St. Bonaventure Game Notes (PDF)

TV: Fox Sports Carolina (MSG+ among affiliates)
Radio: WPIG 95.7 FM, ESPN Radio 1450 AM (Olean, NY) with Gary Nease (pxp) and Don Scholla
Twitter: @BonniesMBB

The Starting Five Notes:

1. St. Bonaventure and Syracuse – two Universites separated by about 180 miles – meet on the hardwood for the first time since 2009.  Regular opponents in the 1970s and 1980s, the schools have only met five times since 2001. The Bonnies have never won at Syracuse.

2. In a storyline which will likely be the early-season focus, St. Bonaventure has just eight healthy scholarship players. Injuries have sidelined both Jordan Tyson and Courtney Stockard indefinitely. Walk-on Caleb McGuire gives the Bonnies nine players in uniform. Five experienced players lead St. Bonaventure. Senior co-captains Dion Wright and Marcus Posley combined to average 30.2 points per game last season.

3. This Bonnies opened the year with a 63-53 win last Friday at home over Binghamton. Wright led all scorers with 20 points while Denzel Gregg had 15 points and 11 rebounds. Freshman Nelson Kaputo played key minutes off the bench, finishing with seven points and five assists. Bona's defense was solid, holding the Bearcats to 29.8 percent shooting and forcing 18 turnovers.

4. Two St. Bonaventure players, junior forward Denzel Gregg and sophomore guard Idris Taqqee, have intriguing story angles connected to this game. Gregg is a native of Syracuse who grew up going to SU games in the Carrier Dome. Taqqee was the prep school roommate of Syracuse sophomore guard Caleb Joseph at Cushing Academy (more later in notes).

5. Coach Mark Schmidt is in his ninth season at the helm of the St. Bonaventure program. Schmidt, who is the fourth-longest tenured coach in the Atlantic 10, has 125 wins at Bona's. He needs eight wins to pass Jim Baron for sixth place on Bona's coaching wins list, and 10 to pass Eddie Melvin. 

Series Notes
• This will be the 27th meeting between the schools. Syracuse leads the series 23-3.
• St. Bonaventure is 0-9 vs. the Orange at the Carrier Dome.
• Fifteen times that the teams have played, Syracuse has been nationally ranked.
• Syracuse has not played at St. Bonaventure's Reilly Center since 1984.

St. Bonaventure vs. Syracuse: The Last Meeting: Dec. 19, 2009 at the Carrier Dome, St. Bonaventure gave a spirited effort against the No. 5-ranked Orange but fell short, 85-72. The Bonnies' upset bid was led by star center Andrew Nicholson, who scored 18 points on 9-10 shooting before he was ejected for a flagrant foul with 8:29 left in the game. Chris Matthews scored 17 points for the Bonnies, who were 6-27 from three point range.

St. Bonaventure's Last Game: Bonnies 63, Binghamton 53
Last Friday evening at the Reilly Center, St. Bonaventure relied on its defense and strong second half play from Dion Wright, Denzel Gregg and freshman Nelson Kaputo to top Binghamton. Wright scored 16 of his game-high 20 points in the second half to lead the Bonnies. Playing 31 minutes off the bench, junior Denzel Gregg  and recorded the first double-double of his career, scoring 15 points and grabbing 11 rebounds to go with four blocks. St. Bonaventure led by just two points at 50-48 with 5:24 left, but took control with a 7-0 spurt keyed by Kaputo. The Toronto native had a three-pointer, an assist and a steal in the run that gave the Bonnies a 57-48 lead with 3:35 remaining. Binghamton could not come any closer than six points after that.
Jaylen Adams scored 10 points while only turning the ball over once in a full-game 40 minute effort. Senior Marcus Posley, the Bonnies' leading returning scorer, had a quiet game with just five points on 2-10 shooting. He did have four assists, three steals and seven rebounds.

Gregg And Taqqee's Syracuse Connections
When they were teammates and roommates at Cushing (Mass.) Academy, Idris Taqqee and Caleb Joseph both pursued their dreams of earning Division I offers. After they chose their schools, Taqqee signing with St. Bonaventure and Joseph at Syracuse, little did they know they would face off against each other early in their sophomore seasons. The schools, after all, have not been regular opponents in recent years.
For St. Bonaventure junior Denzel Gregg, this will be a homecoming. Although he was born in Brooklyn, Gregg's family moved to Syracuse when he was very young. Gregg attended Bishop Grimes High until his junior season, when he transferred to St. Thomas More (Conn.). His parents Renee and Les Gregg still reside in Syracuse. The Gregg family expects a large contingent to cheer on Denzel on Tuesday.

Scouting The Orange
Syracuse opened its season with a 57-47 win over Lehigh last Friday at the Carrier Dome. The Orange led by 20 points at halftime, holding Lehigh to just 12 points. The Mountain Hawks finished the first 20 minutes connecting on 2-of-23 from the field (.087). The duo of senior forward Michael Gbinije and freshman guard Malachi Richardson fueled the Orange offense on the night, finishing with 16 and 14 points, respectively. Richardson hit four 3-pointers in his first collegiate start.

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