Fordham (11-16, 2-10) @ #19/22 St. Bonaventure (25-2, 12-0)
Wednesday, Feb. 22 | 7 PM | Reilly Center (5,480)
Game Notes: St. Bonaventure | Fordham | Atlantic 10
Follow & Interact: @Go_Bonnies | #Bonnies | #JJ4POY
No. 19/22 St. Bonaventure plays its final home game of the season Wednesday against Fordham looking to earn the university's first Atlantic 10 Conference regular-season team championship in any sport. With a victory over Fordham, Bonaventure will clinch the No. 1 seed at the 2012 Buick A-10 Women's Basketball Championship next weekend, and at least a share of the regular-season title.
The Bonnies will be looking to extend their program-record 14-game winning streak, and in the process earn their seventh consecutive victory over the Rams. The matchup pits the A-10's two best defensive teams against each other. The Rams lead the conference in scoring defense at 54 points per game, while the Bonnies are second at 54.1 points per game – having given up just three more points on the year than Fordham.
Numbers of note: St. Bonaventure has seven players which average 7.0 points per game or more – the most of any A-10 team. When SBU shoots 40 percent or better from the field, it is a perfect 19-0, and when leading with five minutes remaining Bona is 22-0. The Bonnies also lead the nation in fewest turnovers per game (11.7), and are coming off a win over Xavier in which they committed a season-low four giveaways.
Despite ranking 12th in the A-10 in assists per game, the Bonnies have the best assist-to-turnover ratio in the nation of teams with the fewest amount of assists. Bonaventure has a 0.9 ratio with 284 assists and 315 turnovers to rank 59th in the country. Wyoming is the only other team in the top-100 in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (85th at 0.84) which has fewer than 300 assists (284).
Already owning program records for most victories this season in the months of December and January, Bonaventure – with a win over Fordham – will tie the Division I program record for wins in February with its sixth. The 1993-94 club currently owns the record, and the Bonnies still have one game remaining in the month after the meeting with Fordham.
In his most recent "Bracketology" released on Monday, ESPN's Charlie Creme predicted St. Bonaventure as a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament, playing 12th-seeded Kansas in Tallahassee, Fla., in the opening round. Also predicted to be in that bracket is 4th-seeded Georgia and No. 13 Florida Gulf Coast.
Bonaventure is coming off a 66-48 win over Xavier in front of a national TV audience on CBS Sports Network. It was Bona's second national TV game of the year, and they have won both by 18 points (La Salle, 75-57). Also in each contest, Bona's two senior stars were on display as Jessica Jenkins tallied 28 points against the Explorers and Megan Van Tatenhove netted 24 versus the Musketeers.
Jenkins currently has 90 made 3-pointers on the year, which checks in as the third best total in a single season in program history. Jenkins owns the record after she hit 100 last year in 33 games, while Suzie Dailer is second with 99 made in 1992-93. The Ohio native also owns the fourth position on the list as she knocked down 89 in 2009-10.
Scouting Fordham
~ Entering action with a 2-10 A-10 record, Fordham is currently tied with Massachusetts for the 12th, and final, postseason spot; the Rams own the tiebreaker as they beat the Minutewomen earlier this year
~ The last time Bonaventure and Fordham met was in the first round of the A-10 Championship in Lowell, Mass. last season; SBU won that meeting, 48-41, to end Fordham's season
~ On the year, Fordham has held 11 of its 27 opponents under 50 points; current first-year head coach Stephanie Gaitley coached teams from 1989-2000 which ranked in the top-10 in the nation in scoring defense nine times
~ Senior Becky Peters is currently seventh on the Rams' all-time leading scorer list with 1,280 career points
~ Fordham has lost five straight games and eight of its last nine
Next Up
The Bonnies hit the road for their regular-season finale against Rhode Island on Saturday afternoon at 4:30. The Rams enter play Wednesday with a 1-26 overall record and have lost their last 24 games.
