St. Bonaventure Game Notes (PDF)

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The Starting Five Notes:

1.  St. Bonaventure opens December with a trip to Big 4 rival Buffalo. The Bonnies look to bounce back after a close loss to Hofstra last Saturday.  The Bulls are 4-2 under new coach Nate Oats after an overtime win over Canisius on Saturday at Alumni Arena. UB made the NCAA Tournament last season under then-coach Bobby Hurley. This will be the sixth year in a row the Big 4 rivals have met.

2.  Senior guard Marcus Posley averaged 27.6 points over the last three games – 22 against Hofstra, 35 at Canisius (one shy of his career high) and 26 against Loyola.  He increased his scoring average to 19.4 for the season, which stands sixth among Atlantic 10 players.

3.  Fellow senior Dion Wright is also off to a strong start to his final season in the Brown and White. After three straight double-doubles, Wright is averaging 15.6 points and 10.0 rebounds per game. He ranks second in the A-10 in rebounding.

4.  While most of the attention from media and fans is on the Bonnies' backcourt, the frontcourt has certainly held its own so far. In addition to Wright's strong play, junior Denzel Gregg has played well, averaging 10.6 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in his sixth man role, while freshman Derrick Woods has been impressive for a young player, averaging 6.0 points and 2.8 rebounds and starting every game to date.

5.  As it has since the start of the season, St. Bonaventure continues to play with just eight healthy scholarship players. Both Jordan Tyson and Courtney Stockard are out indefinitely due to injuries they sustained in the preseason.

The Series
This will be the 10th meeting between the schools and the sixth season in a row they have met since the series was resumed in 2010.  St. Bonaventure holds a 7-2 edge in the series and has won six of the last seven meetings. 

St. Bonaventure's Last Game: Hofstra 89, Bonnies 83
St. Bonaventure came up just short on Saturday afternoon in the Reilly Center, falling 89-83 to Hofstra. The Bonnies trailed by 10 points, 79-69, with 2:48 before they rallied. Nelson Kaputo's three-pointer with 37 seconds remaining capped an 8-2 run that pulled St. Bonaventure within 81-80. Ameen Tanksley made two free throws to make it an 83-80 game, and Jaylen Adams' potential game-tying three-pointer was off the mark with 26 seconds left. Hofstra sealed the outcome at the free throw line. St. Bonaventure led 42-37 at halftime after it held the Pride to 36 percent shooting in the opening half. It was a 59-57 Bonnies lead when Hofstra went on a 16-1 run to take a 73-60 lead by the 6:41 mark. Adams led the Bonnies with 24 points while senior guard Marcus Posley, who had averaged 30 points over his last two outings, scored 22. Senior forward Dion Wright had 10 points and 10 rebounds for his third straight double-double. 

No. 1 Nationally in Free Throw Shooting
Traditionally a strength of Mark Schmidt's teams, this year's team has picked up right where last year's left off when in comes to shooting free throws. The Bonnies finished second in the Atlantic 10 last season at .706. Entering the Buffalo game, St. Bonaventure has made 84 percent of its free throws as a team (95-113), which is No. 1 nationally among all NCAA Division I teams. Fellow A-10 member La Salle is second at 82 percent. Marcus Posley is tied for fifth nationally at .962 (25-26); he started out the season making his first 25 free throws before missing one in the closing minute of the Hofstra game. Point guard Jaylen Adams is 21-24 (.875), Denzel Gregg is 16-20 (.800) and Dion Wright is 16-21 (.762). 

After Slow Start, Posley Puts Petal Down
The seasons's first two games were uncharacteristically quiet for senior guard Marcus Posley. A preseason All-Conference selection after he averaged 16.7 points per game last season, Posley scored only five points in the season opener and nine at Syracuse. He was 5-26 from the field over those two games (4-18 from three-point range) and did not attempt a free throw. Since the start of the Loyola game, however, Posley has looked more like himself. He scored 26 points against Loyola, then dominated at Canisius, scoring 35 points, which was one shy of his career high, and scored 22 against Hofstra. Over the two wins, Posley was 18-32 from the field and 19-19 at the free throw line. He is now averaging 19.4 points per game, which ranks sixth in the Atlantic 10. He also leads the A-10 in free throw shooting at .962 (25-26). 

Gregg Seizing His Opportunity
Starting out his junior season, Denzel Gregg has the opportunity to become a player the Bonnies can depend on heavily. A role player most of his first two seasons, Gregg came on strong at the end of last year, earning starts in the last five games. The lanky, 6-7 forward opened this season with his first career double-double, 15 points and 11 rebounds in the Nov. 13 win over Binghamton. He played 31 minutes coming off the bench and also blocked four shots. Gregg followed that with an 11-point, eight-rebound effort in front of his hometown fans in Syracuse. Gregg has scored in double figures three times and is averaging 10.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.0 blocked shots per game.