The game will be shown on Time Warner Sports in Ohio and is only scheduled to be shown in New York in the Buffalo market (majority of Western New York, including Olean). It will also be streamed for free after utilizing a coupon code on DaytonFlyers.com by clicking here. Please note that due to contractual agreements, the video stream is blacked out in both New York and Ohio. Those on campus and in the local community are invited to attend a watch party for the game at The Rathskeller on campus. The bar and kitchen will be open.
Opening Tip
St. Bonaventure looks to set a program record
while simultaneously clinching a berth in the Atlantic 10 Championship and extending its winning streak to four in a row when the Bonnies face off with Dayton on the Flyers' Senior Day Wednesday night. Bonaventure, which with only two regular-season games remaining could finish as high as 6th or possibly out of the tournament, knows that one win will guarantee a spot in the 12-team A-10 Championship next week. With Dayton and George Washington both at 6-8 in the A-10 and facing each other on Saturday, only one of those teams will be able to get to seven league wins.
The Bonnies and Flyers enter Wednesday's vital tilt as two of the hottest teams in the A-10, separated by just one game in the conference standings and by one spot in the RPI (SBU: 105, UD: 104). Bonaventure has won three in a row – the third-longest streak by any A-10 team, while Dayton has won two straight to claw back into postseason position after being 4-8 just a week ago. Bona will be looking to claim its first win at UD Arena since the 2001-02 season, a streak of four straight setbacks.
Last Time Out
Bonaventure tied a program record by scoring 104 points against a current A-10 member as the Bonnies rolled to a 104-83 victory over Charlotte Saturday night at the Reilly Center. Eric Mosley scored a game-high 23 points to continue his robust play over the last six games, and Matthew Wright added 20 for the Bonnies. The Brown and White also had two 20-point scorers against Massachusetts on Feb. 20 for the first time since the 2010-11 season, and it now has happened in two of the last three games. Freshman Dion Wright scored a career-high 15 points on 6-7 shooting; the California native had 17 total points on the year entering the game.
Déjà vu?
One year after making a late-season push to win its first A-10 Championship, St. Bonaventure is well on its way to duplicating that success this year. The Bonnies won four of their last five games at the end of last year to earn a bye in the tournament and then parlayed that finish into a conference title. Bonaventure could at least duplicate that finish with a split of its final two games this week, but is aiming to enter the postseason on a five-game winning streak. Also, once again Bona is getting a scoring weapon to step up. Last year, First Round NBA Draft Pick Andrew Nicholson averaged 27.6 points per game over the final five regular-season games. This year, Eric Mosley is putting SBU on his back as he's averaging an eerily similar 27 points per game over the last four games.
Quick Hitters
# If Michael Davenport appears in the game Wednesday, he will tie the St. Bonaventure career games played record of 126, set by David Messiah Capers from 1995-2000.
# Demitrius Conger has made 90 consecutive starts.
# St. Bonaventure is the only team in the A-10 that has three players averaging 13 or more points per games: Conger (13.9), Mosley (13.1) and Johnson (13.0).
# The starting lineup of Conger, Mosley, Johnson, Matthew Wright and Youssou Ndoye (starters for the last three games) is now 5-1 on the year, easily the best record of an SBU starting group this year.
# Charlotte scored 42 bench points on Saturday, representing the most bench points Bona has allowed an opponent to score in a game this year.
# Davenport secured a season-high five rebounds against the 49ers Saturday, the 28th time in his career he's grabbed five or more rebounds in a game.
Uncommon Road Warriors
With a win at Dayton, St. Bonaventure would set a single-season record for most road wins in A-10 play with five. Bonaventure currently has four A-10 road wins, something it has done on five different occasions, but not once since the 1999-2000 campaign. The Bonnies are 4-3 away from the generally friendly confines of the Reilly Center; additionally, St. Bonaventure has never had a better road record than a home record in an A-10 season (3-4 at home this year).
Starting Off The Right Way
The Bonnies put together their best first half of basketball this year on Saturday against Charlotte, setting season highs for points, field-goal percentage and largest lead. SBU raced out to a 22-5 start, hit 9-12 3-point attempts, shot 62.5 percent from the field (15-24) and took a 53-24 lead into the halftime break.
Streaking At The Best Time
During its three-game winning streak, St. Bonaventure is averaging 93.7 points per game and outscoring its opponents by 11 points per outing. The Bonnies have shot 52.4 percent (87-166) from the floor over those three games, including 42.9 percent (24-56) from 3-point range. The Bonnies – who are the nation's 10th-best free-throw shooting team – have hit 84.7 percent of their free throw attempts during that time (83-98). Individually, Demitrius Conger has corralled 35 rebounds during the streak, coming out to an average of 11.7 boards per game.
Gunning For Nine
With a pair of wins in their last two regular season games, the Bonnies will have exactly nine A-10 wins for the first time since the 2000-01 season. Additionally, coupled with the 10 A-10 wins from last year, Bonaventure would have 19 A-10 wins over the last two years – a total not matched since the 1999-00 and 2000-01 campaigns produced 20 combined league victories.
Next Up
St. Bonaventure wraps up its 2012-13 regular season with a home game against Fordham on Saturday at 4 p.m. Bona's four seniors – Demitrius Conger, Eric Mosley, Chris Johnson and Michael Davenport – will be honored prior to tipoff as SBU looks to continue its postseason push.
