ST. BONAVENTURE (15-3, 3-2 A-10) at DUQUESNE (8-9, 3-1 A-10)
Saturday, Jan. 18 - 2:00 p.m. 
Pittsburgh, Pa.
TV: ESPN+
Radio: Bonnies Online Network / 100.1 FM The Hero

OPENING TIP 
St. Bonaventure makes the trip to Pittsburgh on Saturday afternoon to face old rival Duquesne in what is traditionally nearly always a one or two possession game down to the final seconds. 

The Bonnies moved to 3-2 in Atlantic 10 play with a convincing win over Richmond on Wednesday night and will take on a Duquesne squad that has been red-hot since bouncing back from an 0-6 start, opening conference play at 3-1.

STANDOUTS

• St. Bonaventure snapped a two-game losing skid with a 63-49 win over Richmond on Wednesday night. The Bonnies got back to basics vs. the Spiders – SBU started the season 14-1 while rising to the top-10 nationally in scoring defense by allowing only 59.6 points per game through the first 13 contests of the year. After starting 2-2 in Atlantic 10 play, though, the Bonnies were surrendering 74.3 ppg before locking down Richmond last time out. It was the ninth time this season that Bona has held an opponent under 60 points and the sixth contest the Bonnies have limited opponents to 55 points or less. 
• Sophomore Jonah Hinton set new career highs in points (19) and 3-pointers (five) in Wednesday's victory.
• St. Bonaventure is 5-1 in true road games with its only loss coming last week at Saint Louis. 
• Bonnies head coach Mark Schmidt enters Saturday's game with 399 career victories as a Division I head coach. He has scored 317 of those wins leading Bona's program. 

HIGH-RANKED THIEVERY
Melvin Council Jr. is one of the nation's leaders in steals. Council has totaled 43 steals (2.4 spg), nine more than any other A-10 player. 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 fifth 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.

DRAWING WHISTLES
Noel Brown drew nine foul calls against him in the Jan. 11 game vs. La Salle, the most by a Bonnies player this year. He made the most of the whistles by going 10-for-12 at the foul line, career highs in makes an attempts for the fifth-year captain. For the season, Brown has drawn 60 foul calls, second on the team behind Chance Moore (72) who immediately tied Brown's season-high by drawing nine fouls himself in the Jan. 15 win over Richmond.

TRENDING NUMBERS
+4.7 - St. Bonaventure is +4.7 in rebounding margin for the season. That total ranks third among all Atlantic 10 teams behind only George Mason (+7.8) and Rhode Island (+5.2).
13 - The Bonnies are committing only 13 fouls per game which ranks 10th nationally for fewest fouls per contest.
38 - Chance Moore's 38 offensive rebounds on the year are sixth among all Atlantic 10 players and the most by any A-10 guard.
38.3% - St. Bonaventure is shooting 38.3 percent from beyond the arc in Atlantic 10 play, best in the league so far. That's a big increase in the overall season success rate of 33%, ninth in the league.
+216 - SBU has had power in the paint this year: Bona's is +216 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 135th meeting between the longtime A-10 rivals. St. Bonaventure leads the series, 70-64. St. Bonaventure has won 14 of the last 19, and 20 of 27, but 12 of the last 19 games have been decided by six or fewer points, including the first two meetings last year.

Duquesne swept the three games the teams played last year, winning by a 54-50 win in the Steel City last January before scoring a 75-69 victory in the Reilly Center the next month. The squads then met in the Atlantic 10 semifinals where Duquesne captured a 70-60 win on the way to the conference title. The Dukes recorded their first season sweep of the Bonnies since 2009.

In 104 seasons of basketball, the Bonnies have only played Western New York rivals Canisius (172 meetings) and Niagara (162) more than Duquesne.