ST. BONAVENTURE (8-1) vs. BUFFALO (5-4)
Saturday, Dec. 7 – 4:00 p.m.
Reilly Center
TV: YES Network / ESPN+
Radio: Bonnies Online Network / 100.1 FM The Hero

OPENING TIP
After playing three consecutive games away from home, St. Bonaventure returns to the friendly confines of the Reilly Center with an 8-1 record on the season, hosting rival Buffalo in an always anticipated Big 4 matchup. The Bonnies enter this weekend as one of two eight-win teams in the Atlantic 10 along with Rhode Island (8-0).

TOYS FOR TOTS
Saturday's game is the annual Toys For Tots drive held by SBU Athletics. Fans are asked to bring a new, unwrapped toy to donate at any entrance or the Ticket Office. Donations will be accepted throughout the game. Donations will go toward helping children in need throughout the community.

FLASH SALE
$15 tickets are available now. Click the tickets link above and use the code BIG4 to receive a $15 ticket in select sections of the Reilly Center for Saturday's game.

BROADCAST COVERAGE
Saturday's game will be the second of five Bonnies men's games broadcast live on YES Network this season. St. Bonaventure Athletics and YES announced a partnership earlier this fall to air both men's and women's games on the network in 2024-25. The YES broadcasts will also be streamed on The Gotham Sports App. YES has ranked as the most-watched regional sports network in the country in 18 of the last 21 years and owns the exclusive regional media rights of the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets. Click here to read more about the agreement. 

All Bonnies basketball games broadcast on YES will also still stream through ESPN+ as well for fans with a subscription to that service. 

Fans can also listen to the audio broadcast as always for free anywhere online through the Bonnies Online Network or locally on terrestrial radio at 100.1 FM The Hero.

HOT START
St. Bonaventure has matched its best start through nine games since 2021. Bona's +12.4 margin of victory thus far is the program's best through the first nine contests of a season since 2000-01 when the Bonnies also began with an 8-1 record and a +12.9 margin of victory.  Currently, the Bonnies have the 67^th highest margin of victory in Division I.

Since 2000, Bona's highest margin of victory through nine games:

2000-01: +12.9 (8-1)
2024-25: +12.4 (8-1)
2017-18: +11.0 (7-2)
2020-21: +9.5 (8-1)
2021-22: +8.9 (8-1)

DEFENSE ON LOCK
One of the keys to Bona's great start has been the strong play on the defensive end. By nearly all metrics, the Bonnies have ranked as one of the nation's top defenses thus far. Entering this weekend, the Bonnies stand 19^th in the country in scoring defense by allowing just over 61 points per game to opponents. In Wednesday's win at Bucknell, Bona held the Bison to 47 points on their home court. It was the lowest scoring output by a Bonnies opponent since SBU limited Cleveland State to 42 points in a win at home Dec. 7, 2022. It was the first time that the Bonnies have held an opponent under 50 points on the road since holding George Mason to 49 in a win on the Patriots home court Jan. 8, 2020.

How Bonaventure ranks defensively among all Division I teams (as of Dec. 5):
Steals per game – 42^nd (9.3)
Blocks per game – 50^th (4.8)
Field goal percentage defense – 67^th (39.9%)
Rebound margin: 92^nd (+5.1)
Turnovers forced per game: 95^th (14.2)

The Bonnies have been strong defensively without fouling – Bona is committing only 13 fouls per game, ranking 12^th nationally in fewest fouls per contest.

WEEKLY HONORS
A pair of Bonnies guards earned accolades in the past week.

Melvin Council Jr. was named to the ESPN NIT Tip-Off All-Tournament Team after helping Bona to a 1-1 record in Disney World over Thanksgiving. He averaged 14 points and eight rebounds in the tournament, notching his first double-double with the program vs. Utah State (13 points, 12 rebounds).

Dasonte Bowen was on this week's Atlantic 10 Weekly Honor Roll following a strong performance of his own in Disney. He logged 16.0 points and 3.5 assists including matching his career-high of 17 points in last Friday's win over Northern Iowa.

NET GAIN
With the NCAA NET rankings being released for the first time this week, the Bonnies have another strong set of metrics to compare themselves to the rest of the nation following their outstanding start.

As of Thursday, the Bonnies stood as the Atlantic 10's top-ranked team in the NET after jumping 14 spots with a double-digit road win at Bucknell. St. Bonaventure leapt to No. 45 in the NET, sliding ahead of Dayton (51) as the A-10's top-ranked squad. Bona's only loss has come at the hands of Utah State, which remained undefeated at 8-0 and ranked as high as 12 in the NET before sliding back to No. 21 on Thursday.

TRENDING NUMBERS
4 – Melvin Council Jr. and Lajae Jones both had four steals apiece in Wednesday's win at Bucknell. It marked a new Division I career high in swipes for Jones while Council matched his D-I best set twice last year with Wagner.

16 – The Bonnies held Bucknell to just 16 points in the first half in Wednesday's win on the road.

27 – St. Bonaventure's defense has accumulated 27 steals combined in the last two games – 14 vs. Northern Iowa and 13 at Bucknell. The 14 steals vs. UNI marked the most for the team in a single game since hitting that same number at VCU March 1, 2022. The last time Bona's had more steals in a game: 15 vs. Jackson State on Nov. 10, 2018.

70.8% - Noel Brown ranks seventh among all players in Division I for field goal percentage this year, shooting 70.8 percent from the floor.

+102 - SBU has had power in the paint so far: Bona's is +102 in paint scoring though nine games and has held a plus paint margin.

ABOUT BUFFALO

• Buffalo travels to the Reilly Center with a 5-4 record under second-year head coach George Halcovage III, who has already led the team to more wins this season than they had in total last season.
• The Bulls return three players who appeared in last year's matchup against the Bonnies: Anquan Boldin Jr. (5 pts, 6 reb), Ryan Sabol (3 reb, 3 ast), and Lloyd McVeigh, who did not record any stats.
• The squad was ranked 12^th out of 12 in the MAC Preseason Poll, but currently sits above five other teams in the standings. 
• The Bulls have faced some strong competition early in the season, playing on the road at Notre Dame, Vermont, and Penn St.
• Sabol, a sophomore guard, leads the team in scoring, averaging 18.3 points per game entering this week. Senior guard Tyson Dunn is the team leader in assists per game (6.4) and is adding 5.5 rebounds per game. 

SERIES HISTORY
St. Bonaventure leads, 12-5
Despite their campuses being separated by only approximately 90 minutes, the two schools had never met in men's basketball as varsity programs prior to Dec. 12, 1995, when the Bonnies scored a 74-64 win at The RC. After a four-year stretch of games, the series was sidelined for another decade before its renewal in 2010. St. Bonaventure has controlled the series for the most part, winning 12 of the 17 games. The Bonnies owned a five-game winning streak in the series between 1996-2012 and another four-game winning streak between 2014-2017. Buffalo won its first back-to-back games in the series in 2018 and 2019 before the series was shelved in 2020 due to the pandemic.

The teams played in UB's Alumni Arena each of the last two years – SBU won, 80-65 last year following a 2022 Bulls win – but the last meeting in The RC was a thriller. Jalen Adaway drilled a 3-pointer with 1.3 seconds remaining to break a late tie and send the Bonnies to a thrilling 68-65 victory Dec. 4, 2021.

As expected with a rivalry series, games have typically been close: 10 of the 17 games all-time have been decided by six or fewer points with five games finishing as one possession contests.