ST. BONAVENTURE (14-3, 2-2 A-10) vs. RICHMOND (7-10, 2-2 A-10)
Wednesday, Jan. 15 – 7:00 p.m.
Reilly Center
TV: YES Network / ESPN+
Radio: Bonnies Online Network / 100.1 FM The Hero

OPENING TIP
St. Bonaventure welcomes Richmond Wednesday night in a matchup between teams that each started the Atlantic 10 conference slate with back-to-back wins but enter this week looking to rally after consecutive setbacks to settle at 2-2 in the A-10 standings.

STARTING FIVE

• St. Bonaventure was outscored in the paint for the first time all season in the overtime loss to La Salle on Saturday, 28-26.
• Lajae Jones recorded a career-high 24 points in Saturday's game, eclipsing his Division I high of 16 set previously in wins vs. Niagara and CSUN. It was one of the strongest shooting performances in the nation this year: Jones is the only D-I player this season to shoot 88% or better overall from the floor with at least eight attempts while going 4-for-4 or better from both beyond the 3-point line and the foul stripe in a game.
• Noel Brown added to his 17-point effort Saturday by going a career-best 10-for-12 at the foul line.
• Brown has scored in double figures in seven consecutive games, a career-high, while Melvin Council Jr. has done so in eight straight contests. Council had a streak of 10 such performances last year at Wagner and he has tallied double figures in 40 of 50 career Division I games.
• SBU is looking to avoid an extremely rare losing skid at home. The Bonnies are 59-18 at home in Atlantic 10 play since 2015-16.

BROADCAST COVERAGE
Wednesday's game will be the fourth 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.

SERVICE NIGHT
All current and former military, fire, police, EMS, and health care works receive a free ticket to the game by showing proper ID at the SBU Ticket Office. The families of service members are also able to buy tickets for the group rate of $14.

All service members should report to the hallway underneath the Hall of Fame at 6:40 for the pre-game ceremony. The first 300 to report will receive a free T-shirt courtesy of Clear Path for Veterans.

COACH MARK SCHMIDT SHOW - NEW EPISODE AVAILABLE NOW
Gary Nease sits down with men's basketball assistant coach Dana Valentine who is a special guest on this week's show for a mid-season recap, a discussion on recruiting and navigating the transfer portal, and how this team battles through adversity - despite a stellar record to this point. Gary and Coach Valentine also discuss the start of Atlantic 10 play with look backs at recent contests.

CLICK HERE to listen
 
JONES' OFFENSIVE NUMBERS JUMPING
Junior transfer Lajae Jones continues to become more comfortable on the offensive end for the Bonnies. Jones entered this week ranked second among all Atlantic 10 players in 3-point shooting by connecting on nearly 51% of his attempts from beyond the arc (27-53).

According to KenPom, he started this week with an offensive player rating of 134.3 which ranks 33rd in the nation. His 65.6% true shooting percentage stands 45th among all D-I players in the KenPom rankings.

HIGH-RANKED THIEVERY
Melvin Council Jr. is one of the nation's leaders in steals. Through 17 games, Council has totaled 40 steals (2.4 spg). Not only does he lead the entire Atlantic 10 in steals this season, he stands 13th in all of Division I.

CHANCE ON THE GLASS
Bonnies senior Chance Moore not only leads the team in rebounding, he's one of the top Atlantic 10 players on the boards thus far. Thus far this season, he's logging 7.6 rebounds per game – that total ranks fourth among all A-10 players and first among all guards in the league. Since 2000, only one Bonnies guard neared seven rebounds per game - Dominick Welch (6.9 rpg) in 2019-20.
 
BENCH BATTLE
Wednesday's game features a meeting of the A-10's two coaching deans as Bona head coach Mark Schmidt and Richmond bench boss Chris Mooney are the league's two active leaders in wins and years on the sideline. Mooney is the only A-10 coach to both be at his current institution longer than Schmidt (Mooney is in his 20th season while Schmidt is in Year 18) and score more league wins – Mooney ranks fourth in A-10 history with 177 conference victories while Schmidt stands fifth with 160.

Schmidt is 12-11 vs. Mooney during their A-10 battles.

The only active D-I coaches to be at the same school for 17 or more seasons: Greg Kampe (Oakland, 41^st season), Tom Izzo (Michigan St., 30), Mark Few (Gonzaga, 26), James Jones (Yale, 26), Randy Bennett (Saint Mary's, 24), Leonard Hamilton (FSU, 23), Bill Self (Kansas, 22), Scott Drew (Baylor, 22), Matt Painter (Purdue, 20), Chris Mooney (Richmond, 20), Ben Jacobson (Northern Iowa, 19), Mark Schmidt (SBU, 18), Tommy Amaker (Harvard, 18).

TRENDING NUMBERS
+4.6 - St. Bonaventure is +4.6 in rebounding margin for the season. That total ranks third among all Atlantic 10 teams behind only George Mason (+7.7) and Rhode Island (+5.1).
13 - The Bonnies are committing only 13 fouls per game which ranks 10th nationally for fewest fouls per contest.
74.3 - The Bonnies are allowing 74.3 ppg in four Atlantic 10 games so far. In 13 non-conference contests, SBU opponents averaged just 59.6 ppg. 
+206 - SBU has had power in the paint this year: Bona's is +206 in paint scoring this season, winning the paint battle in each of the first 16 games this season before being -2 vs. La Salle (28-26) on Jan. 11.
 
SERIES HISTORY
This will be the 34th meeting in a series that Richmond leads 19-14. In recent years, though, the Bonnies have controlled the series by winning nine of the past 12 meetings dating to 2016.

In the Robins Center, Richmond has claimed 10 of its 19 wins in the series, including the last time these teams met up when the Spiders claimed the only matchup last year with a 65-54 win in Virginia. At the Reilly Center, the Bonnies are 8-6 all-time against Richmond.

St. Bonaventure has won five straight contests against the Spiders at Bona's RC. Richmond's last win in Western New York came on Feb. 18, 2015.

Richmond was dominant in the early years of the series, winning 11 of the first 15 meetings between 2002-11.
 
ABOUT RICHMOND

• Richmond had a disappointing 5-8 non-conference slate with two like opponents to the Bonnies. Richmond lost at Bucknell in double overtime, 80-76, on Nov. 16 and finished non-conference play with a home loss to Florida Gulf Coast, 75-57. The Bonnies won at Bucknell (64-47) on Dec. 4 and were victorious in the third game of the year at FGCU, 74-65.
• The Spiders were one of three teams to open Atlantic 10 play at 2-0 – along with the Bonnies and Saint Louis – after scoring a home win over George Washington (66-61) and a road triumph at Massachusetts (72-64). Like the Bonnies, though, Richmond has lost consecutive games since, falling at George Mason (64-58) and home vs. Rhode Island (67-64).
• Points have been at a premium at times for the Spiders as they rank 286^th nationally at 70.1 ppg for the season. They get to the line, though – their 21.5 free throw attempts stand 84^th in the country while their 78.9 success rate at the charity stripe is 15^th in Division I and best in the A-10.
• Senior guard Delonnie Hunt paces the Spiders in scoring (16.8 ppg) and no one in the league gets to the line more – he has attempted an A-10 high 121 free throws and his 86.2 free throw percentage is fifth in the conference. Hunt is also second in the A-10 – behind Bona's Melvin Council Jr. – in steals (35). Hunt missed last year's game vs. SBU with a wrist injury.
• Grad forward Dusan Nekovic posts 14.1 ppg in his first season with the program after graduating from Dartmouth where he scored 16.0 ppg last year.

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