pointers to start the second half before Bucknell put the game away with a 15-1 run that gave the Bison a 48-26 lead with 12:48 left on the clock. Ellis drained his second three-pointer of the half to stop a two-minute, 40-second Army scoring drought and a stretch of six minutes, 12 seconds without a field goal.

Bucknell led 52-30 before Army scored the next nine points to close the gap to 52-39 on a steal and layup by Ellis with 8:31 left. Bucknell responded with 11 of the next 18 points to go back up by 17 points with 4:43 to go. Ellis converted a four-point play to cut the deficit back to 13 at 63-50 with 4:43 on the clock. Bucknell scored the next four points and regain a 17-point lead.

Army used a 14-8 run that included two three-pointers by rookie Josh Herbeck to pull with 11 points at 75-64, but the Bison made three free throws in the final 20 seconds to set the final margin.

The loss assured a rematch with Bucknell in the Patriot League quarterfinals.Army will return to Sojka Pavilion to face the Bison on Wednesday, March 2. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. Bucknell is the top seed in the tournament, while the Black Knights enter the postseason as the eighth seed.

Game Notes: Army started its fourth different lineup in the last four games … Senior Jeremy Hence was the only upperclassman with the first unit on Saturday, joining plebes Josh Herbeck and Andrew Stire, and sophomores Jason Pancoe and Ella Ellis … Stire grabbed a career-high six rebounds … Army shot below 30 percent for the third straight game … Hence and Ellis became the first Army teammates to each score 400 points in a season since Jarell Brown and Matt Bell in 2006-07 … Herbeck made two of his five three-point tries and is now 12 for his last 20 from deep (.600) … Army increased its Academy single-season three-point record to 260 …2011 marks the fourth time the Black Knights will face its final regular-season opponent in the first round of the Patriot League Tournament … the last time was 2006 when Army lost consecutive games at Bucknell … Saturday’s match up with the Bison will stop a four-year streak of the Black Knights meeting Lehigh in the first game of the postseason.