LEWISBURG, Pa. - Steve Miles (Alexandria, Va./Hayfield) led all scorers with 22 points and he also hauled down six rebounds and dished out two assists, but it was not enough to stave off the Bison of Bucknell. American lost their Patriot League opener by 11, 63-52. Miles, who was not expected to play because of a sprained ankle, was 7-for-14 from the floor and 4-for-9 from behind the arc.

The Eagles trailed throughout the first half as they struggled with their rebounding. Bucknell outboarded AU 20-10, and the Bison used eight offensive rebounds in the first stanza to get ten second chance points. For the game the Bison maintained a 37-23 edge on the glass, including 12 offensive rebounds. The Bison took the lead for good after Boakai Lalugba hit a three to break an 11-11 tie. The lone bright spot in the first half for AU was Miles, who scored 14 of his 22 points to keep the Eagles in it.

In the second half the Eagles ultimately played BU even (25 points each), but got off to a slow start. They did not score their first field goal until Ric Patiejunas (Vilnius, Lithuania/Vilnius College) knocked down a three at 10:47 in the second half. Prior to that, AU scored just six points, all from the charity stripe as Bucknell opened the lead up from 11 to 19 (52-33 before the Patiejunas bucket). A layup by Miles cut the lead to eight (60-52) with 1:31 left, which was the closest AU had been since the 2:34 mark of the first half. However, Bucknell closed out the game from the free throw line by hitting on four-of-six opportunities.

Glenn Stokes (Silver Spring, Md./Albert Einstein), who had scored a career-high 27 points in AU's game versus Penn, could only manage six points on 1-of-6 shooting due to a ankle injury suffered in practice the day before.

Matej Cresnick (Velenje, Slovenia/University of Ljubljana) returned to the starting lineup for AU and grabbed a season-high seven rebounds in 36 minutes of action.

American (5-9) will play its' first Patriot League home game this Wednesday when they host Navy on January 15, 2003. The game is at 7:00 p.m.