BONNIES, PATRIOTS MEET AGAIN: St. Bonaventure and George Mason will meet for the second time this season on Sunday in the second half of the first-ever home-and-home series between the two teams. St. Bonaventure will try to return the favor after Mason scored a 76-63 victory at The RC on Jan. 31. In that game, Bona's junior Arielle Harvey netted a career high 22 points while senior Mariah Ruff added 17. Natalie Butler delivered 22 points and 17 rebounds for Mason in the victory.

 

30 X 3: For a third time this season, senior Mariah Ruff poured in 30 points in the Bonnies' heartbreaking setback at VCU last Sunday in overtime. Ruff finished with 30 points and nine assists – the first time in over two decades that a Bonnies player has scored 30 points while handing out at least nine dimes. Ruff was just one off her career high in scoring of 31 points set vs. Saint Joseph's last month, and also posted 30 points at La Salle in January as well to become to only A-10 player with three 30-point performances this season.

 

MORE ON MARIAH: Ruff has been excellent all season while putting together one of the best campaigns of any player in the Atlantic 10 in 2017-18. Ruff is the Atlantic 10's leading scorer in conference play, averaging 19.8 ppg. Ruff's 42 3-pointers against A-10 competition are also best in the league. For the entire year, the Oneonta, N.Y. native ranks eighth in scoring (16.3 ppg), second in assists (5.0 apg) and fourth in 3s (68). She enters Sunday three 3-pointers away from fifth in program history (Katelyn Murray '09 - 197). Wednesday vs. Richmond, she made a run at the second triple-double in program history as she finished with 11 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds. She also became just the fifth player in program history to reach 400 career assists.

MAKING THEM COUNT: Though limited to 17 games this season due to a leg injury suffered during December that cost her nine games, junior Mckenna Maycock continues to rank among the league's leaders in field goal percentages. Maycock ranks second in the A-10 in percentage from beyond the arc – 45.8 percent (27-for-59) and ranks eighth in overall field goal percentage (47.8 percent). She delivered 15 points last Sunday at VCU and has registered double-figure scoring in five straight games.

 

PILING BOARDS: Freshman Emily Calabrese made an impact on the boards last Sunday at VCU, pulling down a career high 11 rebounds. Her previous best was 10, coming against Davidson last month. Calabrese has put in veteran minutes this season, starting every game while averaging nearly 29 minutes per contest in her debut campaign. Wednesday vs. Richmond, she finished with 12 points, her second-highest point total as a Bonnie behind the 19 she posted vs. Rhode Island last month.

 

RAINING 3s: St. Bonaventure finished with 12 3-pointers in Sunday's game at VCU. The Bonnies have connected on 10 or more 3s in six times this year, including in two of the past three games (13 vs. George Mason on Jan. 31). That's the most for the Bonnies since hitting double-digit 3s seven times during the 2010-11 season, but took 32 games to get there.

 

• The Bonnies and Patriots face off for the sixth time with the two squads having split
• The first four games at two wins apiece. The home team had won all of the previous four games prior to this season.
• George Mason built a 16-point third quarter lead then held on late for a 52-49 win in Fairfax, Va. on Dec. 31, 2016. A 19-0 Mason run spanning the second and third quarters gave the Patriots a 37-21 lead with 5:26 left in the third, but the Bonnies chipped away late and closed within a bucket with 21 seconds to play. The Bonnies had a chance to tie on the final possession, but an effort at the tying three went around the rim and out.

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