The Starting Five Notes: 

1. St. Bonaventure meets Buffalo in the de facto Big 4 championship, since both teams won their ends of last Saturday's Big 4 Classic doubleheader. The teams have identical 4-1 records.

2. The Bonnies are off to a strong start on the defensive end. They have allowed only one of their five opponents to shoot over 40 percent from the field, and that was Jackson State at .404.   While it is very early, St. Bonaventure ranks second in the A-10 in defensive field goal percentage (.367) and seventh in points allowed (62.6). Bona also ranks fourth in the A-10 in rebounding margin (+7).

3. Youssou Ndoye got on track offensively with a career-high 23 points against Niagara. The senior center has been a force on defense with 13 blocked shots and 41 rebounds (32 defensive) over his four games this season. The 7-footer was named the Big 4 preseason Player of the Year.

4. Andell Cumberbatch, a quiet person off the court, has taken leadership on it. The senior swingman is second on the team in scoring (14.0 ppg), third in rebounding (7.0 rpg) and leads the team in assists. He already has two double-doubles. Last year, Cumberbatch averaged 8.2 points and 4.0 rebounds in 31 games.

5. Bonnies freshman point guard Jay Adams was named the Atlantic 10's Rookie of the Week on Monday. Last week, he averaged 13 points, 2.5 assists, 2.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals over two Bonnies wins. Adams scored a career-high 19 points in the win over Jackson State Nov. 25 at the Reilly Center.

Series History:
•  This will be the just the ninth meeting in a series that St. Bonaventure leads 6-2.
• Last year's game, played at Buffalo's Alumni Arena, was a tight game that the Bulls won 78-73 with timely three-point shooting. St. Bonaventure lost Matthew Wright during the first half due to a sprained ankle.

Buffalo Notes:
• Under second year coach Bobby Hurley, Buffalo's only loss came at #1-ranked Kentucky. Last Saturday, Buffalo defeated Canisius 72-57 in the Big 4 Classic. UB's other wins were at Grand Canyon, at Texas-Arlington and at home over South Dakota State.
• Junior forward Justin Moss, who played a complimentary role on last year's Buffalo team, leads Buffalo in scoring (17.6 points per game) and rebounding (9.2). Moss, a 6-7, 240-lb. power forward, scored 18 points in the win over Canisius.
• The Bulls' backcourt of Shannon Evans and Jarryn Skeete is a solid one. Evans is averaging 14.2 points and 5.0 assists per game. Skeete averages 10 points per game and is shooting .524 (11-21) from three-point range.
• Freshman guard Lamonte Bearden is averaing 11.0 points and 3.2 assists per game; he scored 23 points against Canisius on Saturday.

St. Bonaventure's Last Game: Bonnies 74, Niagara 59
The Bonnies came away with their most convincing win of the season last Saturday in the First Niagara Center. Bona was led by senior center Youssou Ndoye, who scored a career high 23 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for his fifth career double-double. The senior center also blocked five shots and was a leading force in holding the Purple Eagles to 36.5% shooting from the field. It was just a 26-23 St. Bonaventure lead late in the first half, but the Bonnies closed the half with a 9-2 run to take a 35-25 advantage. The lead quickly grew to 14 points early in the second half and Niagara never came closer than nine points after that. Andell Cumberbatch had another strong game, scoring 16 points, six rebounds and four steals. Dion Wright scored 14 points and grabbed six boards on the afternoon. 

Ndoye Regains Scoring Stride
As a preseason all-conference third team selection and the Big 4 preseason Player of the Year, expectations for Youssou Ndoye were very high entering the season. Forced to sit out the opener against Dartmouth after the NCAA ruled he played in one impermissible summer league game, Ndoye got off to a slow start on the offensive end, taking only 10 shots through his first three games as teams played primarly zone defenses designed to stop the 7-footer.  Last Saturday against Niagara, Ndoye broke out with a career-high 23 points on 9-16 shooting. He also grabbed 11 rebounds for his fifth career double-double. What have remained constant are Ndoye's defense and rebounding. The Senegal native ranks third in the A-10 in rebounding (10.3) and leads the conference in blocked shots (3.3 per game).
Ndoye is just the second Bona's player during Mark Schmidt's tenure (Andrew Nicholson was the first) to be recognized by the Atlantic 10 coaches and media on the preseason all-conference team.

New Backcourt Productive
Entering the year, the major question mark about this Bona team was how it would replace the production and leadership of its 2013-14 senior backcourt of point guard Charlon Kloof and shooting guard Matthew Wright, who both had outstanding senior seasons. So far, the new starters have been just what the Bonnies hoped they would be. Jay Adams is the first freshman point guard to start for Bona since coach Mark Schmidt's first season of 2007-08 (Andrew Nicholson, a power forward, did start as a freshman in 2008-09; Malcolm Eleby was the freshman guard who started in 2007).
Through five games, Adams is averaging 11.2 points per game with a high of 19 points against Jackson State. Marcus Posley, who is far more experienced than Adams with a year at Ball State and a year of junior college under his belt, has four double-digit scoring games and is averaging 15.6 points per game. Between them, Adams (13) and Posley (12) have made 25 three-pointers and are shooting .396 from long range. 

"Batch" Gaining Confidence
While it is very early, his statistics back up the idea that Andell Cumberbatch is the most improved of the Bonnies' returning players. The senior swingman has a pair of double-doubles already (10-10 vs. Dartmouth, 24-11 vs. Siena), is second on the team in scoring (14.0 ppg), third in rebounding (7.0 rpg) and leads the team in assists (5.0 apg). Last year, which was his first with the Bonnies after two seasons at Barton (Kansas) Community College, Cumberbatch averaged 8.2 points and 4.0 rebounds in 31 games.

Posley Makes Immediate Impact
Replacing 2014 graduate Matthew Wright, who averaged 16.3 points per game last season and scored over 1,000 career points, is not a task that can fall on one player. Marcus Posley, however, has begun to gain the confidence of Bonnies coaches and fans. He leads the Bonnies in scoring at 15.6 points per game, which ranks eighth in the A-10. He scored a game-high 20 points – including nine over the game's final 3:16 – to lead the Bonnies to a 59-53 win over Canisius Nov. 22. Posley is 12-36 (.333) from three-point range. Posley has scored before; as a freshman point guard at Ball State in 2012-13, he averaged 6.5 points per game. Last season at Indian Hills Junior College, when he switched to shooting guard, he averaged 13.5 points a game. 

Strong Starters
St. Bonaventure is off to a 4-1 start for the second year in a row. A win over Buffalo would give the Bonnies their second straight year with a 5-1 start. 

Jay Adams Named A-10 Rookie of the Week
After he helped St. Bonaventure to a pair of wins last week, Bonnies freshman point guard Jaylen Adams was named the Atlantic 10 Conference men's basketball Rookie of the Week. Adams averaged 13 points, 2.5 assists, 2.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals over the two games. He scored a career-high 19 points in the win over Jackson State Nov. 25 at the Reilly Center. Adam was 4-for-8 from three-point range and 7-of-8 from the free throw line in that game to go with three rebounds and an assist. The Mount St. Joseph High product followed that with seven points and four assists in a win over Niagara Nov. 29 in the Big 4 Classic in Buffalo. Adams was a perfect 4-for-4 at the charity stripe to finish 11-of-12 at the line for the week. He was also 5-12 from three-point range over the two games. For the season, Adams is averaging 11.2 points per game.