BUFFALO, N.Y. – The St. Bonaventure men's basketball team will look to extend its three-game win streak against Big 4 rival Buffalo as the Bonnies take on the Bulls on Saturday (Dec. 6) at Alumni Arena. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m., and the game will be streamed live on ESPN+.
 
To Be Frank
St. Bonaventure forward Frank Mitchell has been a star through nine games, averaging a career-best 15.3 points and an Atlantic 10-conference-leading 10.3 rebounds per game. 
 
As of Thursday (Dec. 4), Mitchell leads the Atlantic 10 conference in rebounding, ranks sixth in blocks (1.3 per game) and ranks 10th in scoring. He also leads the league in field goal percentage among players who have 100-or-more shot attempts on the season at 52.1 percent (62-for-119).
 
The Toronto native has six double-doubles on the season, which leads the Atlantic 10 and is tied for third-most nationally. No other Atlantic 10 player has more than two this season. 
 
Heading into Saturday's game, Mitchell has posted a double-double in three straight games. After playing at least 27 minutes in every game this season, Mitchell recorded his last double double against Bloomsburg (Dec. 3) in just 19 minutes of playing time.
 
Mitchell is no stranger to the top of the national leaderboards. In 2023-24 with Canisius, he ranked fourth in the country with 11.6 rebounds per game. 
 
Stacking Blocks
St. Bonaventure has been one of the top teams in the country at defending the rim this season. The Bonnies' shot-blocking ability was on full display on Wednesday as SBU had a season-high 11 blocks against Bloomsburg. Andrew Osasuyi and Joe Grahovac led the way with four blocks each.
 
It was the most blocks in a game by a St. Bonaventure team since at least the 2010-11 season. With 11 steals in addition to the staggering number of blocks, it was the first time that the Bonnies have had at least 10 blocks and 10 steals in the same game since Nov. 10, 2018, in a win over Jackson State (15 blocks, 10 steals).
 
Three of the top six shot blockers in the Atlantic 10 play for the Bonnies. With 2.0 blocks per game, Grahovac trails only Loyola Chicago's Miles Rubin (2.67 bpg) on the conference leaderboard. The freshman Osasuyi ranks fourth in the Atlantic 10 with 1.56 blocks per game, and Mitchell trails close behind in sixth place with 1.3 blocks per game.
 
Floor General
After shooting just 27.1 percent from the field through his first six games, Dasonte Bowen has turned things around of late. In the Bonnies' last three games, Bowen has averaged 8.0 points and 3.7 assists per game, shooting a much-improved 66.7 percent (8-for-12). 
 
On the season, Bowen leads the Atlantic 10 with an Assist-Turnover ratio of 3.30. He has tallied at least three assists in eight of the Bonnies' nine games.
 
The Nerd Corner
In the latest NET rankings published by the NCAA on Thursday (Dec. 4), the Bonnies ranked 89th. St. Bonaventure was one of eight Atlantic 10 teams ranked in the top 100. 
 
In Faktor Sports' KPI rating, a metric used by the NCAA Tournament Selection committee, St. Bonaventure ranked 20th in the nation and first in the Atlantic 10 on Thursday. According to NCAA.com, "KPI ranks every team's wins and losses on a positive-to-negative scale, where the worst-possible loss receives a value of roughly around -1.0 and the best-possible win receives a value of roughly 1.0. KPI then averages these scores across a season to give a score to a team's winning percentage. The formula uses opponent's winning percentage, opponent's strength of schedule, scoring margin, pace of game, location, and opponent's KPI ranking."
 
St. Bonaventure ranked as high as 12th in the country in KPI on Wednesday (Dec. 3).
 
Buffalo Notes:

• The Bulls enter Saturday's game at 8-0. They are one of 16 undefeated teams in the country remaining, and one of four mid-majors.
• Buffalo is coached by George Halcovage III, who is 21-49 in his third season with the program.
• Daniel Freitag leads the Bulls offensively, averaging 20.1 points per game.
• Forward Noah Batchelor leads Buffalo with 5.1 rebounds per game while shooting 53.3 percent (16-for-30) from three-point range.
• Excluding the Covid-19-affected 2020 season, the Bulls and Bonnies have met in each of the last 14 seasons.
• St. Bonaventure leads the all-time series with Buffalo, 13-5.
• The Bonnies have won three of the last four matchups between the two schools.