LEWISBURG, Pa. – The Lafayette men's basketball team couldn't extend its season-long winning streak to six on Sunday afternoon, running into a hot-shooting Bucknell team on the road and falling by a 118-76 score.
The loss was the first for the Leopards since Feb. 2, ending a five-game winning streak, the longest for the Maroon and White since the 2012-13 campaign. The Leopards fall to 10-17 overall this season and 7-9 in Patriot League play, while Bucknell moves into a tie with Colgate for the top spot in the conference standings at 12-4 in league action and 18-10 overall.
Junior
Kyle Stout was the lone bright spot for Lafayette on the day, tying a career-high with 17 points on 5-of-6 from beyond the arc, the only Leopard at double-figure scoring. Freshman
Isaac Suffren added nine points and sophomore
Alex Petrie added seven.
Bucknell just didn't miss much on the day, draining a school-record 21 three's on 36 attempts, a 58.3 percent conversion rate. The Bison shot 64.3 percent from the field overall and put six players in double-figure scoring, led by 21 from freshman Andrew Funk.
Both sides came out firing with the first four field goals from beyond the arc as Bucknell took a six-point lead into the first timeout, up 14-8 after four minutes. Over the next four-minute stretch, though, the Bison stormed ahead, using a 14-0 run to force a timeout at the 11:40 mark with a 20-point edge, 28-8.
Bucknell continued its scorching stretch through the midway point, shooting 80 percent from the field and leading by 29, 40-11, with 8:17 to play in the half. Lafayette managed a 6-0 run late in the half on back-to-back three's from sophomore
Justin Jaworski and
E.J. Stephens, but the Leopards went into the break down big as Avi Toomer's three at the buzzer made it 63-27.
The comeback wasn't meant to be in the second as Bucknell came out and picked up right where it left off. The Bison used a 21-10 run over the first five minutes to extend their advantage to 84-37 and led 97-45 at the midway point of the second. The two sides played out the final 10 minutes in a contest long decided as the final buzzer sounded on a 118-76 defeat.
Next up for the Maroon and White is a return home for the final two contests of regular season play. Lafayette will host Boston U. on Wednesday at 7 p.m., before the regular-season finale and Senior Day on Saturday versus Colgate at noon.
