Game Notes: St. Bonaventure | Temple | Atlantic 10
St. Bona (15-9, 5-4 A-10) vs. Temple (17-6, 8-0)
Wednesday, Feb. 9 | 7 p.m. | Reilly Center (5,480)
ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – For the third consecutive game, St. Bonaventure enters a contest against an Atlantic 10 opponent that is either tied with, or ranked ahead of, the Bonnies in the conference standings. Temple – receiving votes (RV) in this week's national polls – comes into Wednesday night's test riding a 10-game winning streak, sitting at an undefeated 8-0 mark in A-10 play and tying No. 6/7 Xavier for first place in the league. The Bonnies are coming off a tough 56-50 loss in Richmond on Saturday against the Spiders, while Temple handed Duquesne – Bona's next opponent – just its second A-10 loss of the year on Saturday, 61-52. Bonaventure will be looking to snap a two-game losing streak, and it has not lost three in a row all year. In fact, the Bonnies have not lost three in a row since February of 2009. Temple leads the all-time series, 29-17; however, Bonaventure has won two of the last three, including last year in Philadelphia – the first for the club since 2000.
Last Time Out
Cold second-half shooting doomed St. Bonaventure on Saturday afternoon as Richmond (15-8, 6-3 A-10) used 18 points from senior Brittani Shells to defeat the Bonnies, 56-50.
Number Crunching
Temple and St. Bonaventure enter Wednesday's battle as two of the best defensive teams in the A-10, and two of the best ball-protecting teams in the nation. In conference games only, the Owls have the league's best defense at 45.8 points per game. However, overall on the year, the Bonnies boast the A-10's best defense, allowing opponents to score just 54.6 points per game – a total which ranks as the 19th-best in the entire country. In terms of ball protection, Temple averages just 13.9 turnovers per game, while Bonaventure gives the ball away just 14 times a night. The Owls rank eighth in the nation in that category, and the Bonnies rank 11th.
Scouting Temple
-- Temple was picked to finish third in the A-10
-- The Owls return three starters from a team which finished 25-9 a season ago, advancing to the NCAA Second Round
-- Three Owls have reached the 1,000-point milestone in their careers this season: senior Qwedia Wallace (1,036), junior Kristen McCarthy (1,062) and junior Shey Peddy (1,166)
-- Junior Joelle Connelly, an Arcade, N.Y., native, transferred from Hofstra, and her mother, Deborah, played basketball at St. Bonaventure in the late 1980's
-- Temple hit a program-record 14 3-pointers against Richmond on Jan. 29, ranking as the most in the A-10 this year and tying as the second-most in any A-10 game in history
-- Head coach Tonya Cardoza, now in her third year at Temple, spent 14 seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Connecticut under head coach Geno Auriemma, a tenure in which she helped the Huskies to five national championships
St. Bonaventure vs. Temple
Series Quick Facts
Overall: Temple Leads, 29-17
At St. Bonaventure: Temple Leads, 12-9
At Temple: Temple Leads, 15-7
At Neutral Site: Temple Leads, 2-1
Most St. Bonaventure Points: 90 (Jan. 15, 1997: 90-74)
Most Temple Points: 89 (Feb. 10, 1990: 89-76)
Fewest St. Bonaventure Points: 36 (Feb. 14, 2004: 68-36)
Fewest Temple Points: 52 (Jan. 24, 2009: 55-52)
Largest St. Bonaventure Margin: 34 (Feb. 14, 1999: 84-50)
Largest Temple Margin: 32 (1/13/05: 85-53; 2/14/04: 68-36)
After two seasons on North Broad Street, it is quite clear that Tonya Cardoza was the right person for the job of continuing and building upon the success of Temple women's basketball.
Cardoza has led the Owls to their sixth and seventh straight NCAA Tournament appearances, and in 2010 Temple advanced to the NCAA Second Round. Cardoza has been honored as the Big 5 Coach of the Year in both of her seasons at Temple, and the Owls earned their sixth-straight Big 5 title in her first year with the program.
Already 63-25 all-time in her head coaching career, Cardoza led Temple to 21 wins in 2008-09, and to 25 wins in 2009-10 which tied for the second-most in the history of the program. In her first year at Temple, Cardoza was a finalist for the national rookie coach of the year award.
After spending 14 years as an assistant coach at the University of Connecticut under Hall of Fame Coach Geno Auriemma, a tenure in which she helped the Huskies to five National Championships, few doubted that Cardoza had what it takes to build a successful program. The Owls finished second in the Atlantic 10 two years ago, and tied for second last season. In Cardoza's first season she coached the squad to an upset over #13 Xavier, making her the first coach in TU women's basketball history to upset a ranked team in her rookie season.
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. In that year they lost 22 games, and the following year in 2003-04 finished with 19 losses, a total they tied the next season to start the streak.
Seeing Double … And Triple
Jessica Jenkins hit her third, and final, 3-pointer of the day against Richmond on Saturday with 12 seconds remaining in the game. That 3 moved the junior into sole possession of third place on the all-time 3-pointers made list with 198, passing 2009 graduate Katelyn Murray. On the year, Jenkins has hit 70 3's, and her 2.9 3-pointers per game ranks 14th in the nation. Furthermore, Jenkins has hit exactly five 3's in a game on seven different occasions this year. With her team-high 13 points against Richmond, the Marion, Ohio, native has also been in double figures in 11 of the past 13 games.
Not So Sly
The Red Foxes of Marist, ranked No. 24/25 in the nation this week, are currently riding the second-longest winning streak in the entire country. Marist has won 17 straight games, and sit at 21-2 overall … and the Bonnies were the last team to beat the Red Foxes. Bonavenure 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.
Unfortunately, It Ain't Horseshoes
Close has been the story of the Bonaventure season to this point. Currently at 15-9, seven of the nine losses have come by fewer than 10 points, with the only double-digit losses being by 11 and 20 points, respectively, to nationally ranked St. John's and Xavier.
Van Tatenhove's Historic Night
Junior Megan Van Tatenhove turned in one of the best scoring performances in St. Bonaventure history last Wednesday night against Dayton. She finished with a career-high 35 points, the most points scored by a Bonaventure player since Stefanie Collins netted 36 at Stony Brook on Nov. 22, 2003. The Wisconsin native's performance ranks as the sixth-best in program history, and she finished just six points shy of breaking the all-time mark of 40, set by Sue Shay in 1989. Van Tatenhove's 12 field goals and 42 minutes of game action were also career highs. Additionally, she hit a team-season-high nine free throws. She also got the job done on the glass as she grabbed a team-high eight caroms, while getting her teammates involved as well, finishing with a team-best four assists.
Mirror Image
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 20th in the nation in free throw shooting (75.4 percent), 17th in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage (37), 19th in the nation in scoring defense (54.6 points per game) and 11th in the nation in turnovers per game (14).
Something About 19
In the second half of its win over Saint Joseph's Jan. 26, St. Bonaventure held the Hawks to just 19 points. That was the third time through the first six A-10 games that the Bonnies held an opponent to exactly 19 second-half points. The first time they turned that trick was against La Salle after they allowed the Explorers to score 35 in the first half – the most first-half points any team has scored against the Bonnies all year. Bonaventure then repeated that 19-point feat the following game opposite George Washington on Jan. 15 to help earn its first-ever win at the Smith Center (1-16).
Van Tatenhove En Fuego
After ending the non-conference slate against West Virginia and Kent State with six- and four-point performances, respectively, Megan Van Tatenhove has exploded in A-10 play. She has scored in double-figure points in every conference game, increasing her points per game average from 13.2 prior to A-10 play to its current 15.5 level. Furthermore, Van Tatenhove is averaging 19.3 points per game in conference play, good for second-best in the entire league.
She Can Be Offensive
Sophomore Alaina Walker will almost always guard the opposing team's best offensive player as she anchors the A-10's best defense, but recently she's proved she can get the job done at the offensive end as well. Against Massachusetts last Saturday she finished with 11 points, her first conference game in double-figure points. She then followed that total up with a 10-point effort opposite Dayton last Wednesday. Her back-to-back double-figure outings represent the first time in her career she has done that.
Turnover Duplication
After finishing 2009-10 as the 7th-best ball-protecting team in the country with just 13.6 turnovers per game, the Bonnies are nearly equaling that total so far this year as they are giving the ball away just 14 times per contest, good for 11th in the nation. However, the more symbolic figure from that statistic is that St. Bonaventure is 4-6 when it turns the ball over more times than its opponent, and 11-3 when it has fewer.
Next Up
St. Bonaventure returns home for its fourth consecutive game against an opponent that is either tied with, or ranked above, the Bonnies in the conference standings. Duquesne heads to the Reilly Center on Saturday in a Homecoming affair with Bonaventure. Tip-off is set for 1:30 p.m.
