Two years ago, Abe Badmus might have been the last guy Bucknell wanted on the foul line with the game on the line. Of course two years ago, the thought that Badmus would be in that situation in a first round NCAA Tournament game also seemed far-fethced at best.

But that was who was on the line, and that was exactly the situation he was in when Badmus calmly stepped up and knocked down a pair of foul shots with 7 seconds left to seal the Bison's 59-55 win over Arkansas to advance to the second round of the tournament for the second year in a row.

The two free throws were the only shots Badmus took all afternoon. And they came after the team's two best foul shooters, Charles Lee and Kevin Bettencourt had both missed with a chance to make it a two possession game with the Bison clinging to a "slim 57-55 lead and 30 seconds to go.

To call it a clutch situation would be an understatement. Another miss would have given Arkansas a chance to send it to overtime with a three-pointer. Miss both of the two free throws, as Bettencourt had just done 20 seconds earlier, and a three would have won it for Arkansas, a two would have forced the tired Bison, who had two players with four personal fouls, to an extra five minute session.

Not to worry. Badmus, who set the situation up by coming up with a huge steal on the defensive end, calmly stepped to the stripe, took a deep breath, and hit nothing but twine on both shots.

Not bad for a guy who was just a 57.9 percent free throw shooter two seasons ago as a freshman.

"Going to the free throw line, all that really went through my head was trusting my muscle memory," said Badmus. "I have shot free throws all year, as has everyone on this team and every Division I player in the country. We all practice, Inside, outside, out of practice, in practice. It just came down to doing what I had to do, trusting my muscle memory and shooting the ball with confidence."

That confidence is the byproduct of hard work. Part of Badmus' improvement at the foul line came from a minor adjustment the coaches made to his stroke

Lots of it. When coaches talk about throwing a kid out of the gym, it usually means in response to screwing up in practice. In Badmus' case, Bucknell coach Pat Flannery throws him out to keep the Bison point guard from wearing himself out from working too hard.

"The credit has to go to him for the hard work," Flannery said. "He wears out our pitchback machine. He just wears it out. That is the only way you get better."

It wasn't always that way for Badmus.

"Coach puts everybody on the lane, puts me at the free throw line and makes me knock down a few. If I don't, we all run. I felt bad for my teammates last year because they ran a lot," Badmus said.

"This year, everybody trusts me now. It's something you have to keep working at and eventually it will come to you."

Badmus didn't put the ball up once the first 39:43 of the game.

"I was looking for my shot early on, but every time I got in the lane I just saw trees all around me. I really couldn't get it up, I had to dish it off," Badmus said.

Those dishes were often to wide open shooters on the perimeter, usually Lee and Bettencourt. Most of the time, the two Bison seniors made Badmus' passes pay off. Bettencourt was 5 for 10 from three-point range, finishing with 18 points.

Lee had an even bigger day. Going 7 for 12 from the field, 4 for 7 from the arc. As a team, Bucknell shot 11 of 21 from three-point range.

"We were just feeling it today. The bigs did a great job screening for us to get open," said Lee.

"They got a lot of big time shots. There wasn't much we could really do," Modica said.

Lee, the Patriot League Player of the Year scored nine of the Bison's first 11 points, helping to stake Bucknell to an early lead that it rode almost the entire game.

After Arkansas' Jonathon Modica, who led the Razorbacks with 19 points, scored the game's first bucket, the Bison went on an 8-0 run, 6 of the 8 coming from Lee. Bucknell led all but 44 seconds the rest of the game.

Time after time, when Arkansas would cut Bucknell's lead to a single point, the Bison defense would hold the Razorbacks scoreless until the offense could stretch the lead again. And while Bucknell's offense was hardly stellar -- they shot just 38.6 percent from the field -- every time the Bison needed a big bucket, they found it.

With 3:30 to go in the first half, Arkansas went on top 21-20 when Ronnie Brewer lost the handle trying to drive the right side of the lane, only to have the loose ball roll right to Darian Townes, who was alone under the basket after his defender went to help on brewer.

Townes' dunk gave the predominately red-clad crowd new life, but it lasted only 30 seconds, or as long as it took for Badmus to dish off a baseline drive to Chris McNaughton, who drained a 12-foot jumper in the paint to give the Bison back the lead.

Bucknell led 27-23 at the intermission, and stretched it to as many as 9 points in the second half before Arkansas battled back to tie the game at 55-55 on a pair of free throws by Modica with 1:15 to play.

At that point, Arkansas' press, which Bucknell had handled most of the game, seemed to be getting to the Bison. Matter of fact, the Hawgs nearly created a huge turnover on Bucknell's ensuring possession, when Donald Brown, with Brewer and Eric Ferguson collapsing on him for a backcourt trap, found Lee all alone under the basket for a layup with 1:01 to play that gave Bucknell the lead for good. Lee finished with 24 points to lead all scorers.

In the media room after the game, a frame by frame view of the sequence showed that Brown's pass came dangerously close to the 10-second limit teams have to cross midcourt. An isolated camera on the shot clock made it appear to come just after 10 seconds expired, but that clock is not the authoriative abriter of 10 second violations, an official making a mental count is.

The score stayed 57-55 for the next 54 seconds, with Bucknell coming up with stops on two Arkansas possesions, but unable to expand the lead when Lee, who was 6 for 7 at the foul line, missed the front end of a one and one and Bettencourt missed two after Brown tipped the rebound of Lee's miss to the backcourt, where Badmus chased it down to retain possession.

The Razorbacks got two chances to tie it on their next possession, with Vincent Hunter coming up with an offensive rebound after Brewer missed a jumper from the left side. But Badmus stole the ball from Hunter, was fouled, and that was all she wrote.

The No. 9 Bison will face top-seeded Memphis in Sunday's second round. The Tigers advanced by beating No. 16 Oral Roberts 94-78. Game time for that matchup will be determined later this evening.

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