ST. BONAVENTURE (7-1) at BUCKNELL (4-5)
Wednesday, Dec. 4 – 7:00 p.m.
Lewisburg, Pa.
TV: ESPN+
Radio: Bonnies Online Network / 100.1 FM The Hero

OPENING TIP

• St. Bonaventure will play its third consecutive game away from home when the Bonnies travel to Bucknell Wednesday night. The Bonnies went 1-1 at the ESPN NIT Tip-Off at Walt Disney World over the Thanksgiving holiday, suffering their first loss at the hands of unbeaten Utah State, 72-67, before bouncing back with a win vs. Northern Iowa, 68-56.
• At 7-1, the Bonnies have their best start through eight games since three years ago when St. Bonaventure started 8-1 on the way to 23 wins and a run to the NIT semifinals. A win on Wednesday would equal that start; prior to the 2021-22 season, the last time the Bonnies began 8-1 through nine games was the 1970-71 campaign.
• In the first NCAA NET rankings of the season, St. Bonaventure ranked No. 57, second-highest among all Atlantic 10 teams. Only Dayton (40) ranked higher among A-10 squads.
• Melvin Council Jr. was named to the ESPN NIT Tip-Off All-Tournament Team after averaging 14 points and 8 rebounds in the two games, including a double-double of 13 points, 12 rebounds vs. Utah State. Dasonte Bowen earned a spot on this week's A-10 Honor Roll (16.0 ppg, 3.5 apg).
• St. Bonaventure has already secured a winning non-conference record – it will be the 15th time in 18 seasons under head coach Mark Schmidt that the Bonnies have achieved a winning record during non-conference play.

 
DASONTE ON THE COME UP
Entering this season, junior guard Dasonte Bowen had posted five career double figure scoring games while at Iowa the last two years. He's reached that total in all but two games this season thus far and was at his best in the ESPN NIT Tip-Off at Disney World over Thanksgiving: Bowen registered 15 points vs. Utah State and then the next day he matched his career-high of 17 points in a win over Northern Iowa Nov. 29. 

Bowen has always shown prowess at the point: As a sophomore with the Hawkeyes last year, he recorded a 3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.

CAPTAIN EFFICIENCY
Grad captain Noel Brown continues his high efficiency shooting rate with a strong start to this season. Last year, he made good on 71 percent of his field goal attempts (76-107) which was just shy of making Bonnies history. The all-time program record for field goal percentage in a season is held by Osun Osunniyi who connected on 61.5 percent of field goal tries during the 2019-20 season. Brown was a little short of making the minimum field goals per game of 2.5, 
however, as he recorded just over 2.3 made FGs on average in 2023-24.

Thus far this season, he's making over 72 percent of his tries from the floor and checks in at over 71 percent for his Bonaventure career in 41 games with the Bonnies. Brown has been named to the Atlantic 10 Weekly Honor Roll twice in the early going. He scored a career-high 22 points and also matched a career-best of seven rebounds in the win Nov. 24 vs. Bryant. 

Brown enters this week ranked fifth nationally among all Division I players in field goal percentage (72.7%). 

According to KenPom, Brown's 75.9% true shooting percentage is 11th nationally.

TRENDING NUMBERS
4 - Senior guard Chance Moore recorded a career-high four blocks vs. Utah State (in the first nine minutes) and then had a career-best four steals the next day vs. Northern Iowa.
8.9 - The Bonnies are averaging 8.9 steals per game thus far - that total leads the Atlantic 10 and stands 57th nationally.
14 - St. Bonaventure swiped 14 steals in the Nov. 29 win vs. Northern Iowa - the most for the team since hitting that number March 1, 2022. SBU has not had more steals since having 15 vs. Jackson St. 11/10/18.
62.9 - The Bonnies currently rank 28th nationally in scoring defense, holding opponents to 62.9 ppg. SBU has not allowed an opponent to score 90 or more points in a game in a span of 100 games (11/27/21).
+96 - SBU has had power in the paint so far: Bona's is +96 in paint scoring though eight games and has held a plus paint margin in all contests. The Bonnies have posted 46 paint points in a game three times already. 

SERIES HISTORY
St. Bonaventure leads, 6-2
This will be the ninth meeting all-time between the Bonnies and Bison with SBU taking six of the first eight contests.

St. Bonaventure captured a 67-61 victory on home court last November, using 16 points each from Moses Flowers and Mika Adams-Woods. That win avenged an overtime loss for the Bonnies, 88-85, in the previous meeting in November 2018.

Bona will be making its first trip to Lewisburg, Pa. since Dec. 30, 2008, when the Bonnies prevailed in a double overtime thriller, 90-82. On that night, a freshman Andrew Nicholson dominated the paint for a school record nine blocks along with 22 points and eight rebounds. Today, Nicholson is a member of the St. Bonaventure Athletics Hall of Fame and ranks second all-time in Bonnies scoring (2,103 points).

In all, two games in the series have gone to extra time while five of the eight games have been decided by six points or less.
 
BONNIES VS. THE PATRIOT LEAGUE
St. Bonaventure is 20-14 all-time against members of the Patriot League, having played Colgate the most times (4-7). Bona's last meeting against a Patriot member was last year – against this same Bucknell squad.
 
ABOUT BUCKNELL

• Bucknell opened the season 4-2 but is looking to snap a three-game losing skid that started Nov. 23 vs. Rider. The Bison also dropped a contest at Maryland and lost to Siena on a neutral floor in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., on Saturday, 71-58.
• The Bison are in the second year under the leadership of head coach John Griffin III who led Bucknell to a tied for second-place finish in the Patriot League regular season standings in his first season, ultimately reaching the semifinals of the conference tournament. After a slow start to the season, the Bison finished 10-8 in Patriot League play despite a 14-19 record overall.
• Bucknell is a veteran squad as 10 of its roster members are upperclassmen, either juniors or seniors.
• Junior center Noah Williamson was named to the Preseason All-Patriot League Team after the 7-footer was an all-league selection last year (12.3 ppg, 6.4 rpg).
• Williamson leads the team in both scoring (14.6 ppg) and rebounding (7.2 rpg) thus far with a strong start to the season. Josh Basoe adds 14.3 ppg and a team-best 32 assists thus far.
• Bucknell was picked fourth in this year's Patriot League preseason poll.
• The Bison have already knocked off an Atlantic 10 opponent on their home floor this year, beating Richmond in double overtime (80-76) on Nov. 16. Williamson had 26 points and 10 boards while Ruot Bijiek had 20 points.