The Bucknell Bison walked onto the court at Bender Arena last night riding an 11-game winning streak. They walked off with chants of "over-rated" ringing in their ears after American put the finishing touches on a 68-59 victory in front of 2,391.
American (11-7, 4-2 Patriot League) enjoyed a comfortable lead most of the night after going on a 15-0 run early in the first half and endured some tense moments late before finishing off Bucknell (14-5, 5-1).
The most impressive aspect of the victory was that American had to overcame a rough shooting night from its leading scorer, guard Andre Ingram. Ingram came into the game averaging 15.8 points but made only 1 of 13 shots, missed all five of his three-point attempts and finished with four points.
"We talked today about the need to make shots and usually when we make shots it's because Andre Ingram is a big part of it," AU Coach Jeff Jones said. "So to win a game over Bucknell when we turned the ball over 20 times and when he made only one shot is pretty amazing."
Still, the Eagles picked up their fifth victory in the last six games because guard Jason Thomas scored 18 points, forward Matej Cresnik added 13 and forward Raimondas Petrauskas had 10.
Thomas hit 3 of 6 three-point attempts and swished a pair of free throws late to put an end to a late Bucknell charge. Bucknell was led by guard Charles Lee, who overcame a rough first half to finish with 16 points on 6-of-13 shooting.
American's four-game win streak was snapped by an ugly 80-56 loss at Holy Cross on Monday, and the American players knew a similar performance would lead to another blowout loss against Bucknell.
"Bucknell is a great team," Thomas said. "Three of the best players in the league are on that team, so we came in focused on this game but more than anything else, the Holy Cross game got us in check. We saw some things we needed to correct and we came out here and did that."
More specifically, the Eagles played at a much faster pace against Bucknell, moved the ball on offense and picked up the intensity on defense. During the first half, the American guards did a good job shoving the ball inside and the inside players effectively tossed it back outside for open shots when the Bucknell guards doubled down.
It was an intelligent, unselfish approach that kept Bucknell scrambling on defense and kept American from going through prolonged scoring droughts.
"If we move the ball and play like a team, we get open shots," said Cresnik, who hit 3 of 6 three-point attempts.
Bucknell played into American's hands by playing sloppy for most of the game. The Bison turned over the ball 11 times in the first half and at one point during the first half, Bucknell trailed 29-13 and had more turnovers (nine) than field goals (five).
Bucknell, which turned heads with a 69-66 victory at then seventh-ranked Pittsburgh on Jan. 2, played without Coach Pat Flannery, who stayed behind for health reasons.
• NAVY 82, COLGATE 71: George O'Garro scored a career-high 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds as the Midshipmen, at home, snapped an eight-game losing streak.
It was the first Patriot League win for Navy (5-14, 1-5) and its first victory since Dec. 21. O'Garro's point total was a season-best for the Midshipmen, who also got 15 points and eight rebounds from Matt Fannin and 13 points from David Hooper. Navy went ahead for good early in the first half with a 10-0 run for a 15-8 lead.
Jon Simon led Colgate (8-11, 3-3) with 15 points and Andrew Zidar added 14 points.
