Box Score

EASTON, Pa. - Freshmen Kyle Stout and Lukas Jarrett each finished a point shy of a double-double on Wednesday evening in a 78-55 loss to Patriot League-leading Bucknell at Kirby Sports Center.

The rookies shined for head coach Fran O'Hanlon's group, as Jarrett posted a season-high nine points to go along with a season-high 10 rebounds, five coming on the offensive end. Stout also added nine points and doubled his season-high in rebounds with 12.

A game that was within striking distance at 42-30 early in the second half got out of hand fast as a Bucknell 22-2 run over a stretch of more than six minutes opened up a 30-point lead that put the game away. Lafayette drops to 6-14 overall with the loss and 2-7 in conference action, while Bucknell improves to 8-1 in Patriot League play and 16-6 overall.

"They got off to such a great start and it's a hard team to play catch-up against," O'Hanlon said. "This is a team that's won all of their league games on the road this year and we knew it would be tough."

Bucknell got double-digit scoring from four different players and had 10 guys play more than 10 minutes in the contest. Zach Thomas and Kimbal Mackenzie led the way with 14 points each, while Stephen Brown and John Azzinaro added 11. Thomas also chipped in with 10 boards for a double-double.

For the Leopards, another freshman in Hunter Janacek was the leading scorer, tallying 11 points on 3-of-9 from beyond the arc, while junior Matt Klinewski added 10 points and six rebounds. The Leopards went 22-of-64 from the floor (34.4%) and 5-of-22 from three-point range (22.7%).

"It's up to us right now to get better. It's on nobody else to get us out of this," senior captain Nick Lindner stated. "We'll do that by hard work, grow up a little bit and look to be more poised down the stretch. Even in games like this, you can take something out of it."

Both teams were effective offensively in the early going as a Paulius Zalys three on an assist from Lindner helped the Leopards respond from a 5-2 deficit to take a 6-5 lead after four minutes. However, Bucknell edged out to an eight-point lead into the midway point of the half, knocking down five of their first nine three's to go up 19-11.

The Bucknell lead grew to as many as 15 at 28-13 with 9:04 left, but Lindner found Janacek in the left corner to stop the 9-2 run and cut the edge to 12, 28-16, into the under-eight timeout. However, the Bison added another spurt of 7-3 out of the break to force an O'Hanlon timeout at the 4:26 mark with the Leopards down 35-19.

Lafayette used a post bucket at the 2:43 mark from Jarrett to make it a 37-21 game, but a three back from Mackenzie answered with less than a minute to play. On the final possession, Lindner threw up a three and Stout was there for the put-back at the buzzer to send the game into intermission at 40-23 in favor of the visitors.

The Leopards opened the second half strong, using a 7-2 run to cut into the lead at 42-30 with 17:36 remaining. However, Bucknell answered with six straight of their own to move the edge back to 18 at 48-30 with 15:53 to play.

Heading into the midway point of the second half is where Bucknell opened up the game, scoring 20 of the game's 22 points from the 17:36 mark to the 11:12 mark to push the advantage to 62-32. That lead remained through the seven-minute mark as a Cherry layup made it 68-42 Bison with 6:47 left.

The final stretch of the game was played with little in doubt but the final score as Bucknell cruised through the final six minutes to finish with a 78-55 final.

Lafayette remains home through the weekend, turning over the league schedule and playing host to Loyola on Saturday at 2 p.m.