Bucknell @ Syracuse preview

Last Meeting ( Dec 20, 2011 ) Bucknell 61, Syracuse 80

Despite a three-game winning streak, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim is anything but happy. The long-time Orange coach would love to see a crisper performance Saturday against visiting Bucknell.

Syracuse enters on the heels of a 72-53 win against Cornell as Eljiah Hughes scored 22 points and Buddy Boeheim added 16, but the team shot just 6-of-21 from the arc after making four of its first seven long-range attempts. "Like any zone you have to make shots," Coach Boeheim said. "I think we'll make them more often than not. Hopefully that's as bad as we're going to shoot from the 3. I hope. We've got a lot of work to do. We're far from anywhere close to a finished product." Syracuse's schedule gets tougher after this one with upcoming matchups against Oklahoma State, Iowa, Georgia Tech and Georgetown, but first the Orange must take care of Bucknell. The Bison have allowed increasingly more points in every game this season, capped by Tuesday's 98-70 loss to Penn State.

TV: Noon ET, ACC Network

ABOUT BUCKNELL (2-3): Bucknell drew only nine fouls against Penn State and attempted only five foul shots, plus 7-of-27 3-point shooting didn't help matters in the 28-point defeat. Andrew Funk led the team with 15 points to bring his scoring average up to 11.2 - one of five players on the team averaging between 11 and 14 points per outing. The top two players on the Bison's scoring chart are John Meeks (13.6) and Jimmy Sotos (12.0), both of whom shoot at least 80 percent from the foul line and at least 40 percent from beyond the arc.

ABOUT SYRACUSE (3-1): The Orange would love to see more consistency out of freshman guard Joe Girard, who poured in 24 points on 7-of-8 shooting against Seattle recently but has totaled 17 points on 5-of-20 shooting in the other three games. Hughes, who averages a team-high 16.3 points, has made multiple 3-pointers in every game and has 19 assists over his last three outings. Buddy Boeheim enters having scored double-figure points in three straight games and has only turned it over three times in 136 minutes this season.

TIP-INS

1. Bucknell gave up 64 points in its opener, followed by 66 against Vermont, 71 against Hofstra, 83 against Canisius and then 98 versus Penn State.

2. The Orange defense has allowed 54 points or fewer in three of their four games.

3. Syracuse has won nine of the 10 previous meetings.

PREDICTION: Syracuse 68, Bucknell 64