St. Bonaventure Men's Basketball Game Preview
Opponent: Siena College Saints
Date: Tuesday, Nov. 19
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Times Union Arena, Albany, N.Y.
TV: Time Warner Sports (coverage across most of New York state)
Radio: WPIG 95.7 FM (Olean, NY) listen live
St. Bonaventure Record: 3-0
Bonnies Season Stats
Siena Record: 0-3
Siena Season Statistics
Full Game Notes Package
Video Streaming (Siena, pay-per-view)
Twitter: @BonniesMBB
Instagram: GoBonnies
At A Glance: St. Bonaventure heads to the state capital to face Siena in the annual Franciscan Cup game. The Bonnies, playing away from the Reilly Center for the first time this season, hope to keep the momentum of their 3-0 start going into this rivalry game. Since the schools instituted the Franciscan Cup and renewed their series in 2010, the Bonnies have won all three meetings.
3-0 Start: St. Bonaventure is off to a 3-0 start for the first time since 2000-01, when that club opened 3-0 before dropping its fourth game. The Bonnies' 3-0 start is the first time they have reached that mark under head coach Mark Schmidt. The last time a St. Bonaventure team started 4-0 was 1992-93, when the Bonnies won their first five.
Bonnies Run By Canisius: Saturday night at the Reilly Center, St. Bonaventure defeated Big 4 rival Canisius 86-64 behind a career-high 27 points from Matthew Wright, 13 points and 10 rebounds from Youssou Ndoye and 15 points from Charlon Kloof. The Bonnies turned in another strong defensive effort, limiting Canisius to 38.7 percent shooting and outrebounding the Griffs 44-25 (box on p. 24).
Road Swing Begins: After playing its first three games at home, the Siena game begins a stretch of the schedule where St. Bonaventure will play eight out of nine games on the road or at a neutral site (the Gulf Coast Showcase in Estero, Fla.).
Leading The Wright Way: Consistency from Matthew Wright has been pointed to as a key to the Bonnies' success this season, and so far the senior shooting guard has delivered. He led St. Bonaventure in scoring each of the past two games highlighted by a career-high 27 points in the win over Canisius. In the win over Abilene Christian, Wright recorded his first career double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. The Toronto native is averaging a team-high 16.0 points per game.
The St. Bonaventure – Siena Series
Series: St. Bonaventure leads 28-7
Last Meeting: Dec. 4, 2012 at the Reilly Center: St. Bonaventure 58, Siena 43
Franciscan Cup Series (since 2010): 3-0, Bonnies
Meetings Since 1997: St. Bonaventure leads 6-1
Mark Schmidt vs. Siena: 3-0
Siena Scouting Report
• Siena came close but fell short of an upset at LaSalle on Saturday, falling 78-74 as the Explorers rallied late. Guard Rob Poole led Siena with 21 points; the Saints made seven of their 12 three-point shots and had 18 assists on their 31 field goals.
• Head coach Jimmy Patsos is in his first season after nine seasons at Loyola.
• Poole leads the Saints in scoring at 19.3 points per game. Forward Lavon Long is second in scoring at 11.3 ppg and he averages a team-best 6.7 rebounds. Other top scorers are Maurice White (9.7 ppg) and Evan Hymes (7.3). Nine Saints are averaging at least 11 minutes per game.
Bona Trifecta: With a name like trifecta, you would assume Dick Vitale would be involved and we'd be talking about three-pointers. Actually, what the Bonnies and head coach Mark Schmidt refer to when they talk about their trifecta is defense, rebounding and turnover margin. Like many teams, the Bonnies are focusing on these three areas as keys to success. So far, that focus is paying off. St. Bonaventure has not allowed any of its three opponents to shoot over 40% from the field, and the Bonnies have outrebounded all three of their opponents by at least 12. Here is a look at this season compared to last season for the Bonnies in these key areas:
'12-13 '13-14
Scoring Defense 72.0 52.3
Scoring Margin +0.7 +24.0
Rebounding Margin -1.1 +15.3
Assist-to-Turnover Ratio 1.5 1.2
Television Games: With the recent addition of the Siena game, a total of 10 St. Bonaventure games will be televised this season. Siena and Niagara (Dec. 21) will air on Time Warner Sports, with four more games on SNY (Duquesne home/away, Fordham, and VCU), three on NBC Sports Network (Cornell, at UMass and St. Joseph's) and one on CBS College Sports Network (home vs. LaSalle).
