Game Notes: St. Bonaventure | Saint Louis | Atlantic 10
St. Bona (17-10, 7-5 A-10) @ Saint Louis (7-20, 1-11)
Wednesday, Feb. 23 | 1 p.m. (EST) | Chaifetz Arena

SAINT LOUIS, Mo. – After losing three straight games just a couple of weeks ago, St. Bonaventure will be looking for its third consecutive win Wednesday when it takes on Saint Louis. With a win, the Bonnies will have won their third in a row for the second time this year in the Atlantic 10 docket, and third time overall on the season. Furthermore, the win will be the 18th of the campaign for St. Bonaventure, tying it with the 2008 club for the third-most wins in school history. The Bonnies enter in a five-way tie for 4th place and final first-round bye in the A-10 Tournament. Saint Louis enters with a 7-20 record, a mark which bodes well for Bonaventure as it is 10-0 this year against teams with losing records. The two clubs have met just six times as the Billikens entered the A-10 prior to the 2005-06 season, and in each of their previous two trips to Saint Louis, the Bonnies have come away on the losing end. However, Bona's owns a 4-2 all-time series advantage, including two decisions last year – the second of which came in the A-10 Tournament to end SLU's season. The Bonnies could end Saint Louis's bid for a postseason trip with a win, as the one-win Billikens would be eliminated from the postseason race with a loss.

Last Time Out
Sophomore Chelsea Bowker tied a career high by hitting five 3-pointers, and junior Jessica Jenkins finished with 13 points to help St. Bonaventure extend its longest winning streak over an A-10 team, defeating Fordham (11-17, 3-9 A-10) Saturday afternoon, 62-52.

Number Crunching
In all 20 of its losses, Saint Louis has been held below 45-percent shooting, something that St. Bonaventure tries to make a habit for its opponents. In 24 of their 27 games, the Bonnies have held their opponent below 45 percent from the floor, and they are 16-8 in those games. Bonaventure holds its opponents to just a 37.8-percent clip from the floor – which ranks 7th in the A-10 – but only allows its opposition to score an average of 54.8 points per game. That total ranks first the A-10, and 22nd nationally – a year after finishing 9th in the country in that category at 52.7 per outing. On the year, SLU is 1-13 when scoring fewer than 60 points, a total the Bonnies have held their opponents to on 20 occasions this season. In those games, St. Bona is 15-5.

Scouting Saint Louis
-- SLU was picked to finish 10th in the preseason A-10 rankings
-- The Billikens do not have a single player who averages double-figure points
-- Saint Louis leads the A-10 in conference games only in offensive rebounding (15.3 per game)
-- Senior Lauren Woods was named to the Preseason All-Conference Second Team after winning the league's Most Improved Player award last season
-- The Billikens are 1-18 when trailing at the half, and 0-15 when they make the same, or fewer, amount of free throws than their opponent

St. Bonaventure vs. Saint Louis
Series Quick Facts
Overall: St. Bonaventure Leads, 4-2
At St. Bonaventure: St. Bonaventure Leads, 3-0
At Saint Louis: Saint Louis Leads, 2-0
At Neutral Site: St. Bonaventure Leads, 1-0
Most St. Bonaventure Points: 86 (Feb. 8, 2007: 92-86)
Most Saint Louis Points: 92 (Feb. 8, 2007: 92-86)
Fewest St. Bonaventure Points: 57 (Feb. 5, 2009: 64-57)
Fewest Saint Louis Points: 59 (3/5/10: 71-59; 1/29/06: 71-59)
Largest St. Bonaventure Margin: 12 (three times)
Largest Saint Louis Margin: 7 (Feb. 5, 2009: 64-57)

Now in her sixth season at Saint Louis University, Shimmy Gray-Miller has been committed to injecting passion and energy into Billiken women's basketball ever since she was introduced as the program's sixth head coach on April 19, 2005. A combination of consistent improvement, increased fan support and state-of-the-art facilities has Gray-Miller and her staff poised to drive the Billikens into the upper echelon of the Atlantic 10 Conference.

The Flint, Mich., native has guided Saint Louis on a steady climb in the A-10 standings the past three seasons. The Billikens' six conference victories and ninth-place finish last year were high marks for the program since SLU joined the league prior to the 2005-06 campaign.

Local fans acknowledged the continued improvement by showing up in record numbers at sparkling new Chaifetz Arena. The Bills enjoyed a 70 percent increase in attendance compared to 2007-08 and attracted the two largest crowds in program annals.

The 2008-09 postseason honors list provided more evidence of the program's ascension. Saint Louis produced two All-Conference performers for the first time in 20 years, with Theresa Lisch named to the first team and Amanda Kemezys garnering third-team recognition. In addition, Lisch became the first ESPN The Magazine first-team Academic All-American in program history, was chosen A-10 female Scholar-Athlete of the Year and was voted to the Division I-AAA National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Scholar-Athlete team for the second consecutive year.

Increased Charity
Heading into St. Bonaventure's game against Duquesne on Feb. 12, sophomore Alaina Walker was shooting 56.9 percent (33-58) from the free throw line. In the Bonnies' last two games, against the Dukes and Fordham last Saturday, Walker has connected at a 93.3-percent clip from the charity stripe. She hit a career-high 8-10 from the line against Duquesne, and then followed that effort up with a 6-7 showing against the Rams. The 14 combined free throws the last two games are 18.1 percent of her career free throw total, which currently sits at 77.

Schooling Ourselves
With at the very least three games remaining in the 2010-11 season, St. Bonaventure is nearing in on a record-setting 3-point shooting season. The Bonnies have connected on 182 3-pointers, putting the team just 11 shy of breaking the school record of 192 set by the 2008-09 club. Bonaventure has attempted 484 3's on the year, already the second-most in program history. The current 37.6 shooting percentage from behind the arc ranks second all-time, with the team needing to reach 38.6 percent to break the record established by last year's club when it shot 38.5 percent.

Efficiency At Its Best
Sophomore Chelsea Bowker did not start against Fordham – the first time that has happened since the second game of the season – but she still finished with a career afternoon in limited action. Bowker played 14 minutes, but ended the game with 15 points as she tied a career high by hitting five 3-pointers. The Ohio product did not miss a shot en route to her best point total since she finished with a career-high 21 against the University at Buffalo on Dec. 10. This is now the third time this year she has hit exactly five 3's in a game, and all have come in winning efforts.

Not So Sly
The Red Foxes of Marist, ranked No. 23/24 in the nation last week, are currently riding the longest winning streak in the entire country. Marist has won 21 straight games, and sit at 25-2 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.

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 81 3's on the year, already good for the fourth-highest performance in a single campaign in school history. With four 3's Wednesday, the guard will move into sole possession of 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 81 3's rank second in the A-10, and her 3.0 average per game ranks eighth in the entire nation.

Nearing In On 1,000
Junior Megan Van Tatenhove is just 36 points away from becoming the 17th member of the 1,000-point club at St. Bonaventure. Currently with 964 career points, Van Tatenhove leads the Bonnies in scoring this year at 14.5 per game. However, perhaps more impressively, she has increased that total during the A-10 docket, as her 16.1 average in league play ranks 7th 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 35th in the nation in free throw shooting (74.1 percent), 22nd in the nation in scoring defense (54.8 points per game), 11th in the nation in turnovers per game (14.1) and 10th in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage (37.6).

A Number Says A Lot
41.7 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 63 of his 151 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 17-10, 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.

Career Fair
Junior classmates Jessica Jenkins and Jennie Ashton both had career afternoons on Feb. 12 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.

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.

Next Up
St. Bonaventure will conclude its 2010-11 regular-season schedule on Saturday at home when it faces Charlotte in a game televised by CBS College Regional. Tip-off on Senior Day from the Reilly Center is set for 2 p.m.