(Originally posted Wednesday at 10:50 p.m., Links added 6:49 a.m.)

If you watch some of that poker that seems to be on round the clock on one cable channel or another these days, then you know the simple secret. Two of a kind never wins when the other guy has a hand full of good cards.

That was the lesson of Bucknell's Patriot League regular season title clinching 81-70 win over Lehigh Wednesday night in front of a packed house if 4,136 in sold out Sojka Arena.

Jose Olivero and Joe Knight were a heckuva pair for Lehigh. Not aces maybe, but definitely face cards. Olivero poured in 21 points, hitting 7 of 16 from the field, including 4 three-pointers. Knight added 15, the majority coming on three key treys, each one seemingly keeping Lehigh's hopes alive when they seemed about to fade.

With Kyle Neptune chipping in with 12 points, Lehigh managed to become the first Patriot League team in 32 games to score 70 points against Bucknell. Lehigh became just the fourth team all season to score 70 against the Bison, and its 24-of-52 (46.2 percent) shooting effort made the Mountain Hawks the fifth team all season to shoot better than 45 percent against Bucknell's vaunted defense, which ranks in the top five nationally.

Normally, the way Lehigh plays defense, that would be enough for a win. Not against a balanced Bucknell team that seemed to switch weapons every time Lehigh figured out where the last attack had come from.

Bucknell's 81 points were the second most allowed by Lehigh all season, just three shy of the 84 No. 2 Villanova put up on the Mountain Hawks back in November, when Joe Knight was not in the Lehigh rotation. Bucknell's 47.1 percent shooting (24-51) was the third-best shooting night a Lehigh opponent has enjoyed, just behind Princeton's 51.2 percent (go figure) night and 'Nova's 49.2 percent effort, both in November.

Making Bucknell's offensive showing even more impressive was where the points came from. The Bison had four guys in double figures, led by junior point guard Abe Badmus, who scored a career-high 17 points on a variety of twisting drives and jumpers. Badmus also had 4 steals.

"He is a competitor. Defensively he is real tough. He likes to get up there and really takes you out of what you want to do. Offensively he was really aggressive, attacking off of the dribble and he knocked down some jumpers. He kind of mixed it up and made a lot of big shots for them," said Knight, who spent much of the night chasing Badmus.

Charles Lee added 16, 13 of those coming in the second half.

"(Lee) demands a full 40 minute effort. We lost him a couple of times. He drove the ball a couple of times a couple of times and finished. He got his points in a variety of ways and it definitely hurt us," Taylor said.

Kevin Bettencourt added 13 and Chris McNaughton 10. But the difference between Lehigh and Bucknell was not one extra Bison in double figures. It was the balance the Bison showed. Out of 10 guys to see action for the Bison, 9 scored. Not in mop-up time, either, Nine of the 10 were on the board by the time Bucknell took a 36-26 halftime lead.

"They are a very good basketball team. We wanted to try to limit some of their top players and sometimes you get burned by a couple of the other guys. We didn't do a very good job executing our overall game plan because everybody for Bucknell hurt us," said Lehigh coach Billy Taylor.

Two plays pretty well demonstrate the difference. The first came with 15:42 to play in the first half when Bucknell, with the shot clock running down, went not to McNaughton, Lee, Bettencourt or even Badmus, but to Mastropaolo, who buried a jump hook from the right side as the shot clock expired.

A little later in the half, Lehigh had a similar situation, inbounding the ball with four seconds on the shot clock. Olivero, who was out of the game, subbed back in a hurry. To nobody's surprise, including Bettencourt who was a stripe on Olivero's shorts as he made a cut across the lane and had a mitt in Olivero's face as he heaved up a fadeaway jumper that was off the mark.

"We had some different guys score big baskets. They were challenging Abe to shoot the basketball and he can shoot the basketball. You're not going to back off him like that. Donald Brown, who they backed off of, ended up with 5 assists and no turnovers. Charles Lee had four assists and no turnovers. When you get that kind of passing, that is going to open up Kevin and Abe and Chris," Flannery said.

The Bison also benefited by attacking the basket throughout, leading to a tremendous edge at the foul line. Bucknell hit 26 of 35 from the stripe, 23 of 31 in the second half. Lehigh only shot 16 free throws, making 14.

Bucknell only trailed once, falling behind 5-4 on a three-pointer by Mitch Gilfillan-- his only bucket of the night. Badmus answered with the first of his two treys and the Bison never again trailed. It was 36-26 at the half, after McNaughton scored on a put back at the buzzer.

The Bison pushed the lead to double digits three times early in the second half. Each time, Lehigh managed to cut the lead back to single digits, closing to within 4 on an Olivero trey with 7:28 to go. By the time Olivero hit a layup with 1:23 to play , which coincidentally was Lehigh's next field goal, Bucknell had pushed the lead to 15.

The win puts Bucknell a win over last place Army away from becoming the first ever Patriot League team to run the table in conference play. tickets for Saturday's otherwise meaningless Senior Day matchup, set to tip at 7 p.m., are already hard to come by.

Lehigh, meanwhile, needs to regroup to go on the road Saturday to Worcester, where a win over Holy Cross would still give the Mountain Hawks the No. 2 seed for the tournament and a homecourt edge in the first two rounds. A Holy Cross win reverses that scenario.

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Eric Thomas

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