TICKET PROMOTIONS:
- St. Bonaventure Athletics and Five Star Bank are partnering up to fight hunger in the local community this Christmas season. The first 200 fans who bring a canned food item to the Maryland Eastern Shore game will receive a free ticket to the game courtesy of Five Star Bank. All food items will be donated to the Olean Food Pantry. There is a limit of one ticket per person. Fans may donate their canned food for a ticket starting at 5 p.m. in the lobby outside the Reilly Center Ticket Office.
- In a separate ticket promotion for the same game, fans can purchase a ticket in the "Wolfpack" student section for just $15 that comes with a concession stand credit. The concession credit is for a hot dog, a soft pretzel or a bag of popcorn along with a small soft drink.
The Starting Five Notes:
1. St. Bonaventure returns home for the first time since Dec. 3 to take on Maryland Eastern Shore. The Bonnies completed their recent three-game road trip with a 2-1 record, moving them to 7-2 on the season. They are 4-1 at home. The Hawks hold a 5-8 mark but have won four of their last six. After this game, St. Bonaventure will be off for Christmas until practices resume Dec. 26.
2. At 7-2, the Bonnies are off to their best start to a season since the 2001-02 team started 8-2.
3. St. Bonaventure leads the A-10 in defensive field goal percentage (.379) and stands third in blocked shots (4.7 per game) and sixth in points allowed (61.7 ppg). The Bonnies have allowed only two of their nine opponents to shoot over 40 percent from the field and none better than 41 percent.
4. Senior center Youssou Ndoye leads the A-10 in both rebounding (11.3) and blocked shots (2.8 per game). He ranks fifth and 21st, respectively, among all Division I players in those categories. Ndoye needs seven rebounds to reach 500 for his career. He will become only the fourth player in school history to record 500 rebounds and 150 blocks.
5. Bonnies freshman point guard Jay Adams has been named the Atlantic 10's Rookie of the Week twice already this season. Adams, who scored a career high 26 points in a win at Ohio Dec. 6, is third on the team in scoring at 12.4 points per game. He is 21-44 (.477) from three-point range this season.
6. (An extra one is an early Christmas present) Junior guard Marcus Posley, who is in his first season at St. Bonaventure, has been the impact scorer that the Bonnies hoped he would be. Posley has scored in double figures eight times, including four 20+ point games, and ranks fifth in the Atlantic 10 in scoring at 16.3 points per game. He has connected on 25 three-pointers and ranks fourth in the A-10 with 2.8 three-pointers per game.
Series Notes:
• This will be the third meeting between the schools and the Bonnies lead the series 2-0. Both of the prior games were at the Reilly Center. The last meeting was on Dec. 13, 2008, and the Bonnies won 75-60. The first meeting was back in 1981.
UMES Notes:
• After losing five of its first six games of the year, Maryland Eastern Shore bounced back to win four of its last six. Among the Hawks' wins was a 72-66 decision at Fordham on Nov. 29. Maryland Eastern Shore has also defeated Mount St. Mary's, UMBC, North Carolina A&T and Navy.
• The Hawks come off a 60-43 loss at Old Dominion (9-1) on Friday. MES was outscored 29-17 in the second half. Mike Myers was the only Hawk to score in double figures with 13 points.
• Myers, who is a bruising force inside at 245 lbs., leads Maryland Eastern Shore in scoring (13.6 points per game) and rebounding (5.5 per game). He is shooting 60 percent from the field and has already attempted 108 free throws.
• Junior guard Devin Martin, a Baltimore native, is the team's second-leading scorer at 12.2 points per game. He shoots 39 percent (25-64) from three-point range and is an 81 percent free throw shooter.
• Devon Walker, a senior guard, averages 8.3 points per game and is also a threat from three-point range at 34 percent (25-74).
• Senior point guard Ishaq Pitt leads the Hawks with 36 assists and 14 steals. He averages only 2.2 points per game.
• In his first season at MES, head coach Bobby Collins is no stranger to the sidelines. He was previously head coach at Winston Salem State and also Hampton.
Rebounding Strong
St. Bonaventure is off to a good start to the season in many ways, and rebounding is one of those:
• The Bonnies have outrebounded six of their nine opponents with one tie.
• St. Bonaventure outrebounded Pitt by three. The Panthers came into the game with a +8.8 rebound margin.
• The Bonnies rank second in the Atlantic 10 in both rebound margin at +5.9 and rebounds per game (40.6).
• Youssou Ndoye leads the A-10 and ranks sixth among NCAA Division I players in rebounding at 11.3 per game.
• Dion Wright ranks sixth in the A-10 in rebounding at 8.4 per game; Andell Cumberbatch stands 11th with a 6.4 average.
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 16.3 points per game, which ranks fifth in the Atlantic 10. He has scored in double figures eight out of nine games, including four games of 20 points or more: 22 vs. Siena, a game-high 20 points – including nine over the game's final 3:16 – in a 59-53 win over Canisius Nov. 22; and 20 at Ohio and Binghamton. 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.
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). Between them, Adams (21) and Marcus Posley (25) have made 46 three-pointers and are shooting .410 from long range. They combine to average 28.7 points per game.
Dion Wright Backing Up Sports Illustrated's Breakout Projection
Following a sophomore season that could easily been described as a breakout, St. Bonaventure junior Dion Wright has been named to Sport Illustrated's list of the "Projected Breakout Players" for the upcoming year. Wright is slotted 22nd on the list of 50 players based upon a projection that he will increase his scoring to 13 points per game this season.
The SI system "forecasts advanced statistics -- such as offensive efficiency, usage rates, and rebound and assist rates -- for each player and then fits them within the context of their team's rotation to yield raw stats." SI wrote: "Wright was the Bonnies' most efficient player last season. He finishes well around the rim, makes his free throws and rarely turns the ball over."
A 6-7 forward from Carson, Calif., Wright averaged 8.7 points and 4.8 rebounds per game coming off the bench in all 33 games as a sophomore. He made exactly 50 percent of his field goal attempts and 74 percent of his free throws. Wright more than doubled his per-game scoring and rebounding averages from his freshman season, taking advantage of 22 minutes of playing time per contest.
So far this season, Wright has lived up to the hype. He's scored in double figures eight out of nine games and ranks second on the team in scoring at 13 points per game. Wright, who has rarely left the floor this year, is also averaging 8.4 rebounds a game, which is sixth among A-10 players.
Gregg Returns To Give Bench A Lift
Sophomore forward Denzel Gregg returned from a team-imposed, six-game suspension in the Dec. 6 win at Ohio. Gregg played 21 minutes - the most of any Bona reserve - and scored four points. The 6-7 Syracuse native then scored four points and grabbed six rebounds at Pitt. Last season, Gregg played in 26 games and averaged 2.0 points.
Ndoye A Force On Defense
While his scoring has fluctuated, what have remained constant are Youssou Ndoye's defense and rebounding. Always a force on defense, he leads the A-10 in both rebounding (11.3) and blocked shots (2.8 per game). He ranks fifth and 21st, respectively, among all Division I players in those categories.Ndoye has grabbed 10 or more rebounds in seven consecutive games with a high of 13 against both Buffalo and Binghamton.
