Jan. 23, 2008

Box Score

EASTON, Pa. - Andrew Brown hit seven of Lafayette's 14 3-pointers and scored 28 points, leading the Leopards to an 80-68 victory over Bucknell in a battle of 3-0 teams Wednesday night at Kirby Sports Center. John Griffin scored 13 points and Stephen Tyree tossed in a career-high 12 for the Bison, who saw their 14-game winning streak in Patriot League regular-season games come to an end.

The loss also snapped Bucknell's eight-game winning streak against Lafayette, and it was the team's first loss to a league team other than Holy Cross since a 66-62 setback at Navy on Jan. 30, 2005.

The red-hot Leopards won their fifth game in a row, and the league's highest scoring team put on a long-range shooting display. Lafayette came in ranked fourth in the nation in 3-pointers per game (10.4), and it canned 14 in 33 attempts in this one, including five of their first seven. Lafayette shot 48.1 percent overall and became the first Patriot League team to score 80 points on the Bison since Jan. 25, 2004, when the Leopards won 81-72 at the Kirby Center.

Lafayette also did well defending the 3-point shot, holding Bucknell to five treys on a season-low 12 attempts. The Bison (8-10, 3-1) had good success inside, scoring 36 points in the paint while shooting 56.5 percent overall. Darren Mastropaolo and Justin Castleberry scored 10 points each for the Bison, giving them four double-figure scorers.

Bilal Abdullah scored 14 points, Matt Betley 13 and Michael Gruner 10 for the Leopards (13-6, 4-0).

Lafayette parlayed nine first-half 3-pointers into a 43-27 halftime lead. The Bison turned the ball over 11 times in the first 12 minutes of the game, and the Leopards took advantage. Brown and Jeff Kari both scored on run-outs after miscues in the Bison backcourt as part of a 13-0 Leopards run that gave them a 27-8 lead at the 8:29 mark of the first half.

Brown scored eight straight points in that run, three of them coming on a deep left-corner three as the shot clock expired.

Six points from Todd O'Brien off the bench sparked the Bison later in the first half, and his layup followed by a G.W. Boon jumper brought Bucknell within 14 at 34-20. But Gruner answered with a 3-pointer, and with 2:35 left Lafayette tapped out two offensive rebounds, and Brown capitalized on a third chance by knocking down a trey from the top of the arc to make it 40-22.

Betley's third 3-pointer of the half on an inbounds play pushed the Leopards lead to 19 at 43-24, before the Bison got it back to 16 with a free throw from Castleberry and two from Griffin in the final minute.

Lafayette hit four more 3-pointers in the first five minutes of the second half and stretched its lead to as many as 25 when Everest Schmidt's free throws made it 67-42 with 10:50 to play.

Bucknell's best stretch of the night cut the gap to 13. Tyree scored five straight points then made a pretty dish to Rob Thomas for a layup, bringing the Bison within 67-54 with 6:25 left. But the Bison were whistled for charging fouls on their next two possessions, and the Leopards went on an 8-2 run, capped by Brown's seventh 3-pointer of the night, to restore a 19-point lead.

Both teams finished with 26 field goals on the night, but Lafayette outscored the Bison 42-15 from the 3-point arc and 14-11 from the free-throw line. The Leopards also turned 19 turnovers into 26 points, as the Bison finished with a 6-to-19 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Bucknell returns home on Saturday night against Colgate at 7 p.m. at Sojka Pavilion. The Raiders are 9-9 overall, 1-3 in the Patriot League after Wednesday's 63-60 loss to Lehigh.