Bucknell Official Athletic Site

E-mail

John Griffin scored a team-high 15 points in the Bison victory.

Bucknell Finishes Strong, Tops Long Beach State 61-57 at Golden Bear Classic

Griffin Scores 15 Points in Balanced Effort

Dec. 29, 2007

Box Score

BERKELEY, Calif. - John Griffin scored 15 points and Justin Castleberry capped a 12-point night by hitting two game-clinching free throws with 9.3 seconds left, leading Bucknell to a 61-57 victory over Long Beach State Saturday evening in the third-place game of the Golden Bear Classic at Haas Pavilion. G.W. Boon added 12 points in his first career start and Josh Linthicum had another big night with nine points, including three monumental buckets in the closing minutes, and a career-high 12 rebounds.

The Bison snapped a two-game losing streak and improved to 5-7 on the season. Bucknell continued to struggle shooting the ball in certain stretches, but the Bison used much-improved ball movement to knock down 11 timely 3-pointers in 33 attempts.

Donovan Morris scored a game-high 27 points for the 49ers (3-8) and almost single-handedly brought them back from a double-digit deficit by hitting 7 of 9 3-pointers.

Bucknell led by as many as 13 early in the first half, and even though Long Beach State rallied to tie on three occasions in the second half, the Bison never allowed the 49ers to take the lead. With the game knotted at 45-all just inside five minutes to play, Boon sandwiched two 3-pointers around two Greg Plater free throws to give Bucknell a 51-47 lead.

Moments later Castleberry grabbed a defensive rebound and threw a long pass to Stephen Tyree for a fastbreak layup.

Leading 53-47, Linthicum took over for the Bison. The junior center, who had 18 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks a night earlier against North Dakota State, finished a pretty reverse layup with 2:32 left to give the Bison an eight-point lead.

Morris hit a 3-pointer that touched the rim three times before dropping, then made two free throws to make it a 55-52 game. With 1:13 to play, Boon missed a 3-pointer but Linthicum had an acrobatic tip-in to make it 57-52. Morris hit another trey from deep in the right corner, but again Linthicum answered with a follow jam with 29 seconds left to make it 59-55.

Cornel Williams drove for a layup with 14 seconds left to make it 59-57, but Castleberry hit the two crucial free throws on a 1-and-1 after being fouled on the inbounds. Plater missed a wild layup try at the other end, and Linthicum punctuated the victory with his 12th rebound of the night.

Bucknell led by 12 after Boon opened the second half with 3-pointer, but the Bison went scoreless for the next 5:51, while Long Beach State scored eight straight points to get back in it.

It was a 34-31 Bison lead when both teams began heating up from long range. Griffin hit three straight treys for the Bison, but Plater made two in a row and Morris made one for Long Beach State. Plater's second straight 3-pointer tied the game at 37, and Morris tied it at 40 before Griffin canned his fourth trey to give the Bison the lead back at 43-40 with 9:34 to play. Bucknell didn't exactly break out of its recent shooting slump in the first half, but still managed an early double-digit lead thanks to some timely 3-point shooting and excellent defense. After missing their first 17 3-pointers and finishing 3-for-21 from the arc a night earlier against North Dakota State, Castleberry swished the Bison's first trey attempt of the night. Bucknell hit four 3-pointers in the first nine minutes, including a rare 4-point play by Griffin. Boon's trey at the 11:05 mark capped a 12-0 run and gave the Bison a 15-4 lead.

Tyree's layup on a nice backdoor bounce pass from Linthicum gave the Bison their largest lead of the half, 13 points at 21-8 with 6:36 to play.

Long Beach State managed only three field goals in the first 13:38 of the game, but Morris hit two 3-pointers while Bucknell went through a 5:26 scoreless drought, and the 49ers closed within 21-15.

Castleberry had a driving layup and a 15-foot jumper to cap a 10-point first half, and the Bison took a 25-16 lead into the locker room despite shooting only 25.8 percent (8-31) from the field. Long Beach State was even frostier, going only 5 of 24 (.208) from the floor and 2 of 9 (.222) from 3-point range.

For the game, Bucknell shot 35.0 percent overall and 33.3 percent from the arc, while the 49ers warmed to 36.5 percent overall, 42.9 percent (9-21) from long distance.

Bucknell outrebounded Long Beach State 42-32, and had a solid 16-to-11 assist-to-turnover ratio.

The Bison are back in action on Jan. 2 at home against Ohio University. Tip-off is 7 p.m. at Sojka Pavilion.