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Barry Evans

Bonnies To Face Jackrabbits in South Dakota Visit

Game to be held in prestigious Sanford Pentagon

11/14/2022 10:57:00 AM

ST. BONAVENTURE (1-1) vs. SOUTH DAKOTA STATE (1-1)
Tuesday, Nov. 15 – 8:00 p.m. Eastern / 7:00 p.m. Central
Sioux Falls, S.D. – Sanford Pentagon
TV: ESPN+

OPENING TIP
The St. Bonaventure men's basketball team treks to South Dakota to play South Dakota State on Tuesday night in a stiff early season test for a young Bonnies squad looking to bounce back from an overtime heartbreaker at Canisius Saturday night.

MATCHUP NOTES
  • A point of emphasis from head coach Mark Schmidt and his staff this week following Saturday's 84-80 setback in overtime vs. Canisius was defense. Bona's has traditionally been a steady defensive unit under Schmidt, particularly in recent seasons. The Bonnies have held opponents to 65 points or less 29 times since the start of the 2020-21 season, going 26-3 in those contests.
  • Bona played its first true road non-conference regular season game in over two years Saturday at Canisius (though SBU won road games at Colorado, at Oklahoma and at Virginia during NIT postseason play). The Bonnies went 3-4 in neutral court games last season, scoring wins over Boise State, Clemson and Marquette in the Charleston (S.C.) Classic last November.
  • SBU is 10-5 in neutral court games over the past three seasons combined.
  • While Tuesday's game is a neutral court contest officially, the mileage tells a
    different tale: While SDSU is playing just 53 miles from its home campus, the Bonnies are making a trip of 1,120 miles.
  • The Bonnies are playing their first-ever game in the Dakotas. St. Bonaventure has only played a team from the Dakotas once, beating the University of South Dakota at home in the 2013-14 season opener. Bona's and SDSU have never previously met.
  • South Dakota will become the 36th state that St. Bonaventure has played a men's basketball game in. SBU has also played games in Washington, DC, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada, and the Cayman Islands.
OPENING WEEK NUGGETS
  • Kyrell Luc seems poised to continue Bona's long run of outstanding point guard play. The Bonnies have had just two starting point guards over the past eight years, First Team All-Atlantic 10 selections Jaylen Adams (the Australian NBL MVP last year for the league champions who logged time previously with the Atlanta Hawks, Portland Trailblazers and Milwaukee Bucks) and Kyle Lofton (transferred to Florida for fifth season). In his first two games stepping into the point for the Bonnies, he averaged 18.0 points and seven assists.
  • Luc handed out a career-high nine assists in Saturday's game at Canisius. His previous high of seven assists came last year against Navy when he was suiting up for Holy Cross. Luc finished last year with 74 assists against 83 turnovers, but thus far his assist-to-turnover ratio is 14-3. At Holy Cross last year, Luc owned a 17 percent assist rate when on the floor.
  • Daryl Banks III also posted 18.0 ppg in the first two contests, recording a game-high 22 points at Canisius. Banks now has 47 career games of double-figure scoring after three All-Conference campaigns at Saint Peter's.
  • Anouar Mellouk is the only member of the active roster who was with the program last season. He's shown that he put his redshirt season to good use, posting a career-high 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the floor Saturday.
  • Barry Evans has made an immediate impact. The true freshman averaged 10.0 points and 6.5 rebounds last week, playing 32 and 37 minutes respectively.
  • Redshirt sophomore Chad Venning recorded 11 points off the bench at Canisius, his sixth career game of double-figure scoring in 44 career contests after transferring from Morgan State.
ABOUT THE VENUE
Since opening in 2013, the Sanford Pentagon has hosted 63 Division I men's college basketball games. The Pentagon has also hosted 16 NCAA Division I women's college basketball games including a doubleheader last season featuring eventual national champion South Carolina, Final Four participant Louisville, Sweet 16 participant South Dakota and NCAA Tournament qualifier Arizona. SDSU is no stranger to playing there: it will be the 18th game for the Jackrabbits at the venue (8-10 all-time).

Gonzaga and Baylor will play in the Sanford Pentagon later this year as well with a December matchup on deck.

SERIES HISTORY
Tuesday will be the first-ever meeting between the Bonnies and Jackrabbits.

ABOUT SOUTH DAKOTA STATE
The Jackrabbits, like the Bonnies, split their first two games last week. Also like the Bonnies, SDSU's lone loss came in an overtime heartbreaker in the season-opener on the road at Akron, 81-80, before bouncing back with a thriller that went their way, 68-66, at Boise State.

SDSU has had time to prepare for the Bonnies with their last action coming on Nov. 9. In the Boise State win, senior Matt Dentlinger provided the game-winning layup with one second to play. Dentlinger poured in 19 points in the win while Zeke Mayo (13), Alex Arians (11) and William Kyle III (11) all posted double figures. It will be a busy week for the Jackrabbits: after playing the Bonnies, they'll immediately fly to Arkansas for a Wednesday night date with the Razorbacks, before hosting Stephen F. Austin Saturday.

The Jackrabbits have built a Summit League power in recent years, winning at least a share of the league's regular season title in five straight seasons. Last year, the program reached new heights as SDSU went a perfect 18-0 in league play en route to a 30-win season, the league title and NCAA Tournament appearance.  The shortened pandemic season aside, the Jackrabbits have won at least 22 games every year since 2017-18.

Luke Appel and Zeke Mayo were both picked to the All-Summit League First Team in preseason after Appel posted 11.1 ppg last season and Mayo was named to the Summit All-Newcomer League with 10.6 ppg.

BONNIES VS. THE SUMMIT LEAGUE
Not only has St. Bonaventure never played South Dakota State, the program has little past experience with the Summit League, SDSU's home, at all. Bona's has played just three games ever against current members of the Summit, with a 2-1 record including wins over South Dakota (2013) and Oral Roberts (1997) and a 1966 loss vs. Denver.

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For the latest news on St. Bonaventure athletics, stay connected on social media. Follow the Bonnies on Twitter @GoBonnies and get men's basketball updates @BonniesMBB. Keep up with the Bonnies on Facebook /GoBonnies and on Instagram @GoBonnies
 
 
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