The Bison defeated Holy Cross with a comfortable 77-52 win, improving to a 13-10 overall record and 10-2 in the Patriot League. The men’s basketball team was able to rebound from a rare offensively stagnant game against American with the victory against Holy Cross on Feb. 6. After the win, Nana Foulland ’18 was honored with the Martin O’Malley Award for being the MVP. 

It was the Bison reserves that helped the Orange and Blue offense to impose its will, as fans have become so accustomed to seeing this season. All totaled, the Bison bench had 35 points and 17 rebounds in the road to victory. It was starting center Foulland with the most impressive game, putting on a dominant performance in the paint. Foulland finished with a career-high 22 points and credited his team’s aggressiveness for the production.

“Attacking the paint was key. Whether it was my teammates finding me on open dunks and layups, or throwing the ball to me in the post, attacking the paint was what worked offensively,” Foulland said. 

Foulland is not the first Bison to receive the honor of the Martin O’Malley Award, as Bucknell alumni G.W. Boon, Charles Lee, and Bill Courtney also received the award in the past.

Teammate Zach Thomas ’18 continued to shine as one of the Patriot League’s most impressive bench players, finishing with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Other double-digit scorers on the night included Chris Hass ’16 with 12 and D.J. MacLeay ’17 with 13.

A back-and-forth game early on, the first 12 minutes of action were marked by eight lead changes and two ties. A 20-8 Bison run in the final eight minutes of the half produced a comfortable double-digit lead for the Bison going into the locker room. MacLeay was responsible for sparking the run with seven straight points. Three-pointers by Thomas and Hass helped the Orange and Blue to go into the half with a 39-28 advantage. Thomas’s trey was one of three in the half for him. He finished the game 4-5 from beyond the arc, helping him record his fifth career double-double.

After an 11-2 Bison run in the second half, Holy Cross got their offense going, cutting what was then a 19 point lead down to 13 with an 8-2 run of their own in response. The third of the Bison’s three-person sophomore attack, Stephen Brown ’18 stepped up after this, effectively putting the game away for his team. Two of his four points on the night and three of six assists in the final minutes of play put the nail in the coffin for the Crusaders.

Head coach Nathan Davis’s men won the turnover battle in this one, giving away possession only nine times to Holy Cross’s 12. John Azzinaro ’17 and Dom Hoffman ’16 had three steals apiece and the defensive  unit held Holy Cross to only 32.1 percent shooting on the night. The win notably continued a dominant run through conference play for the Bison.

“We have worked hard. We’ve trusted each other and the coaching staff. And, most importantly, we are hungry. We want to win so badly and that has probably been the key to our success so far,” Foulland said.

The Bison will next travel to Hamilton, N.Y. on Feb. 13 to take on Colgate, one of only two teams in the Patriot League to defeat them this year.