Forum › Forum › Lehigh Sports › Lehigh Men’s Basketball › Game 25: Bucknell
This topic contains 17 replies, has 11 voices, and was last updated by 
ngineer 11 years, 11 months ago.
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February 18, 2013 at 6:10 pm #9483
I’m not ready to take an “L” in tonight’s game – not by a long shot. While we struggled – big time – up at Colgate, don’t forget Bucknell has done the same. While they are 2-1 in their last three, they were far from impressive in their wins (by 2 over Army and by 8 over Colgate) and had lapses of poor play leading to their 1 point loss to Lafayette. Let’s remember we have won the last three agaisnt the Bison and haven’t forgotten the formula for past successes against the orange and blue. Strong “D” and the ability to hit the three (despite the horrible numbers put up at Colgate, we still click @ .412% or third best in the country). Both will be needed tonight. I fully expect Mackey to lead an uptempo assult on Bucknell tonight (we average 4 extra possession each game than does Bucknell – and each will be extremely important) and for the team to rally after the disappointing setback two nights ago. Key, in my mind, will be our ability to limit the effectiveness of BU’s MM and JW. In the last game, they hit for a combined 31 wiwth 17 boards. Believe it or not, that would be fine tonight. Each is somewhat prone to the PF, leading all team members with 60 (JW) and 57 (MM). Have to expect Gabe, Holden, and yes even justin to test them early. With BJ’s status up in the air, we need to have one or both of our sharp-shooters (SC and AD) step up to secure this win. Without that, it may not be possible. They say odds-makers give the home team a three point edge. Let’s hope 4,000 fans show up in support of our team tonight and make that point spread a fact of life.
February 18, 2013 at 7:08 pm #9484Agreed and well said 65. Rebound and shoot the 3, and anything can happen. Should be a good game, hope crowd shows big time.
February 19, 2013 at 12:52 am #9487Crowd little disappointing both ways. Ugly first half. Very lucky to have lead considering we missed about 10 lay ups and 10 FTs.
February 19, 2013 at 2:18 am #94887 for 30 from 3-point and FT line for the game, and it was a one possession game in last minute, pretty amazing. Until Ayers hail mary they missed 3 straight FTs and were trying to give us the game, Fraizer and Johnson hit big shots in the lane, tip your hat. We were right there, tough loss, but hey it happens. Mackey and Greiner for stretches kept us in it, think Reed left Gabe on bench for too long even though Goldy was good/active/hustling tonight. Goldy upside huge, I’ll say it again. Hope we get these guys again, I think we’ll have a good shot at it, great effort tonight, just came up short. Turn the page, get ready for Laf now, as that is a huge huge huge game now.
February 19, 2013 at 2:36 am #9489I think Gabe was on the bench because Reed was not happy with his play or effort tonight. The only reason Knutson got back in was because Goldsborough fouled out. Knutson needs to play with the intensity that Greiner does. He was way too passive especially after Muscala got into foul trouble early in the 1st half. Mackey, Anthony, and Holden were pretty much the team tonight. Got little to nothing from the rest. Despite all that, make foul shots win game.
February 19, 2013 at 3:12 am #9490Gabe took his fair share of shots, just didn’t hit many! Anyway, it is a 3 game season every March, we’ll be in the race which is what you want year in and year out. I won’t get too down on this loss, and I think we can beat these guys if we see them again. Getting BJ healthy in the next few weeks would be a nice thought!
February 19, 2013 at 8:28 am #9491Got a chance to watch this one. Few more shots by LU, they would have taken this one as well. BU was fighting for the win. My take folks is this league is tough and anyone can win on any given night. Both teams will be tested the last few games.
February 19, 2013 at 11:57 am #9492A couple of things:
Not sure how much better the crowd can get when looking towards student section. That was the most kids I’ve ever seen there. They ran out of white t-shirts at least 10 minutes before tip, and there were 600 of them. The fact of the matter is, most of the campus was not interested in the team at all before last season. With stabler across the mountain and freshman not having cars on campus, it’s an effort to make it over for a lot of students. I know there are buses but they are a pain when it’s 20 degrees or so out.
BJ was playing on what appeared to be a severely sprained ankle, check his twitter for some gruesome pictures. Gutsy move by him to be out there, but obviously he was very limited offensively.
Man, JG is a fun guy to root for. Great hustle on the glass and that dive over the scorers table kept the team in it.
This team has shot free throws poorly ever since CJ went out, for whatever reason. I don’t know the stats, but I’d bet there’s a ~10% difference since VCU. Dr needs to get them to the line in practice or something, really cost them tonight when BU is something like 12/12 and LU is 4/11 at one point.
Definitely an impressive game against BU again. Bryson finally showed a sign of life against LU and boy did they need it. MM shut down pretty well even if it did have something to do with first half foul trouble. Was shocked he did not have the ball in his hand at the end of their last possession. Really shows respect for the quality of defense LU plays on him. Big game this weekend and optimistic they will come out ready to play this time.
February 19, 2013 at 12:17 pm #9493Couple of thoughts:
1. Crowd was great.
2. Free Throws are an adventure-hopefully they spend as hour per day in practice.
3. Shooting mechanics are awful. Gabe/Mackey push the ball, Holden seems tentative.
4. No motion on “O”. Players seem to stand around too much. Ball handler gets stuck.
5. “D” was solid overall. Threes hurt, but that will happen. Johnson was hot.
Hopefully we see BU again!
February 19, 2013 at 1:40 pm #9494Just awoke from a lousy night’s sleep down here in NC (family visit) and ready to begin the 11 hour trek home. Will have much more to say about last night’s game tomorrow. In short, we’ve gone from having “destiny in our own hands” to fighting for our playoff lives and seeding in 80 minutes (will include the Colgate game). In those two losses, we went 4 for 33 from behind the line and hit just 15 of 27 from the Free Throw line. Of course, we were out-rebounded. But, what’s new with that? Enjoyed reading everyone’s comments above and wish to add one more quick thought that hasn’t been expressed. With the exception of MM and HG, we looked and played tired – extremely tired. Never seen so many “air-balls,” and shots that came up sbort of completely off-line. Maybe the Good Doctor will prescribe bed rest for 48 hours and resume prep for LC on Thursday.
February 19, 2013 at 1:47 pm #9495I disagree that crowd was great. For a game of this magnitude it should sold out or been close. Bucknell had a pretty full section behind their bench and number 5 above, with some in 6 and 7. They turned out and were loud, but I honestly thought more fans would travel. Student turnout was strong, stronger than I have ever seen in recent years. But, there were a ton of empty seats. Even in lower level court side seats, where I sat, across from Lehigh bench, there were a lot of empty seats, and as you went higher it got worse. Not sure of announced crowd, but honest fans in attendance I would put at 3000-3500. Obviously, that is much better than we usually do, but I expected more. 6th man idea turned out to be painful as it tool us about 10 minutes to score 6. I miss the old days of throwing the toilet paper after first basket.
I thought Gabe defended very hard on Muscala in the post. His offensive game was a struggle at times, but he is giving a lot of size up. I loved MM running the high pick and roll with AD early in second. Was effective, but we got away from it. This team without CJ struggles to score the basketball, period. You miss him as your go to safety option. It was a super tight game until Lehigh lost Johnson on back to back trips. You turn a tie game into down 6, then struggle out of timeout and Bison push to 10, then uphill rest of way. To me, player of game was Fitzpatrick. He was great with Muscala on bench in first half at both ends, have offense, defense, boards and blocked couple shots. Played big for them with star in foul trouble.
February 19, 2013 at 2:00 pm #9496According to Morning Call crowd was 3774. Also, as someone mentioned above, how many shots hit the front of the rim? Just couldn’t reach the basket.
February 19, 2013 at 2:21 pm #9497Frustrating following game on twitter on our way back from Boston. Watched this AM. That team was valiant. They gave it all and then some. FTs and 3s killed us. If we even do slightly better its an easy win. Am I right that 3s were just as bad previous game. CK was fun to watch. GK not so much. Dont understand but he is clearly not the same player as last yr. He did well on D but on O he seems lost. If not lost the ineffective.
February 19, 2013 at 2:32 pm #9499For some reason, and GK was biggest offender, we had a terrible time finishing at the rim. Nobody could make a layup early in game and it continued. We kept trying to finger roll it in from close, but should be using glass. GK missed a bunch when he made a strong post move. We were short all night from 3 and line. If you look at the box and see Muscala with off game, Willman with off game, and Ayers with off night, you would think we roll. Not sure why we are running so much offense through AD. He did show off some great leaping ability last night, literally jumped over bigger guys to finish at rim, but jumper too inconsistent. Again Bucknell, you need to exploit the one matchup you have Mackey on any of their PGs. You have to let him break down his man on every possession and go from there. We have such a huge advantage there, we need to make them pay.
February 19, 2013 at 9:44 pm #9507What a frustrating game for Gabe. He just could not buy a bucket in this game – even from the charity stripe. He appeared to injure a shoulder in the 2nd half and left the game for extended minutes until Goldie fouled out.
Fans in the staff seating area were treated to a marvelous hustle play by Goldie in the second half – he dove across the scorers table to rescue a ball. We were all splashed with sweat – Goldie-vision!
The 1st half we were running a lot of offense through Gabe and he was having trouble penetrating the dense frontline of Bucknell and having zero success from outside.
Some remarkable offense from Mackey pulled us into the lead at half. And then in the second half we went to an isolation with Holden and he was able to reel off something like 11 straight points. That left one wondering why he was not included in the 1st half offense.
It looked like Bucknell was really going to choke at the end, but they finally managed to “man up” and make some agressive moves to the rim to outmuscle us for the win. Ironically, the margin of victory came down to Muscala’s perfect free throw shooting.
All in all an exciting but frustrating game ..
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