ST. BONAVENTURE (21-9, 12-5 A-10) at OKLAHOMA (19-15, 7-11 BIG 12)
Sunday, March 20 - 8:00 p.m. ET / 7:00 p.m. CT
Norman, Oklahoma
TV: ESPNU
NIT SECOND ROUND

OPENING TIP

• The St. Bonaventure men's basketball team makes its second long trip of the week, this time to Oklahoma to square off with the Sooners in the second round of the NIT. The winner will advance to play either North Texas or Virginia Tuesday or Wednesday in the quarterfinals. 
• St. Bonaventure earned a 76-68 win at Colorado in the NIT First Round Tuesday night. Jalen Adaway led all scorers with 17 points (7-13 FG) while Kyle Lofton matched a program NIT record with eight assists in addition to 15 points. Osun Osunniyi delivered his 21st career double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds along with four blocks.
• St. Bonaventure makes its 17th appearance all-time in the NIT and first since 2016 when it was a No. 1 seed. The others were 1951-52, 1957-60, 1964, 1971, 1977, 1979, 1983, 1995, 1998 and 2001. St. Bonaventure won the NIT championship in 1977.
• The Bonnies are making their 25th appearance overall in either the NIT or the NCAA Tournament and fifth under head coach Mark Schmidt who guided the Bonnies to NCAA appearances in 2012, 2018 and 2021 in addition to the 2016 NIT bid. Last year, the Bonnies captured the Atlantic 10 regular season and tournament championships. 
• The Bonnies secured their seventh consecutive top-5 finish in the final A-10 regular season standings by finishing 12-5 this season. 
• An NIT appearance will allow another opportunity for St. Bonaventure's senior class, including First Team A-10 selection Jalen Adaway (16.1 ppg, 6.2 rpg), A-10 Defensive Player of the Year Osun Osunniyi (11.2 ppg, 7.7 rpg) and Third Team selection Kyle Lofton (12.9 ppg, 5.8 apg) along with classmates Jaren Holmes (13.2 ppg, 5.0 rpg) and Dominick Welch (12.0 ppg, 5.9 rpg).

TICKET & PRE-GAME INFO
Tickets are available for Bonnies fans through the St. Bonaventure Ticket Office. Call 716-375-2500 for information. 

Fans can also purchase tickets through the OU website.

Bonnies fans attending the game can also meet pre-game at Blackbird Gastropub 575 S. University Boulevard in Norman from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.


NEWS AND NOTES

• The NIT selection committee did St. Bonaventure no favors. The Bonnies had far and away the longest trip for any first-round matchup, making the 1,538-mile trek across the country to face Colorado Tuesday in Boulder. The other longest distance traveled for a first-round team: Iona, making a 1,024-mile trip to Florida - though the Gaels played a Wednesday game. The committee allowed the Bonnies just 50 hours between selection and their first round game two time zones away. Now, Bona makes a 1,260-mile trip to Norman, OK.  
• Though the odds might have been stacked against them, the Bonnies overcame the short turnaround, cross country trip, the Colorado altitude and a 10-point second half deficit to continue their season. St. Bonaventure trailed, 46-36, two minutes into the second half before rallying for their sixth win of the year after erasing a double-digit deficit. 
• After finishing the regular season with 12 A-10 victories, St. Bonaventure owns eight straight years of at least 10 conference victories. Bona's streak is the longest active run of consecutive seasons with double-digit conference victories for any A-10 program.
• The current eight-year run of 10+ A-10 wins gives St. Bonaventure the fourth-longest such streak in conference history and second-longest among active A-10 members.
• The Bonnies scored six victories over postseason teams during the regular season: Boise State (NCAA), Marquette (NCAA), Richmond (NCAA), VCU (NIT), Saint Louis, twice (NIT). 
• Tuesday's win was Bona's third over a Power 6 opponent this season. St. Bonaventure is 3-2 against Power 6 teams this year with wins over Colorado, Marquette and Clemson (its two losses came against UConn, a five-seed in the NCAA Tournament, and Virginia Tech, the ACC champion). Tuesday's win at Colorado was Bona's first true road win at a P6 opponent since winning at Syracuse in 2017 - but it was also their first true road game against a P6 team since a 2018 contest at Syracuse. Since 2017-18, the Bonnies are 6-6 against P6 foes.

POSTSEASON NOTES

• With the first round NIT win Tuesday, St. Bonaventure captured its first national postseason victory since 2018 when it defeated UCLA in the First Four in Dayton. The Bonnies dropped a second round matchup vs. Florida that year and last season earned a No. 9 seed as the Atlantic 10 champions in the 2021 NCAA Tournament before falling against LSU in the first round. 
• The Bonnies are now 18-17 all-time in 17 trips to the NIT. Bona's win at Colorado marked their first true road win ever in NIT play (1-6). Bona defeated Rutgers at Princeton in the first round of the 1977 NIT and prior to that year, all games in the tournament were played at Madison Square Garden.
• Bona snapped a five-game NIT losing skid with the win at Colorado, dating to the 1995 second round (Marquette) and continuing vs. Vanderbilt (1998 first round), Pittsburgh (2001 first round), Syracuse (2002 first round), and Wagner (2016 first round).
• In all, the Bonnies have made six postseason appearances under head coach Mark Schmidt. This is their second trip to the NIT, three trips to the NCAA Tournament (2012, 2018, 2021) and one to the CBI (2011).

SERIES HISTORY
Oklahoma leads, 1-0
St. Bonaventure and Oklahoma have met just once in the sport of men's basketball, and that came in Norman two decades ago. 

The Bonnies dropped an 80-74 final at OU during the 2001-02 season on Dec. 5, 2001. J.R. Bremer led the Bonnies that night with 23 points while Vidal Massiah tacked on 21.

It was an early-season matchup for two very successful teams - Oklahoma would finish that season 33-5 after reaching the Final Four. 

St. Bonaventure, meanwhile, would reach the postseason as well, ultimately posting a 17-13 final record and an NIT berth. 

The Bonnies have not played any Big 12 team since a 2017 setback vs. TCU in the Emerald Coast Classic in Florida. 

St. Bonaventure has six wins all-time vs. current members of the Big 12 - though they're all against West Virginia when the Mountaineers were A-10 foes. 

ABOUT OKLAHOMA

• The Sooners were one of the first teams out of the NCAA Tournament and earned a No. 1 seed with an 18-15 overall record and 7-11 mark in the Big 12 in the first season under the leadership of head coach Porter Moser, who arrived in Norman this year after rising to national prominence in recent years at Loyola Chicago. In his final four years in Chicago, he led the Ramblers to three Missouri Valley regular season titles, six NCAA Tournament wins, two Sweet 16s and a Final Four bid in 2018. While at Loyola, he worked under Director of Athletics Steve Watson, the former AD at St. Bonaventure. Moser also has Atlantic 10 experience, working as an assistant at Saint Louis from 2007-11.
• Oklahoma scored a non-conference win over NCAA Tournament entrant Arkansas and then picked up Big 12 wins over Iowa State and Texas Tech while losing by just two to Kansas. In the Big 12 Championship Tournament, Oklahoma registered an impressive victory over No. 3 Baylor, 72-67, March 10 before suffering a heartbreaker vs. No. 14 Texas Tech, 56-55, the next day to fall off the bubble.
• OU certainly looked the part of a top seed Tuesday vs. Missouri State, downing the eighth-seeded Bears, 89-72, on home court. Umoja Gibson, fresh off being named to the Big 12 All-Tournament Team with 16 points vs. Texas Tech and 13 vs. Baylor, drained a game-high 28 points. OU has been much better at home this year than on the road: the Sooners are 12-5 at home as opposed to 3-8 in true road games.
• Like the Bonnies, the Sooners start an "old" lineup with two juniors and three seniors while guards Gibson (12.5 ppg, 2.1 rpg), Jordan Goldwire (10.5 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 3.4 apg) and forward Jalen Hill (9.1 ppg, 5.9 rpg) all average over 30 minutes per game. Gibson is one of the Big 12's best 3-point shooters, ranking second in attempts and third in 3s per game (2.53) while shooting 38 percent from long range.
• Gibson, Jordan Goldwire, Tanner Groves and Elijah Harkless all were named All-Big 12 Honorable Mention while C.J. Noland earned a spot on the Big 12 All-Freshman Team.
• OU ranks 224^th nationally in scoring offense at 69.1 ppg but is strong defensively – the Sooners are 45^th in the nation and fifth in the Big 12 at allowing 64.9 ppg. Turnovers have been an issue at times – the Sooners stand 248^th in the country in turnover margin (-1.0) thanks in large part to ranking 346 overall in turnovers with 502 this year, nearly 15 per game.

TRENDING NUMBERS 
3-2 – St. Bonaventure is 3-2 against Power 6 teams this season - the Bonnies defeated Marquette and Clemson in November's Charleston Classic before battling UConn to the wire in December and falling to Virginia Tech in the non-conference finale.
3 – Osun Osunniyi has three or more blocks in 58 career games. With three blocks in the regular season finale vs. Richmond, Osunniyi broke the school record for career swats with 290, breaking a mark that had stood for 22 years.
3 – Dominick Welch delivered four 3-pointers in Tuesday's win at Colorado. In nine career postseason games (A-10 Tournament, NCAA Tournament, NIT), Welch has made at least one three in every contest including multiple treys in seven of those games (2.8 per game on average).
8 – Kyle Lofton tied a Bonnies NIT single-game record with eight assists Tuesday at Colorado, matching Shandue McNeill (1995 vs. Southern Miss) and Jim Baron (1977 vs. Villanova).
10 – The Bonnies made 10 3-pointers in Tuesday's NIT First Round win at Colorado, just the fourth time this season Bona has drained double-digit treys in a game.
19 – Jalen Adaway has scored in double figures in 19 consecutive games. 
89 – Kyle Lofton produced his 89th career game of scoring double figures in Tuesday's win at Colorado (15 points).
141 – St. Bonaventure head coach Mark Schmidt owns 141 A-10 wins, recently breaking a tie with former Bonnies and Rhode Island coach Jim Baron for fifth in A-10 history. In addition to his coaching career, Baron helped key Bona's 1977 NIT championship as that team's point guard.
585 – Kyle Lofton enters the weekend with 585 career assists and needs five more to tie Jaylen Adams, '18, for third in school history behind only Shandue McNeill, '97, (616) and Marques Green, '04 (657).
879 – Osun Osunniyi surpassed George Carter, '67, for fifth in school history for career boards (850) during the Feb. 26 win at Saint Joseph's. He needs nine more to tie Andrew Nicholson, '12, for fourth in Bona history.
4,300 – Kyle Lofton surpassed 4,000 minutes played for his career during the Feb. 16 win over UMass. At over 4,300 minutes now played for his career, that is equivalent to nearly three days.
4,336 – Bona will have traveled 4,336 miles during NIT play when the game tips off Sunday between a round trip to Boulder for round one and the trek to Norman for round two.
11,000 – Bona's three seniors who have played their entire four-year careers together - Lofton, Osunniyi and Welch - have combined to play over 11,000 minutes with each other in Bonnies uniforms.