ST. BONAVENTURE (6-2, 0-0 A-10) vs. SIENA (2-7, 1-1 MAAC)
Saturday, Dec. 9 - 4:00 p.m.
Reilly Center
TV: ESPN+
Radio: Bonnies Online Network

OPENING TIP

• St. Bonaventure will play its third consecutive rivalry game, seeking the rival sweep for the week when the Bonnies take on Francsican sister school Siena Saturday afternoon. SBU is fresh off wins over Western New York rivals Buffalo and Niagara on the road and will seek its fourth consecutive victory overall. Saturday's game will be the final game inside the Reilly Center with students on campus until Jan. 17.
• St. Bonaventure is coming off its most impressive performance of the season as the Bonnies pounded Niagara, 94-60, on Wednesday night. Mika Adams-Woods had a career-high 25 points on 10-of-11 shooting from the floor including 5-5 from 3-point land. Noel Brown was a perfect 7-7 from the floor as he had 15 points off the bench. Chad Venning and Moses Flowers each added 14 points apiece while Daryl Banks III gave Bona a fifth player in double figures with 10 points.
• Bona shot nearly 67 percent from the floor in Wednesday night's victory (38-57) and went 12-19 from beyond the arc. The last time the Bonnies shot better than their Wednesday total of 66.7% came in a 98-71 win vs. Norfolk State Nov. 28, 2009 in Illinois State's Redbird Arena when they finished at a 67.3% clip (37-55), though on that night, they went just 8-17 from three. 
• Bona's 34-point win over Niagara is the second-largest margin of victory for a Bonnies team in 161 all-time meetings vs. the Purple Eagles. Only a 104-68 win by the Final Four bound 1969-70 squad led by the great late Bob Lanier stands as a larger thumping.
• Adams-Woods is averaging 18.0 points and 6.3 assists over Bona's current four-game winning streak. During that time, he's shot better than 69 percent from the floor (27-39).
• During the current winning streak, the Bonnies are shooting 53 percent from the floor overall and 45 percent from beyond the arc (43-96). 

TRENDING NUMBERS 
4  – Only three Division I teams have at least four active 1,000-point scorers on their roster: St. John's (6), TCU (5) and St. Bonaventure (4).
10  –  Barry Evans recorded a new career high with 10 rebounds Dec. 6 at Niagara. He has hauled in six or more boards in six consecutive games entering the Siena contest.
10  – The Bonnies have at least 10 3-pointers in each of their last four games, hitting 10 in each the wins over Bucknell (10) and Buffalo (10) and 11 triples vs. Miami (OH) before a season-high 12 treys at Niagara. Bona's recent 3-point success is no surprise considering Bonnies players have over 800 combined career 3s on the active roster. 
13  – Bona limited Niagara to just 13 rebounds in their victory on Wednesday. The Bonnies were +17 on the glass and have now won the battle of the boards in six of the last seven games.
20  – The Bonnies have seven players on their active roster who have single-game career highs of 20 points or more. Nationally, only TCU (9), BYU (8), Missouri (8) and New Mexico (8) have more.
40  – Mika Adams-Woods played the full 40 minutes in the Dec. 2 win at Buffalo - it was the first time he's played the full 40 in his Bonnies career and the third time overall in his collegiate career. Daryl Banks III also played all 40 minutes in that game, a total he has hit in 21 of his first 40 games as a Bonnie. 
66.7%  – St. Bonaventure shot 66.7% from the floor in its Dec. 6 win at Niagara (38-57), representing the best field goal shooting performance by the Bonnies in a game since a 98-71 win vs. Norfolk State in November 2009 when they finished at 67.3% (37-55). On that night, future Bona Hall of Famer and first round NBA Draft pick Andrew Nicholson led the way with 29 points on 11-13 shooting.
77.3%  – St. Bonaventure ranks 24th nationally so far this year in free throw percentage at 77.3% on the season. Daryl Banks III is best on the team, sinking 91% of his tries at the line (20-22).
171  – St. Bonaventure has an active streak of 171 consecutive games with at least one 3-pointer made dating to Nov. 25, 2017. The last time Bona finished a game without a trey was the day before, a win over Maryland on a neutral court Nov. 24, 2017.
264  – The Bonnies have totaled 264 points of offense in the last three games (vs. Miami, at Buffalo, at Niagara). The last time they reached that total in a three-game stretch: Feb. 27-March 9, 2018, which included an epic triple overtime win over Davidson, when the Bonnies had the same exact three-game total.
285  – The Nov. 22 win over Bucknell marked win No. 285 for head coach Mark Schmidt with St. Bonaventure. Bona's all-time winningest coach, Schmidt now has 86 more wins than any other Bonaventure head man.  
500  – The Bucknell game also represented the 500th career game on the sidelines for Schmidt at Bonaventure.

SERIES HISTORY
St. Bonaventure leads, 32-12
Saturday marks the 45th meeting between the Bonnies and the Saints. The Franciscan Cup rivals met every year between 2010-19, but the series was paused in 2020 due to the pandemic.

St. Bonaventure owned the series for decades, dating back to the first meeting in 1939-40. Overall, the Bonnies have a 32-12 series advantage. Since the renewal of the rivalry with the start of the Franciscan Cup series 13 years ago, though, the battles have been much more even as the Bonnies own a 7-5 advantage. Prior to the beginning of the Franciscan Cup series with a Bonnies win in 2010 at the Reilly Center, the two teams had just met sparingly over the previous three decades. St. Bonaventure and Siena met 26 times between 1939 and 1961, but then did not play for nearly 20 years as the Bonnies won a one-off meeting in 1980 and then the series paused for another 17 years as the squads got together four times between 1997-2001 before another nine-year break.

The Bonnies are looking to take the Br. Ed Coughlin Franciscan Cup back home after Siena captured last year's game in Albany, 76-70. An 8-0 Siena run under two minutes proved the difference in a game that saw six ties and 13 lead changes. Moses Flowers led the Bonnies with 14 points while Assa Essamvous finished with 13 and Chad Venning chipped in 12. 

Bona has won three straight meetings at the Reilly Center (2016, 2018, 2021).

Br. Ed Coughlin, OFM Franciscan Cup
The trophy awarded to the victor of the annual meeting between St. Bonaventure and Siena was renamed in honor of Br. Ed Coughlin, OFM, who passed away July 30, 2019, following complications from heart surgery. Coughlin earned his bachelor's degree from St. Bonaventure and returned to the University in the late 1970s, working several assignments including serving twice as director of the college's Franciscan Institute, overseeing the research program's academic course offerings and publications, and working on the summer faculty. In 1996, he was named provincial secretary of the Holy Name Province of the Order of Friars Minor. Br. Ed, as he was known across both campuses, became Siena College president in November 2014. He also served on the Board of Trustees at both institutions.

ABOUT SIENA

• Siena enters the weekend at 2-7 on the season and 1-1 in MAAC play after splitting the first weekend of conference action last weekend when the Saints scored a home win over Rider, 67-65, on Dec. 1 before falling at Mount St. Mary's, 80-48, two days later. On Wednesday, the Saint fell vs. Bryant, 67-51.
• The Saints have been playing without leading scorer Michael Eley who has played just three games due to an ankle injury. He's posted better than 14 points per contest when healthy.
• Giovanni Emejuru delivers better than 12 points per contest and has a 61% success rate on field goal tries. The redshirt sophomore transfer from Sam Houston is 6-foot-11 and 265 pounds, giving the Saints a formidable force inside.
• Points have been hard to come by for the Saints – they're averaging 56.8 ppg, which ranks 348 out of 351 Division I teams this season. Turnovers have also been an issue – their -4.8 turnover margin also stands 348^th nationally.
• Siena was selected fourth in the MAAC Preseason Coaches' Poll while Eley, last year's MAAC Rookie of the Year, was named to the MAAC Preseason Second Team. The Saints have finished in the top three of the MAAC final standings in each of the last five years, a program record, under head coach Carmen Maciariello. Siena's 61 conference regular season wins since 2018-19 is a MAAC-best.

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