Lindsay Horbatuck ’13 has been a cornerstone for the women’s basketball team this season as well as a huge reason for the team’s success. Horbatuck is in the middle of her fourth and final season with the Bison, bringing with her experience and mental toughness that has contributed positively to the team’s 7-4 record since the start of Winter Break, as well as an overall 12-7 record that is second best in the Patriot League.
Horbatuck’s 62 offensive rebounds lead the team by a long way, as do her 131 defensive rebounds. Overall, her total rebounds lead the Patriot League. Horbatuck is also very capable of snatching the ball away from opposing teams, as indicated by her 18 steals in 19 games. Horbatuck also averages 7.9 points per game.
Following back-to-back losses in early December, Horbatuck put up 12 points to help the Bison win against Towson, and scored 11 points to aid the Bison in their 69-62 overtime win against St. Peter’s. She also scored 10 points against Colgate, a game in which every point was needed in an eventual 53-51 buzzer-beater victory.
Horbatuck saved her most clutch performance of the season for last weekend’s game against Lafayette. After losing a 15-point lead, the Bison were suddenly in a 48-46 nail biter with 57 seconds to go. After an intense final minute, Horbatuck was fouled with 0:02 remaining in regulation. Horbatuck, with a 0.614 success rate from the foul line this season, sunk her two subsequent free throws to give the Bison a 50-46 lead. Those two points proved crucial as Lafayette sunk a three-pointer at the buzzer to give the Bison a narrow 50-49 victory.
“Basketball is a team sport and I think that all of my teammates work hard every day in practice which translates to the games and helps us come up with the victory,” Horbatuck said. “I think that the team has been putting in a lot of effort and we are figuring out what our identity is and what we need to do as a team to win games.”
Horbatuck and the rest the Bison will aim to continue their hard work in their upcoming home games against Holy Cross tomorrow at 2 p.m. and American on Jan. 3o.
Edward Louie | The Bucknellian Eric Balaban ’14 and Andrew Kuchta ’16 dash off in the 5,000 meter. Both runners contributed to the Bison victory.
Thomas Walter
Staff Writer
Over the past weekend, the men’s track and field team finished first in the team standings at the Gulden Invitational for the second year in a row. The team captured first place in the 400 meters, shot put, 60-meter hurdles, 3,000 meters, 800 meters, weight throw and high jump.
Perhaps most impressive is the record-setting way the Bison won these events. Kevin Tapper ’15 and Luke Webster ’13 both entered the Bison record books in their events.
Tapper ran the 400 meters in 49.31 seconds andWebster won the shot put with a throw of 53′ 4.25″, a career best. He now holds third place in program history.
“After a weekend off and some hard training, it was nice to get back to competing,” Webster said. “I don’t mean to be cliché, but it feels good.”
Webster also believes the competition the Orange and the Blue will be facing in the next couple weeks will be difficult, but will ultimately help them succeed.
“In the next few weeks the team will see a lot of good competition and some fast tracks,” Webster said. “The combination should help us move forward from the victory this past weekend and get some great marks to set us up for the championship portion of the season which is only a month away.”
Other individual winners included D.J. Krystek ’13, John Westwood ’16, Leonard Joseph ’13, Jason Brown ’13 and Christian Lupica ’15. They led the Orange and the Blue to a total of 224 points, finishing 64 points ahead of second place Shippensburg.
The Orange and the Blue will compete again on Jan. 25-26 in the Bison Open & Multi and the Penn State National Invitational.
Edward Louie | The Bucknellian Allison Billas ’16 and Deanna Godby ’16 race in the 3000 meter run. Their points bolstered the woman’s track and field to a second place finish.
Lauren Boone
Writer
Caroline Tolli ’13 captured two victories to help the Orange and Blue claim second place at the Gulden Invitational on Jan. 19, which was the first scored competition of the season at the Gerhard Fieldhouse.
Tolli stole first place in both the mile and 1,000 meter events, with times of 5:00.25 and 2:58.12, respectively.
Olivia Massey ’13 cleared 18′ 6.5” in the long jump, taking the sixth spot in Bison athletic history. Massey was not ranked prior to the event.
“I was very pleased. I am fighting off a hamstring injury and this is my first meet of my senior year so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect at the Gulden Invitational. Luckily, many things came together for me and I was able to put forth a pretty good long jump series,” Massey said.
In addition to Tolli’s wins, the Bison collected a number of second and third place finishes. Abby Monaghan ’13 took third in the weight throw event with 52-06.00. Also claiming third was Emily Ando ’14 in the pole vault event, matching her career-best of 11′ 9.75”. Jennifer Zymet ’14 finished within the top two spots in all of her races. In the 800 meter event, Hana Casalnova ’14 finished second, with teammate Beth Braunegg ’14 following close behind in third. Montana DiPietrantonio ’15 was the runner-up in the 5,000 meter event with 17:55.13. In the 4×400 and 4×800 relay, the Bison had two second place finishes.
Collectively, the Orange and Blue earned a total of 139.5 points. For the second year in a row, the Bison took second place behind Duquesne, which claimed first with 177 points. Third place Lafayette trailed far behind the Bison, with a total of 58 points.
“We were really happy about this weekend’s performance. After pre-semester training, the team was ready to see how our hard work would pay off in competition. Competing against Duquesne and other strong schools like Ship helped bring out great performances within the team and develop our competitiveness and team unity. We are looking forward to some more strong competition the next few weeks as the season really gets rolling,” Tolli said.
The Bison will be back on the track on Jan. 25-26 at the Bison Open & Multi and the Penn State National Invitational.
Conor Pierson | The Bucknellian Mike Muscala ’13 shoots over two Lehigh defenders. His 16 points, eight rebounds, and six blocked shots were not enough to vanquish the Mountain Hawks.
Eric Brod
Senior Writer
On Wednesday, the Bison fell short against Lehigh after staging a furious first-half rally that ended in a 65-62 defeat, and took down Lafayette on Saturday in a highly impressive 66-51 victory. The Bison’s record now stands at 16-4 overall, with a 3-1 record in Patriot League play.
Lehigh, last year’s Patriot League tournament champion, came into the game tied with the Bison at the top of the Patriot League standings with spotless 3-0 league records. In one of the wildest games between the two teams in this budding rivalry, the Mountain Hawks were able to hold off the Bison, despite an intense first-half rally by the home team.
The Mountain Hawks built up a 27-12 lead, before the Orange and Blue mounted a great stretch of play to close the gap to 29-28 at the half. The 16-2 run was initiated by Bryson Johnson ’13, who completed a four-point play with 5:41 remaining in the half when the offense had struggled to find any rhythm throughout the first half. Center Mike Muscala ’13 explains the challenges Lehigh poses to other teams defenses.
“Lehigh is still a very good team and we [had] our hands full,” Muscala said. “They shoot the ball well and are great defenders, so that’s a combination that is difficult to play against no matter who the competition is.”
The Bison continued their strong play in the beginning of the second half, and they eventually built up a seven-point 44-37 lead thanks to a three-pointer from guard Cameron Ayers ’14 and an impressive driving layup by point guard Ryan Hill ’14. Lehigh answered with their own 10-0 run to retake the lead at 47-44.
Muscala, who turned in another impressive performance with 16 points, eight rebounds and an astounding six blocked shots, had to leave the game with 11:16 due to an injury which forced forward Dom Hoffman ’16 into the game at a crucial junction. Hoffman turned in his best performance of his rookie season by scoring 10 points. Muscala returned to give the Bison a push, but they were unable to overcome the three-point shooting of the Mountain Hawks, who shot 10-18 from beyond the arc and came into the game second in the nation in three-point shooting with a 42.8 percent. In contrast, the Orange and Blue shot only 2-14 from beyond the arc.
Against Lafayette, the Orange and Blue were once again led by Muscala who posted his nation-leading 13th double-double with a 27-point, 15-rebound effort. Willman, who was honored before the game after recording his 1,000th career point in the team’s 73-59 win over Colgate earlier in the week, recorded 10 points and six rebounds in the game.
“I thought our guards did a really good job of penetrating in the lane and finding the open big guy or scoring the ball,” Muscala said. “So I just tried to focus on being ready to catch their passes and finish at the rim.”
While the Bison struggled to find an offensive rhythm early, their defense was able to hold the usually effective Lafayette offense in check. The Leopards were held to 1-13 shooting from beyond the arc by the swarming rotation defense of the Orange and Blue.
“Lafayette started the game with tough defense, anticipating what we were trying to run. We were still getting good shots on offense but they were not falling,” Willman said. “We knew if we stayed the course offensively and sustained our defensive effort we would be fine.”
Head coach Dave Paulsen explains how perimeter defense was the focus in slowing down the Lafayette attack.
“Our guys did a great job contesting Lafayette’s three point shooters. They had come into the game averaging eight three’s per game so to hold them to 1-13 from three was a great effort,” Paulsen said. “We also did a good job of getting on the offensive glass and limiting turnovers on a night when we were not especially sharp offensively.”
The Bison held Lafayette to one field goal in a 12-plus minute stretch where the Orange and Blue opened up a 26-16 lead. The turning point in the game when Ryan Frazier ’16 hustled down a loose ball on a missed alley-oop attempt and was able to feed a pass to Muscala for the slam dunk.
While Lafayette was able to close the gap to 27-20 before the half, the Bison opened up the second half on a 13-5 to open up a 40-25 advantage, and the Leopards never pulled within 11 points the rest of the contest.
While the Bison shot only 36.7 percent from the field in the first half, they were able to make up for some missed opportunities with an astounding 15 offensive rebounds, led by Muscala, Brian Fitzpatrick ’13 and Willman. The team also took great care of the ball, commiting only six turnovers throughout the contest.
The Bison will continue Patriot League play with a visit to Holy Cross at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
The Bucknellian Archives Sheaira Jones ’16 surveys the court. The Bison won handily against Lehigh.
Ajan Caneda
Senior Writer
On Jan. 23, the Bison won their third consecutive game in convincing fashion, defeating Lehigh 53-37 in Bethlehem to improve to 12-7 overall and 3-1 in conference play. Shelby Romine ’14 finished with 18 points and six rebounds, while Alyssa Dunn ’13 scored 13 points. The Orange and Blue held Lehigh to a .207 shooting percentage, the lowest by an opponent this season. They have now defeated Lehigh in two of their last three meetings.
After forward Audrey Dotson ’15 made a game-winning jumper against Colgate on Jan. 16, the Bison got another clutch performance from Lindsay Horbatuck ’13 who made two free throws with two seconds to go, lifting the Orange and Blue to a 50-49 win at Lafayette on Jan. 19.
“I thought our team handled their run with poise, especially in the last minute. They were knocking down shots, but we stayed composed and were able to finish it,” Romine said. “The past two games have been great learning experiences on how to handle pressure situations.”
The Orange and Blue ended the first half with a 26-19 lead as they locked the Leopards down defensively, holding them to 20.0 percent from the field (7-35). It was 17-17 at the 4:08 mark before the Bison scored nine unanswered points. Alyssa Dunn ’13, Katherine Harris ’15 and Horbatuck all contributed to the run before the Leopards answered with two free throws to end the half.
A Romine three-pointer gave the Bison their first double-digit lead of the game with 15:29 to go. Back-to-back jumpers from Harris and Romine bolstered the lead to 40-25, the largest of the game. Unfortunately, Lafayette held the Orange and Blue without a field goal for over seven minutes and trimmed the deficit to four with 5:37 to go. Dotson and Romine made consecutive baskets to stifle the Leopard run, but the lead was eventually cut to two with under a minute left.
After Romine missed the back end of a one-and-one, Lafayette had a chance to tie or win the game, but Horbatuck came away with a steal and forced the Leopards to foul. She hit both free throws to make it a two-possession game and seal the victory.
“When thinking back about the game, I think that the team kept very composed throughout the last few minutes of the game,” Horbatuck said. “Part of our identity this season is our defense and we knew that in the last few minutes of the game, we were going to win the game by playing our defense and shutting them down.”
Horbatuck finished the game with 11 points and seven rebounds. Romine had 14 points and seven rebounds, while Dotson ended the night with a double-double of 10 points and 12 rebounds.
“Personally, what helped me keep my composure during the Lafayette game was to remind myself that there was a reason we were up the whole game and that we deserved to win,” Dotson said. “This year our team has really tried to shift our mentality so that we go out and win instead of going out and ‘not lose.’”
The Bison’s next contest will be against Holy Cross tomorrow at 2 p.m. in Sojka Pavilion.
Estie Pyper | The Bucknellian Paul Petrov ’16 slams his opponent into the mat last Saturday. The Bison split the weekend, beating Columbia but falling to Army.
Billy Tyler
Assistant Sports Editor
The men’s wrestling team hosted home matches over the weekend against Columbia and Army, producing a split result for the team, which defeated Columbia 24-14 before falling 28-9 to Army.
The long weekend began perfectly for the Bison, who won the first four bouts in their match against Columbia: Austin Miller ’15 with a 9-2 decision in the 125 lb. class, Paul Petrov ’16 with a pin in the 133 lb. class, Derrik Russell ’13 with a 2-1 decision in the 141 lb. class and Adam Healey ’13 with a 6-1 decision in the 149 lb. class. The four wins gave the Bison a quick and commanding 15-0 lead. Columbia countered with a four-match win streak of its own to shrink the margin to 15-14 with two matches remaining.
In the first of these matches, Tyler Lyster ’15 trailed Nicholas Mills 2-1 heading into the third period of the 197 lb. bout. Lyster was able to quickly even the score, then take down Mills in the final seconds of the match to win 5-2.
The victory was still not secured for the Bison as Joe Stolfi ’15 began his bout, the last of the meet, in the 285 lb. match. Stolfi built up a 10-0 lead before pinning Chris Manna in a time of 6:35, winning the match and clinching the victory in the match for the Orange and the Blue.
Unfortunately, the team did not find the same success against Army that they had against Columbia. The day began and ended with victories for the Bison, but these proved to be the only victories the team would have in the meet.
As he had done the day before, Miller opened the meet with a victory, a pin in 6:23 against Nathan Santhanam, giving the Bison an early lead. This margin was quickly lost as the Black Knights won the next eight bouts to build an insurmountable lead.
Stolfi ended the losing streak with a victory. His 3-0 decision extended his personal winning streak to five matches.
The next match for the Bison will be at home against Franklin & Marshall tonight at 7.
