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Wednesday, February 07, 2007
BU-AU notebook
Leftover tidbits and observations from Bucknell's 69-66 win at American.
  • Another new starting lineup for American. Or should we say a different lineup. Jeff Jones went back to the lineup that started the first 11 games of the season, with Paulius Joneliunas returning to the first five, displacing Sekou Lewis, who had drawn a start in AU's previous three games. Jones likely made the move in an effort to match Bucknell's Chris McNaughton and Darren Mastropaolo with his "twin towers" front line of Joneliunas and Brayden Billbe.

    After the Lehigh game, Jones said the four spot would be filled by committee the remainder of the season since nobody had clearly staked a claim to the job. Starting assignments would be a product of practice performance and matchups, Jones said.

  • Lewis, after three straight starts, did not play.

  • Andre Ingram has been a fixture in the Eagles lineup all season. Matter of fact, the 6-3 senior has been a fixture in the starting five for the past few seasons. The Bucknell game marked his 111th career start, setting a new school record. The old record of 110 was held by Darryl franklin, who played from 1992 to 1996. Ingram finished with 23 points, moving him past American Hall of Famer Wilbur Thomas into sixth place on AU's all-time scoring chart with 1,552 points.

  • Bucknell's injured Donald Brown has been fitted with a battery charged device to provide electrical stimulation to speed the healing of the broken right hand.

  • Bucknell opened the game going 6 for 6, including 4 three-pointers and a Chris McNaughton jumper with a foot on the arc. The Bison's first miss from the field came on a Justin Catleberry pull-up jumper in the lane at the 12:09 mark.

  • Ingram's three-pointer with 3:05 to go in the first half gave him 16 points, matching his career best against Bucknell, set back in his freshman season. Since then, Ingram had reached double figures once in six games against the Bison, that coming earlier this season when he scored 10 in Lewisburg. His 23 points were more than he scored in three games combined (20) against Bucknell last season. His 33 in two games this season equals his total in six games against Bucknell his sophomore and junior seasons.

  • The two teams combined to hit 29 of 42 shots in the first half (69 percent). Bucknell was 14 of 20 (70 percent), 6 of 8 from the three-point arc. But the Bison were just 2 of 5 from the free throw line in the half. American hit 15 of 22 (68.2 percent) from the field, 4 of 6 threes and was 3 for 3 at the line.

  • Bucknell's first half shooting was its best effort of the season. The previous best half was against Army in Lewisburg, when the Bison hit 15 of 23 (65.2 percent) in the first half. The Bison's previous worst defensive half came against Wake Forest, when the Demon Deacons hit 59.1 percent in the second half.

  • Brayden Billbe fouled out with 2:30 to go on a questionable call. Billbe and Bucknell's John Griffin got their feet tangled near the top of the arc, with Griffin ending up on the floor and Billbe ending up on the bench the rest of the night. Billbe's fourth personal, which came at the 4:08 mark, was also an offensive foul away from the ball. Billbe checked out with 8 points on 4 for 5 shooting but the 6-10 senior had no rebounds and turned the ball over 4 times.

  • The officials evened it out a minute later, sending Arvydas Eitutavicius to the line for three shots after he took a dive in Justin Caslteberry's vicinity while missing a long three. Eitutaviciua hit all three to put AU up 64-63 with 1:23 to play.

  • Bucknell held a 23-18 edge on the boards, but American had an 11-10 edge on the offensive glass. The Eagles managed only 7 defensive rebounds.

  • The win was Bucknell's second straight in Bender, where they were 0-4 in Patriot League play prior to last season. It was Bucknell's seventh straight win over AU , a streak that includes wins in the conference semifinals the past two seasons.

  • Bucknell's 22-14 advantage in the paint marked the seventh straight game the Bison outscored an opponent on the inside. The Bison have not outscored their foes in the paint in 9 of their 10 league games, the lone exception being a 22-22 standoff in the loss at Holy Cross.

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    • Published at 8:29 AM by Hoop Time.
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