What a difference a half makes
If you'd never seen Chris McNaughton play prior to last night, at halftime of Bucknell’s 60-45 win over Robert Morris, you’d have been scratching your head in bewilderment.
How in the world could that kid be an all-league pick, you’d have wondered. Hell, he couldn't even make a layup.
If you'd only watched the second half of that same game, though, you'd have an entirely different take. All-league? Only all-league? Not All-America, or at least All-Mid-Major?
McNaughton was beyond bad in the first half, going just 1-for-5 from the field, even though none of his shots came from outside of five feet from the hoop. It was hard to believe this was the guy who sits atop Bucknell's all-time field goal percentage list.
"Shooting layups should be easy. I guess there are some days they don't go in," said the 6-11 sophomore after the game. "Abe Badmus had five assists (box score). He could have had 10."
McNaughton was not the only one to struggle in the first half. Badmus and reserve forward Donald Brown were also 1-for-5 and Kevin Bettencourt, the Bison's leading scorer, was wearing an 0-for-3 donut at the intermission. Collectively Bucknell shot 8-for-29 (27.6 percent) in the first 20 minutes.
The Bison still managed to hold the lead at the break, 20-19, thanks to a combination of man and matchup 2-3 zone that Robert Morris (2-5) never seemed to figure out. Only the long range bombing of Maurice Carter, who hit three treys in the first half, kept the Colonials in the game. Carter had 11 points in the first half. Forward Chaz McCrommon, who was 3-for-9 from the floor in the first half, was the only other player with a field goal in the opening 20 minutes for RMU, which shot 7-for-24 (29.2 percent) before the intermission.
Robert Morris never did get its offense on track; Bucknell did. Thanks, in no small part, to McNaughton. The German import missed his first try of the second half, a layup with about 17 minutes left to play. But he grabbed his own rebound and put it back. He missed only one more shot the rest of the way. Two minutes later, McNaughton came down the middle of the lane, the trailer on a 3-on-1 break, took a feed from Charles Lee and slammed it home, tying the score at 28-28.
Mark Anderson scored at the other end to put Robert Morris back on top briefly. But less than a minute later John Griffin hit a 3-pointer for Bucknell and the Bison were off an running. Back-toback threes by Bettencourt stretched the Bison lead to 37-30. Then McNaughton took over, scoring Bucknell's next 11 points as they built a comfortable 17 point lead and coasted home.
"Every time he caught the ball down low, something good was happening," said Bucknell coach Pat Flannery.
"My teammates trusted me and kept throwing me the ball," added McNaughton, who finished with 19 points to lead all scorers.
It helped that Anderson, who was matched up with McNaughton on defense, got into foul trouble. The senior from Topeka, Kan., who gave up five inches in the matchup, picked up his fourth personal with 12:32 to play, leaving him all but helpless against McNaughton. Especially when Griffin and Bettencourt's quick barrage of 3-pointers forced the Colonials to extend their perimeter defense, taking away their ability to double down on McNaughton.
"When they hit the threes, we had to come out a little more and it opened things up," RMU coach Mark Schmidt said.
Pairing McNaughton with 6-8 freshman Darren Mastropaolo, who entered the game about the same time Bucknell began the decisive run, also helped. Mastropaolo, who looked comfortable both posting up and facing the basket, helped exacerbate the matchup problems for Colonials, who had one player over 6-6. Mastropaolo, who sat the entire first half, had four rebounds and dished three assists in his eight-minute second half stint.
"Darren restored some order and gave Chris McNaughton some room to roam a little bit," Flannery said.
The win sends Bucknell into its finals break with a 5-4 record and a two-game win streak.
Flannery said the break comes at a good time for his tired ballclub, which has played nine games already. No Division I team in the nation has played more.
The break will give McNaughton, whose nagging ankle injury has been a well-kept secret, a chance to heal fully. McNaughton sprained the ankle in the preseason and practiced only once prior to the season-opener against Princeton, Flannery said.
Badmus missed two games early because of a hip flexor problem that also can use a break and 6-7 sophomore John Clark has been playing on a bad foot.
"Physically (Clark) is a wreck," said Flannery.
Bucknell won't return to action until Dec. 18, when they travel to Ithaca to face Cornell.
BISON CHIPS: Robert Morris' only player taller than 6-6 is 6-8 freshman Beau Gibb . . . No word on whether the Oxford, Miss. Native is related to the Brothers Gibb . . . Gibb, a skinny, baby-faced kid whose long white soccer socks met his shorts somewhere just below his knees, contributed nothing to the RMU effort in 11 minutes of action, unless you count his two personals and one turnover . . . Gibb did inspire some of the most creative heckling heard from Bucknell fans in a long time, though … among the barbs: Hey No. 12, what merit badge are you working on … Hey No. 12, I’ll take you to an R-rated movie … and Hey No. 12, who is your date for the prom …Bucknell is now 2-0 in games in which junior bench jockey Holland Mack has at least one rebound … Mack’s rebound of a missed free throw by Anderson with 20 seconds to go was his second carom of the season . . . Bucknell is now 6-1 all-time in games in which Mack has grabbed a board ... Bettencourt joined McNaughton in double figures with 10 . . . Charles Lee had a team-high 8 rebounds . . . Bucknell owned the glass, piling up a 44-30 rebounding edge . . . McCrommon lef the Colonials with 15 points . . . Anderson had a double-double with 10 points and 10 boards . . . Carter finished with 13 points, just two in the second half.
Other views:
Tom Housenick of the Daily Item saw things similarly. And credit Tom with a celebrity sighting.
Chris Brady of the Lewisburg Daily Journal and Jake Felix of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette were also on hand. The Journal doesn't update its Web site until later in the day, but Brady is a good guy, so check for his story here. Jake is, by all accounts, a decent chap as well. But until the Sun-Gazette pays me for the PL Tournament stories I did for them last March, we won't even think about giving them a link.
How in the world could that kid be an all-league pick, you’d have wondered. Hell, he couldn't even make a layup.
If you'd only watched the second half of that same game, though, you'd have an entirely different take. All-league? Only all-league? Not All-America, or at least All-Mid-Major?
McNaughton was beyond bad in the first half, going just 1-for-5 from the field, even though none of his shots came from outside of five feet from the hoop. It was hard to believe this was the guy who sits atop Bucknell's all-time field goal percentage list.
"Shooting layups should be easy. I guess there are some days they don't go in," said the 6-11 sophomore after the game. "Abe Badmus had five assists (box score). He could have had 10."
McNaughton was not the only one to struggle in the first half. Badmus and reserve forward Donald Brown were also 1-for-5 and Kevin Bettencourt, the Bison's leading scorer, was wearing an 0-for-3 donut at the intermission. Collectively Bucknell shot 8-for-29 (27.6 percent) in the first 20 minutes.
The Bison still managed to hold the lead at the break, 20-19, thanks to a combination of man and matchup 2-3 zone that Robert Morris (2-5) never seemed to figure out. Only the long range bombing of Maurice Carter, who hit three treys in the first half, kept the Colonials in the game. Carter had 11 points in the first half. Forward Chaz McCrommon, who was 3-for-9 from the floor in the first half, was the only other player with a field goal in the opening 20 minutes for RMU, which shot 7-for-24 (29.2 percent) before the intermission.
Robert Morris never did get its offense on track; Bucknell did. Thanks, in no small part, to McNaughton. The German import missed his first try of the second half, a layup with about 17 minutes left to play. But he grabbed his own rebound and put it back. He missed only one more shot the rest of the way. Two minutes later, McNaughton came down the middle of the lane, the trailer on a 3-on-1 break, took a feed from Charles Lee and slammed it home, tying the score at 28-28.
Mark Anderson scored at the other end to put Robert Morris back on top briefly. But less than a minute later John Griffin hit a 3-pointer for Bucknell and the Bison were off an running. Back-toback threes by Bettencourt stretched the Bison lead to 37-30. Then McNaughton took over, scoring Bucknell's next 11 points as they built a comfortable 17 point lead and coasted home.
"Every time he caught the ball down low, something good was happening," said Bucknell coach Pat Flannery.
"My teammates trusted me and kept throwing me the ball," added McNaughton, who finished with 19 points to lead all scorers.
It helped that Anderson, who was matched up with McNaughton on defense, got into foul trouble. The senior from Topeka, Kan., who gave up five inches in the matchup, picked up his fourth personal with 12:32 to play, leaving him all but helpless against McNaughton. Especially when Griffin and Bettencourt's quick barrage of 3-pointers forced the Colonials to extend their perimeter defense, taking away their ability to double down on McNaughton.
"When they hit the threes, we had to come out a little more and it opened things up," RMU coach Mark Schmidt said.
Pairing McNaughton with 6-8 freshman Darren Mastropaolo, who entered the game about the same time Bucknell began the decisive run, also helped. Mastropaolo, who looked comfortable both posting up and facing the basket, helped exacerbate the matchup problems for Colonials, who had one player over 6-6. Mastropaolo, who sat the entire first half, had four rebounds and dished three assists in his eight-minute second half stint.
"Darren restored some order and gave Chris McNaughton some room to roam a little bit," Flannery said.
The win sends Bucknell into its finals break with a 5-4 record and a two-game win streak.
Flannery said the break comes at a good time for his tired ballclub, which has played nine games already. No Division I team in the nation has played more.
The break will give McNaughton, whose nagging ankle injury has been a well-kept secret, a chance to heal fully. McNaughton sprained the ankle in the preseason and practiced only once prior to the season-opener against Princeton, Flannery said.
Badmus missed two games early because of a hip flexor problem that also can use a break and 6-7 sophomore John Clark has been playing on a bad foot.
"Physically (Clark) is a wreck," said Flannery.
Bucknell won't return to action until Dec. 18, when they travel to Ithaca to face Cornell.
BISON CHIPS: Robert Morris' only player taller than 6-6 is 6-8 freshman Beau Gibb . . . No word on whether the Oxford, Miss. Native is related to the Brothers Gibb . . . Gibb, a skinny, baby-faced kid whose long white soccer socks met his shorts somewhere just below his knees, contributed nothing to the RMU effort in 11 minutes of action, unless you count his two personals and one turnover . . . Gibb did inspire some of the most creative heckling heard from Bucknell fans in a long time, though … among the barbs: Hey No. 12, what merit badge are you working on … Hey No. 12, I’ll take you to an R-rated movie … and Hey No. 12, who is your date for the prom …Bucknell is now 2-0 in games in which junior bench jockey Holland Mack has at least one rebound … Mack’s rebound of a missed free throw by Anderson with 20 seconds to go was his second carom of the season . . . Bucknell is now 6-1 all-time in games in which Mack has grabbed a board ... Bettencourt joined McNaughton in double figures with 10 . . . Charles Lee had a team-high 8 rebounds . . . Bucknell owned the glass, piling up a 44-30 rebounding edge . . . McCrommon lef the Colonials with 15 points . . . Anderson had a double-double with 10 points and 10 boards . . . Carter finished with 13 points, just two in the second half.
Other views:
Tom Housenick of the Daily Item saw things similarly. And credit Tom with a celebrity sighting.
Skip Prosser, coach at Wake Forest and father of Bucknell assistant Mark Prosser, was in attendance. The older Prosser also had Schmidt on his staff while at Xavier.We've mentioned before the good job Tom does with college hoops. Last night he did double duty, covering the Bucknell women's win over Buffalo in the first game of a doubleheader in Sojka Pavilion. Lucky for Tom, the Patriot won't play doubleheaders this season, so he won't have to that too often (unlucky for me since it will mean only geting paid for one game when I freelance Holy Cross games for The Telegram). He also is one of the few individuals who actually returns a pen when he borrows one.
Chris Brady of the Lewisburg Daily Journal and Jake Felix of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette were also on hand. The Journal doesn't update its Web site until later in the day, but Brady is a good guy, so check for his story here. Jake is, by all accounts, a decent chap as well. But until the Sun-Gazette pays me for the PL Tournament stories I did for them last March, we won't even think about giving them a link.
