ST. BONAVENTURE (1-0) at CANISIUS (0-1)
Saturday, Nov. 9 - 4:00 p.m.
Buffalo, N.Y.
TV: ESPN+
Radio: Bonnies Online Network / 100.1 FM The Hero

OPENING TIP

• The St. Bonaventure men's basketball team travels for the first time this season, making the short trip to Buffalo for the 172nd meeting all-time with the Canisius Golden Griffins. 
• St. Bonaventure is 1-0 for the fourth consecutive season after defeating CSUN, 70-56, on Monday night at the Reilly Center. CSUN went on to win at Le Moyne, 97-75, on Wednesday. 
• The Bonnies are 52-53 all-time against the Griffs in games played in the city of Buffalo - both on campus at Canisius and at downtown arenas over the years.
• Bona's is searching for its first 2-0 start to a season since 2021-22. Canisius has spoiled the second game of the season for the Bonnies with wins in Game No. 2 in each of the past two years. Canisius has represented the second game of the season for the Bonnies in now four straight seasons - Bona's last 2-0 start in '21-22 began with wins over Siena and Canisius on the way to a 23-win campaign that year.
• In a great example of the current landscape of college basketball, just three active players - one from Bona and two from Canisius - have taken part in the rivalry previously - Noel Brown (2 points, 8 min last year) and Cam Palesse (2 pts, 4 min) and TJ Porter (0 pt, 6 min) of the Griffs.

TRENDING NUMBERS
1-0 –  The Bonnies are 1-0 for the 13th time in 18 seasons under head coach Mark Schmidt. 
2-0 –  The Bonnies are seeking their seventh 2-0 start to a season under Coach Schmidt.
7 – Bona's transfers have experience in seven different Division I conferences prior to this season: Big Ten, SEC, Missouri Valley, Big Sky, Mountain West, WAC and NEC. 
8 –  New NCAA uniform number rules instituted last year allow players to wear any numbers from 0-99. This year, for the first time ever, a Bonnies player has number 8. Jonah Hinton becomes the first Bona's player to ever don 8. 
9 – SBU has scored double-digit Atlantic 10 victories nine times since Mark Schmidt took over the program in 2007-08. Since that time, only Dayton and VCU have accomplished that feat more (10 times each). 
10 – St. Bonaventure has 10 newcomers on the roster this season. Seven joined the program via the transfer portal.
15 – Melvin Council Jr. scored 15 or more points in 17 of 27 games played last season at Wagner.
18 – The Bonnies have averaged 18 wins per season during the Mark Schmidt Era. 
26 – Bona's roster boasts a combined 26 seasons of collegiate experience entering this year.
385 – Head coach Mark Schmidt scored his 385th career head coaching victory Monday vs. CSUN, 303 of which have come at SBU.

GIVEN THE CHANCE
Senior guard Chance Moore shined in the season-opener vs. CSUN, leading all scorers with 18 points to go along with nine rebounds, three assists and two steals. He loves season-openers: last year with Missouri State, he tallied 24 points and eight boards at West Virginia. He tallied double-figure scoring 15 times with the Bears last season.

NEW CAREER HIGHS
Bonnies junior Lajae Jones surpassed his previous Division I career-high point total (13) in Monday's win over CSUN when he tallied 16 points in his first game wearing a Bonnies uniform. He had set his previous high while with Tarleton State against Kansas Christian Nov. 10, 2022. Last year while at Barton (KS) Community College, he averaged 15.4 ppg, earning NJCAA Division I Championship Game MVP honors for the national champions.

Redshirt junior Michael Folarin also set a Division I career high in blocks with three in the CSUN win as well.

TEAM CAPTAINS
St. Bonaventure has selected Noel Brown and senior transfer Melvin Council Jr. as its team captains for this season. The captains were voted upon by their teammates following the conclusion of summer training.

SERIES HISTORY
St. Bonaventure leads, 102-69
St. Bonaventure has played Canisius more times than any other opponent in program history. The Little Three rivals met for the first time in the 1919-20 season when the Bonnies defeated the Griffs, 31-14, in Butler Gym. Since, the teams have met 171 times with the Bonnies scoring 102 victories. The teams met at least once every year between 1946 and 2000 and then every season between 2001 and 2019 before the pandemic paused the series in 2020. Canisius grabbed a victory at KeyBank Arena in downtown Buffalo in 2019, but the Bonnies seized a 69-60 win on home court at the Reilly Center in 2021. Bona's will look to avenge a pair of heartbreakers vs. the Griffs the past two years - a 70-67 decision for Canisius came in the last meeting a season ago. The last time the teams met at the Koessler Center, the Griffs outlasted the Bonnies in overtime.

Canisius holds a 53-52 edge all-time in the city of the Buffalo while the Bonnies have held court over the years in their home building including a stellar 34-7 mark inside the Reilly Center.  Overtime meetings in the series have been fairly rare – the 2022 game marked just the eighth contest that has needed extra time in the series.

CANISIUS NOTES

• Canisius men's basketball has a new coach at the helm: During the offseason, Jim Christian was named the program's 25th head coach. Before coming to Canisius, Christian was the head coach at Kent State, TCU, Ohio, and Boston College. In his six seasons with Kent State, he won 20 games in all of them. In 2017-2018 at Boston College, Christian guided BC to the first 19-win season by the program since 2010-2011. Christian was an assistant coach and administrator at Kent State from 2021-2023. In his 20 years of coaching Christian has recorded 320 wins with a .528 winning percentage.
• Christian played two seasons of college ball at Rhode Island, helping the Rams to the NCAA Sweet 16 in 1988. Christian's Rams went 4-0 vs. St. Bonaventure in his two seasons as a player at Rhody. 
• Canisius lost the season opener at No. 10/9 Arizona, 93-64, Monday night. Junior Paul McMillan IV scored a game-high 20 points and sophomore Dylan Godfrey posted 13. 
• Cam Palesse appeared in 32 games with 16 starts last season, averaging 6.8 ppg. In all, 11 new players join the roster for this season. Senior guard Tana Kopa ranked fifth among all NEC players last year with 12.0 ppg at LIU. 
• Last time these two teams matched up, Canisius won 70-67. TJ Porter and Cam Palesse are the only two returning Canisius players who appeared in last year's game. Palesse played four minutes scoring two points while Porter played six minutes.
• In the MAAC preseason polling, Canisius was picked 12th.

BONNIES vs. MAAC
St. Bonaventure has played more games against MAAC opponents than any other conference outside of the Atlantic 10. All-time, the Bonnies are 259-172 against schools in the MAAC.

Little Three rivals Canisius (102-69) and Niagara (90-71) are both MAAC members and are the two teams that Bonaventure has squared off against more than any other, including current A-10 foes. St. Bonaventure has played every current MAAC member, including Franciscan sister school Siena (33-12). Marist is the only MAAC opponent the Bonnies have a losing record against, albeit in a small sample size (1-2). 

IMPRESSIVE RESUMES
Multiple new Bonnies bring impressive resumes with them to Western New York including a trio who boast postseason accolades at the collegiate level.

Senior Melvin Council Jr. was a standout at Wagner last year, helping lead that program to the NCAA Tournament. He was named 2024 First Team All-NEC following the season. Prior to that, he starred at Monroe College where he was selected as a 2022 NJCAA Division I First Time Honorable Mention All-America as a freshman. Following his sophomore season at Monroe, he was celebrated as a 2023 NJCAA Division I First Team All-American. 

Lajae Jones also was a star at the juco level last year, taking 2024 NJCAA Division I National Championship MVP honors as he led Barton (KS) College to the national title. He was also picked to the NJCAA Division I Second Team All-America squad. 

Chance Moore was a standout at Missouri State the past two years. In 2023, he was selected to the Missouri Valley Conference All-Bench Team after serving as Missouri State's sixth man. 

------
For the latest news on St. Bonaventure athletics, stay connected on social media. Follow the Bonnies on X @GoBonnies and get men's basketball updates @BonniesMBB. Keep up with the Bonnies on Facebook /GoBonnies and on Instagram @GoBonnies. Bonnies Men's Basketball can be found on Instagram @bonnies_mbb.