Bison roam over Kansas to rattle regional bracket

OKLAHOMA CITY – In their 110th season, the Bucknell Bison finally won their first NCAA Tournament game. And, wow, what a victory it was.

Chris McNaughton banked in a hook shot over Wayne Simien with 10.5 seconds left, then Simien missed an open 15-foot jumper at the buzzer, giving the 14th-seeded Bison a 64-63 victory over third-seeded Kansas on Friday night to shake up the Syracuse Regional.

“It came off the backboard and rimmed in somehow – I don’t even know how, but I don’t care,” McNaughton said.

Bucknell (23-9) began playing basketball in 1896, joining Yale and Minnesota as the nation’s oldest Division I programs. But the only other times the Bison made the NCAA field were 1987, when they lost by 22 to Georgetown, and ‘89, when they lost by 23 to Syracuse.

Now they’re the first No. 14 seed to win since Weber State beat North Carolina in 1999, and they ended the title hopes of Kansas, the preseason No. 1. This also is the first tournament win by a team from the Patriot League, and they’ll go for another Sunday against sixth-seeded Wisconsin (23-8), which beat Northern Iowa 57-52 earlier Friday.

“Certainly it’s the biggest win we’ve ever had,” said coach Pat Flannery, a 1980 Bucknell grad. “Our kids battled their big kids all night long. Our kids made them work for everything they got.”

The Jayhawks (23-7) ended a streak of getting to the second round 15 straight years and their last 21 tries. Although they had their share of scares along the way, including one by Utah State in Oklahoma City two years ago, this was their first opening-round exit since being eliminated by UCLA in 1978.

Kansas seemed vulnerable because it had lost five of its last eight and its second-leading scorer Keith Langford was slowed by a lingering flu problem and a creaky left ankle. However, the Jayhawks weren’t too concerned because four of those recent losses were to teams that won first-round NCAA games.

Bucknell knew it could hang with the big boys after winning at Pittsburgh this season when the Panthers were undefeated and ranked No. 7.

Kevin Bettencourt got the good karma going with a four-point play to open the scoring. He finished with 19 points and had five of their 3-pointers. Bucknell put up a season-high 31, while staying away from Simien inside.