Game Notes: St. Bonaventure | Fordham | Atlantic 10
St. Bona (16-10, 6-5 A-10) vs. Fordham (11-16, 3-8)
Saturday, Feb. 19 | 1 p.m. | Rose Hill Gym (3,200)
BRONX, N.Y. – After a week between games, St. Bonaventure will be looking to continue its longest winning streak over an Atlantic 10 opponent Saturday afternoon against Fordham. The Bonnies, winners of four straight versus Fordham, snapped a three-game losing streak last Saturday against Duquesne to give head coach Jim Crowley his 150th career win at Bonaventure. Fordham enters with an 11-16 record, a mark which bodes well for the Bonnies as they are 9-0 against teams with losing records this year. The Bonnies lead the all-time series, 17-9, and in last year's meeting they held Fordham to its lowest point total in series history in a 60-36 win at the Reilly Center.
Last Time Out
On an afternoon when its leading scorer netted just four points, junior guard Jessica Jenkins finished with career highs of 31 points and eight 3-pointers to lead St. Bonaventure to a 70-63 win over Duquesne Saturday at the Reilly Center. The win avenged an earlier-season loss to the Dukes, and snapped Duquesne's 12-game road winning streak – the most road wins in the entire nation this year.
Number Crunching
St. Bonaventure is one of eight A-10 schools in the top 75 of the latest RPI rankings released this week. Only two other conferences in the entire country have more teams in the top 75 than the A-10, as the BIG EAST and Big 12 both have 10. The Bonnies, ranked 74th, are joined by Xavier (8), Charlotte (41), Temple (43), Duquesne (46), Dayton (49), Richmond (72) and Saint Joseph's (75). Bonaventure is coming off a stretch of four consecutive games against teams ranked ahead of it in the RPI – a run in which it went 1-3 with an overtime loss to Dayton and just a six-point loss at Richmond. Furthermore, there are currently 19 teams in the country with nine or more road wins – and five of them reside in the A-10. No other conference in the entire nation has more than two member institutions on that list. With a win Saturday, Bonaventure will move to eight road tallies, with a chance to join that list on Wednesday at Saint Louis.
Scouting Fordham
-- Fordham was picked to finish 13th in the preseason A-10 rankings
-- The Rams were held to just 28 points, the fewest by any A-10 team this year, against Temple on Jan. 15
-- Junior Becky Peters leads the team in scoring at 13 per game, and has led the Rams in that category in exactly 13 games this year
-- Senior Kristina Bell ranks in the top 10 in Fordham's record book in three different categories: minutes played (3rd), games started (4th) and career steals (9th)
-- While the Bonnies have held an opponent below 40 points this year, so have the Rams, as they limited Holy Cross to just 36 points on Nov. 20
St. Bonaventure vs. Fordham
Series Quick Facts
Overall: St. Bonaventure Leads, 17-9
At St. Bonaventure: St. Bonaventure, 10-3
At Fordham: St. Bonaventure Leads, 7-6
At Neutral Site: N/A
Most St. Bonaventure Points: 94 (Jan. 4, 1997: 94-82)
Most Fordham Points: 86 (Jan. 6, 1996: 86-67)
Fewest St. Bonaventure Points: 43 (Jan. 3, 2006: 59-43)
Fewest Fordham Points: 36 (Jan. 27, 2010: 60-36)
Largest St. Bonaventure Margin: 24 (Jan. 27, 2010: 60-36)
Largest Fordham Margin: 19 (Jan. 6, 1996: 86-67)
Cathy Andruzzi enters her fifth season at the helm of the Fordham women's basketball program. In four seasons, Andruzzi has built up the Fordham women's basketball team into a hard working, gritty team that no one can take lightly. She has stretched the Rams' recruiting to all across the United States and overseas, as the Rams have their first ever players from both England and Australia, as well as representatives from eight different U.S. states. In 2010, she guided the Rams back to the Atlantic 10 Championship tournament for the first time in four seasons.
Andruzzi was named head women's basketball coach at Fordham University on May 18, 2006. She came to the Rams from Seton Hall University, where she was the assistant women's basketball coach during the 2004-05 season. She is the 11th head women's basketball coach at Fordham in the program's 36-year history.
We're Number One
St. Bonaventure is the only school in the nation that has decreased its loss total every single year since the 2004-05 season: 2004-05: 19; 2005-06: 18; 2006-07: 15; 2007-08: 12; 2008-09: 11; 2009-10: 10. Going back even further, the Bonnies have not increased their loss total since the 2002-03 campaign, a streak which will be snapped at the conclusion of this year barring another loss. In that year they lost 22 games, and the following season in 2003-04 finished with 19 losses – a total they tied the next season to start the streak.
Career Fair
Junior classmates Jessica Jenkins and Jennie Ashton both had career afternoons last Saturday in the Bona win over Duquesne. With her first 3 of the day, Jenkins hit the 200th of her career, but she was far from done as she continued to knock down seven more for a career-best and program-tying eight triples. The Marion, Ohio native also finished with a career-high seven made free throws en route to a career-high 31 points. For Ashton, the Austin, Texas product corralled a career-best eight rebounds in a career-high 22 minutes. The team-high rebounding tally was vital in getting Bonaventure a 34-32 edge a glass, as the Bonnies are now 12-2 when out-rebounding their opponent.
Seeing Triple
After finishing last season with the second-most 3-pointers in St. Bonaventure history with 89, Jessica Jenkins is nearing in on surpassing that total this year. The junior currently has 79 3's on the year, already good for the fourth-highest performance in a single campaign in school history. With five 3's Saturday – an exact total she has made in seven games already this year – the guard will move into a tie for third on the all-time list. The program's single-season 3-point holder is Suzie Dailer, who hit 99 in the 1992-93 season – a year which ranks as the second-highest team points per game average (76.2) in school history. Furthermore, her 79 3's rank second in the A-10, and her 3.0 average per game ranks eighth in the entire nation. As a team this year, the Bonnies have hit 173 3-pointers, already the second-most in school history, as they continue to chase the record of 192 set during the 2008-09 campaign.
Nearing In On 1,000
Junior Megan Van Tatenhove is just 43 points away from becoming the 17th member of the 1,000-point club at St. Bonaventure. Currently with 957 career points, Van Tatenhove leads the Bonnies in scoring this year at 14.8 per game. However, perhaps more impressively, she has increased that total during the A-10 docket, as her 16.9 average in league play ranks sixth in the conference.
Among The Nation's Elite
After finishing in the top 10 in the nation in four different statistical categories last year, the Bonnies are looking at repeating those finishes in exactly the same categories again this year. St. Bonaventure is currently 30th in the nation in free throw shooting (74.2 percent), 22nd in the nation in scoring defense (54.9 points per game), 14th in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage (37.1), and 12th in the nation in turnovers per game (14.2).
A Number Says A Lot
43.1 percent of 11th-year head coach Jim Crowley's wins at St. Bonaventure have come in the last two+ years. Crowley, who took over prior to the 2000-01 season, has won 62 of his 150 games at Bonaventure since the start of the 2008-09 season.
Unfortunately, It Ain't Horseshoes
Close has been the story of the Bonaventure season to this point. Currently at 16-10, seven of the 10 losses have come by fewer than 10 points, with the only double-digit losses being by 11, 16 and 20 points, respectively, to nationally ranked St. John's, Temple and Xavier.
Not So Sly
The Red Foxes of Marist, ranked No. 24 in the nation this week, are currently riding the second-longest winning streak in the entire country. Marist has won 19 straight games, and sit at 23-2 overall … and the Bonnies were the last team to beat the Red Foxes. Bonaventure went to Poughkeepsie on Dec. 4, and in front of a near sold-out McCann Field House, held Marist to its season-low point total in a 45-40 victory. With the win, St. Bonaventure was just the sixth team in the last six years to beat Marist on its home court.
Next Up
The Bonnies remain on the road when they travel to Saint Louis for a matinee affair with the Billikens on Wednesday. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. (EST) from Chaifetz Arena.
For more game notes, click here.
