Pregame

A large contingent of Bucknell fans on hand. Two buses made the trip from Lewisburg and there are close to as many orange clad BU students as Lehigh students in the house.

The big difference is that Lehigh's students are right behind the home basket. Bucknell's are mostly in the upper level, where their noise will be largely swallowed by the cavernous arena.

Plenty of seats available, the place is maybe half full.

Fans in the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre Tv market might want to hit ABC 16 at 11 for highlights. This is the first time in our memory that the stations outside the Lehigh Valley have shown up here for highlights.

Lehigh 5, Bucknell 2 (14:39

Knight checks in at 17:05. Scores on his first touch.

Bucknell getting plenty of open looks early, but not knocking them down. Bison 1 for first 8 shots.

Lehigh 10, Bucknell 4 (11:34 first)

Officials in "let 'em play" mode. Four team fouls total -- 2 each team -- in first 8-plus minutes.

Bucknell now 2-13 from the floor.

Olivero has 5 to lead Lehigh.

Lehigh 16, Bucknell 9 (8:50 first)

Gilfillan and Kyle Neptune with back-toback 3s forces Flannery to call a timeout.

Lehigh 16, Bucknell 11 (7:19 first)

Lehigh kids making disparaging remarks about Charles Lee's intelligence when he goes to the free throw line.

At the only school in the league to ever have the NCAA decclare a player academically ineligible, where the sophomore class president allegedly robbed a bank, that is what my mother would call "rich."

Bucknell now 5-17 from the field. Lehigh is 6-14. Big difference -- Gilfillan has two treys.

Lehigh 20, Bucknell 18 (3:01 first)

Lehigh now 8-for-18 with 11 turnovers. Bucknell 8-24, 5 turnovers

Lehigh 26, Bucknell 23 (halftime)

Bucknell trailed by as many as 7 early, but came back to tie the Mountain Hawks twice before Jose Olivero, with a little help from Joe DeMayo, put lehigh up at the intermission with an old-fashioned three-point play that was the result of Bucknell's defense falling asleep (resulting in an easy bucket for Olivero) and a phantom foul on Badmus under the basket after the shot (that resulted in the free throw).

Joe Knight leads Lehigh with 9 points on 4-9 shooting. Olivero has 8 and Gilfillan 6 on a pair of threes. As a team, Lehigh shooting 10-23 (43.5 percent) in the first half. Lehigh had 12 turnovers but holds a 20-12 edge on the boards, mostly the result of more Bucknell misses. Bucknell has 5 offensive boards, Lehigh 4.

For the Bison, open looks aplenty in the first half, but not many falling. Bucknell 9-26 (34.6 percent), 3-11 from the arc (27.3 percent). Bucknell with 6 turnovers.

Lee and Bettencourt each with 5 for Bucknell. Donald Brown has 4. Chris McNaughton 1-4, 0 rebounds.

Expect Bucknell to look to get it into McNaughton's hands more in the second half.

In other games that have gone like this in the first half, Pat Flannery has run a play for the big guy right out of the locker rooms at the start of the second half.

team fouls ended the half at 7 for Lehigh, 6 for Bucknell. Badmus has 2 for the Bison, Bryan White 2 for Lehigh.

Bucknell 33, Lehigh 31 (14:09 second)

Bucknell took the lead ffor the first time since 2-0 at the start of the game on a Bettencourt three around the 17:40 mark. Since then the two teams basically swapping buckets.

McNaughton with 4 early in the seocnd half (6 total) on a pair of foul line jumpers.

Bucknell 35, Lehigh 33 (11:04 second)

It is heating up in Stabler. Bodies are flying for every loose ball.

Donald Brown just scored inside for Bucknell to retake the lead after Knight tied it on a pull up jumper from about 10-feet out. brown on the line for a possible three-point play. The foul, on Bryan White, his third.

Bucknell 39, Lehigh 38 (7:37 second)

Where would Lehigh be without Joe Knight? He is one board away from a double-double right now, with 16 points, 9 rebounds.

Bucknell still not shooting great, ovberall they are 15-41, 6-15 in the second half. But Lehigh is 5-14 in the second half and still turning it over. Mountain Hawks now have 19 turnovers.

Bucknell 45, Lehigh 40 (4:57 to play)

The mugging of Chris McNaughton continues. No blood, no foul where McNaughton is concerned.

Meanwhile, Bucknell gets team foul 7 with 5:30 to play. Lehigh with only three team fouls in the half.

Bettencourt hits a three to extend Bucknell's lead to 5. He now has 4 treys, 14 points. After a 2-6 first half, he is 3-5 in the second with three three-pointers.

Bucknell 45, Lehigh 40 (3:58 to play)

McNaughton, by the way, hit his 1,000th career point on a foul line jumper withg around 15 minutes to go in the second half.

Bucknell 48, Lehigh 41 (2:05 left)

Bison ball with one second on the shot clock. McNaughton's jumper off the rim, but BU rebounds for a fresh 35 seconds.

Lehigh, with only 3 team fouls, cannot put BU on the line yet to extend the game.

Bucknell 51, Lehigh 43 (1:02 left)

Bucknell won't let Lehigh have the ball. They have five offensive rebounds in the past 2 or 3 minutes, including three on missed free throws that kept possessions alive.

Bucknell 55, Lehigh 51

Badmus fifth personal at 44.3. Hard to believe some of the fouls called on the Bucknell point gurad, especially considering what the officials let go against McNaughton. His fourth was for being in front of Joe Knight when Knight pushed off with a forearm. Badmus was four feet away when Knight initiated the move.

Olivero just hit a three to pull Lehigh within 4. It came after a questionable travel call on Charles Lee, who had come up with what looked like a big steal.

FINAL

Bucknell hits 9-14 free throws in the final 1:04

Full story to follow