St. Bonaventure (1-0) vs. Niagara (1-0)
Monday Nov. 12 | 7 PM | Gallagher Center
GAME NOTES
St. Bonaventure | Niagara
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@BonniesWBB | #Bonnies
The Bonnies head north to face off with Little Three rival Niagara in their home opener. The Purple Eagles, who compete out of the MAAC, won their opener on the road at Robert Morris, 63-59. Tip off from the Gallagher Center is set for 7:00 p.m. Monday evening.
SCOUTING NIAGARA
This will serve as the 57th meeting between these two teams. The first took place during the 1974-75 season. St. Bonaventure leads the all-time series 33-23 including wins in each of the last five seasons. Those five wins have come with an average margin of victory of 18.4. In their season opening win at Robert Morris, preseason Big 4 Player of the Year, Kayla Stroman, scored eight points and dished out seven assists. Jessica Flamm led the Purple Eagles in scoring with 14. Meghan McGuinnes and Kelly Van Leeuwen each added 11 points and seven rebounds. McGuinness and Val McQuade scored 10 and nine respectively in last season's matchup with the Bonnies.
FRESH ONES
St. Bonaventure played five freshmen in their season opening win over Binghamton. Katie Healy led the with 12 points and seven rebounds in 19 minutes. Emily Michael scored six points on 2-6 from long range, grabbed three rebounds, handed out three assists and collected two steals in 22 min.
BIG 4 DOMINANCE
St. Bonaventure has won 15 straight games over Big 4 rivals. The 15 consecutive victories is the longest such streak in the history of Big 4 women's basketball. The Bonnies have not lost to a Big 4 school since Nov. 19, 2006, when the University at Buffalo defeated them at the St. Bonaventure Shootout, 67-59.
RAISE THE BANNERS
St. Bonaventure's historic 2012-13 season was be celebrated during a ceremony approximately prior to tip-off Saturday night, when banners honoring the team's first Atlantic 10 Regular Season Championship and NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen appearance from last season were unveiled to the public for the first time.
ROAD WARRIORS
In 2011-12 the Bonnies went a perfect 13-0 on the road. Seven of those wins came in conference play en route to a perfect 14-0 record in Atlantic 10 play. The Bonnies picked up their first ever road win against a ranked opponent Nov. 12, 2011 at No. 25 St. John's. After defeating Canisius on the road two days later, SBU traveled to Morgantown, West Virginia and defeated the Mountaineers of WVU. The loss was just the fourth in WVU head coach Mike Carey's career at home against non-conference teams. Carey was previously 61-3 in such contests.
EXHIBITION DRAMA
The cardiac Bonnies carried their flair for the dramatic from last season into this one with a heart-stopping come from behind victory over Edinboro in an exhibition Nov. 3. After trailing by as many as ten early in the second half, SBU stormed back to tie the score several times late. Jordan McGee stuck a 15-foot jumper with 5.2 seconds remaining to give the Bonnies a 63-62 victory. It was the second straight year that Edinboro led the Bonnies at the under-4 media timeout in the seocond half.
2011-12 RECAP
St. Bonaventure took Bonanation on a magical ride during the 2011-12 campaign. The Bonnies won a program and Atlantic 10 record 31 games en route to a national ranking as high as 16, the A-10 regular season title and its first ever trip to the NCAA Tournament where the Bonnies advanced to the Sweet Sixteen with dramatic victories over Florida Gulf Coast and Marist before falling to eventual national runner-up Notre Dame. St. Bonaventure has the smallest enrollment of any school to ever reach the Sweet Sixteen of the Women's NCAA Tournament
WHAT'S GONE & WHAT'S BACK
The Bonnies will need to replace the winningest senior class in program history. The quartet of Megan Van Tatenhove, Jessica Jenkins, Armelia Horton and Jennie Ashton won 98 games as a group and combined to score 3,894 points in their careers. Van Tatenhove and Jenkins were each named to the Atlantic 10 first team in 2011-12. During her final season in the Brown and White, Jenkins set the program and A-10 record for 3-pointers made in a career with 338. Jenkins has gone on to sign a professional contract with Keflavic in Iceland. Van Tatenhove became just the fifth member of the 1,000 point, 600 rebound club. Redshirt Senior Armeilia Horton became the single winningest player in basketball history at St. Bonaventure - either men's or women's - with 116 wins. Ashton grabbed 3.1 rebounds per game off the bench for the Bonnies last season.
Six letterwinners from 2011-12 will take the court for SBU this season. Doris Ortega and 2012 Atlantic 10 All-Defensive Team member Alaina Walker are the only returning starters. The top returning scorer for the Bonnies, CeCe Dixon (7.6 ppg), came off the bench and averaged 25.8 minutes per game. Senior Chelsea Bowker will not compete this season due to injury. Bowker averaged 7.1 points per game last season and rests in seventh place in program history with 146 made 3-pointers. Senior, junior college transfer Jordan McGee played in 34 games for the Bonnies last season and averaged 10.1 minutes. SBU also returns reserves Tatiana Wilson and Ashley Zahn. Head Coach Jim Crowley was named Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year as well as ESPN.com National Coach of the Year.
RANK 'EM
By receiving six points in the first ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll released Oct. 29, the St. Bonaventure name has been featured in the poll every week dating back to Jan. 23. They finished the 2011-12 season at No. 23 in the Coaches Poll. They reached as high as No. 16 in the Associated Press Poll during the week of Mar. 5. They would settle at No. 21 in the AP Poll once the season concluded. SBU currently has four teams on the non-conference schedule that are either ranked or receiving votes in both polls, No. 10/11 Georgia, No. 11/10 Delaware, No. 17/22 West Virginia and RV/No. 25 Green Bay. The Bonnies will face off with each of those opponents away from the friendly confinds of the Reilly Center. In their history, the Bonnies have never met with Georgia or Green Bay. SBU lost to Delaware at home and defeated West Virginia in Morgantown during the 2011-12 campaign.
3-POINTERS MADE BY SEASON
Under head coach Jim Crowley, the Bonnies have steadily improved their 3-point shooting. Jessica Jenkins dropped a program and A-10 record 338 threes in her career. In 2010-11 SBU made a program record 225 triples.
