No. 8 ST. BONAVENTURE (21-10, 9-9 A-10) vs. No. 9 DUQUESNE (13-18, 8-10 A-10)
Thursday, 11:30 a.m.
Washington, D.C - Capital One Arena
Second Round
TV: USA Network
Radio: Bonnies Online Network / 100.1 The Hero

OPENING TIP
St. Bonaventure will take on rival Duquesne in the second round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament, tipping off the tourney Thursday morning at 11:30 a.m. The Bonnies and Dukes will battle for the third time this season after splitting the regular season series. The winner of Thursday's game moves on to play top-seeded VCU on Friday. The first two days will be broadcast on USA Network with games moving to CBS Sports Network on Saturday and the championship game will air on CBS Sunday.

BONNIES A-10 NOTES

• St. Bonaventure is 16-12 in A-10 Tournament play under head coach Mark Schmidt. 
• Last season, SBU reached the A-10 semifinals before falling to eventual champion Duquesne.
• The Bonnies have reached at least the quarterfinals in nine of the last 11 seasons the tournament has been completed. The Bonnies have won at least one A-10 Tournament game in nine of the 14 seasons they have qualified under Coach Schmidt.
• Last season marked the sixth time that the Bonnies have reached the A-10 semifinals under Coach Schmidt and 10th time in program history. Schmidt's Bonnies have been to the title game three times (2012, 2019, 2021; winning in '12 and '21). SBU is seeking its sixth appearance in the A-10 Championship Game in program history and third since 2019 (1984, 2000, 2012, 2019, 2021). 
• The Bonnies enter the tournament with 21 wins on the season. This year marks the seventh 20-win season during the Mark Schmidt Era and 19th in program history. 
• St. Bonaventure enters the tournament having won four of its last five games to wrap up the regular season. 

FASTBREAK BULLETPOINTS

• Bona's entire starting five is averaging double figures in A-10 play … just about: Melvin Council Jr. (15.5 ppg), Noel Brown (12.8 ppg), Lajae Jones (11.7 ppg), Chance Moore (10.6 ppg) and Jonah Hinton (9.7 ppg). 
• Melvin Council Jr. played 712 of a possible 725 minutes during Atlantic 10 play this year.
• SBU ranked 21st nationally in scoring defense this season by holding opponents to 64.8 ppg. 
• Melvin Council Jr. has scored in double figures in every Atlantic 10 game thus far and has done so in 22 consecutive games overall.
• The Bonnies scored seven true road wins on the year, the most for the program since going 7-4 in true road games in 2021-22. St. Bonaventure's seven true road wins tied the top two seeds in the tournament, VCU and George Mason, for the most in the A-10 this season. SBU went 2-1 in neutral court games.
• The Bonnies have battled the injury bug this season. Entering the postseason, they have eight healthy scholarship players. Guard Jaxon Edwards was lost for the year in November (groin) before starting point guard Dasonte Bowen went down in mid-December with a foot injury. Most recently, standout freshman center Xander Wedlow missed the final two games of the year with a knee injury that will cost him the remainder of the season.
• St. Bonaventure is 15-2 when reaching 70 points this season.
• Lajae Jones hauled in a career-high 12 rebounds in the season finale victory at Davidson last weekend. 
• Chance Moore recently reached a career milestone as he surpassed 1,000 career points during Bona's win Feb. 22 vs. Duquesne.
• St. Bonaventure is 19-4 when winning the turnover battle this season. 
• The Bonnies are committing just 13.4 fouls per game on the season, ranking ninth in the country for fewest fouls per contest.
• Bona will try to erase the memory of the last time they played in Capital One Arena - a 57-56 heartbreaker vs. Saint Louis in the quarterfinals of the 2022 A-10 Tournament. In 2018 when the tournament was played in DC, the Bonnies went 1-1 with a quarterfinal win over Richmond (83-77 as Matt Mobley set the tournament record with nine 3-pointers) before falling to Davidson in the semifinals (82-70). Bona would reach the NCAA Tournament that year and defeat UCLA in the First Four for the program's first NCAA March Madness victory since 1970.
• Council has shown an ability to play his best in March: last year in Wagner's First Four win over Howard, Council made history by becoming the first player in an NCAA Tournament game to register 20 points with more than five rebounds and five assists while shooting over 50 percent from the field and playing every minute of the game and not committing a foul since assists became official in 1984. He also scored 21 points in Wagner's first-ever NCAA Tournament win and later posted 18 points and four rebounds in a second round matchup vs. North Carolina. 

SERIES HISTORY
This will be the 137th meeting between the longtime A-10 rivals and the second consecutive year they meet three times including the A-10 Tournament. St. Bonaventure leads the series, 71-65. St. Bonaventure dominated the series for years, winning 21 of 24 matchups from 2012-23, but the Dukes turned the tables in the last two seasons with five straight wins. Bona's snapped that skid with a 70-63 victory on home floor Feb. 22.

The games between the two teams are often tight: 12 of the last 21 meetings have been decided by six or fewer points.

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.

In Atlantic 10 Tournament games, the Bonnies are 4-3 vs. their regional rivals, including a win in the 2021 quarterfinals as the Bonnies went on to win the league crown. 

Last year was the first time that the Bonnies and Dukes have met in either the semifinals or title game with Duquesne holding on for a 70-60 win on the way to the A-10 Tournament title. 

Head coach Mark Schmidt has more victories over Duquesne than any other Atlantic 10 opponent (25).

GREAT EIGHT
The Bonnies have found success when starting the A-10 Tournament in the 8/9 game in the past. In 2014 as the 9 seed, the Bonnies won over La Salle, then defeated No. 18 and top-seeded Saint Louis, 71-68 before falling to Saint Joseph's in the semis.

SBU was last the 8 seed in 2010 when they defeated Duquesne, 83-71, in the 8/9 game first round before falling to top-seeded Temple in the second round.

CLUTCH COUNCIL
Melvin Council Jr. has been at his best during Atlantic 10 play this year. The do-it-all captain has registered (entering this week) 15.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.6 steals per game during conference action. He has scored in double figures in every conference contest this year and in 22 straight games overall.

Council was named a USBWA National Player of the Week back on Jan. 8 after a standout week of performances.

JONES' JUMPERS
Lajae Jones had one of the best shooting performances of the season in a Feb. 22 win over Duquesne, matching his career-high with 24 points on 8-of-11 shooting overall and 4-of-6 from beyond the arc. Perhaps most impressively, it wasn't his best shooting effort this year: in a January game vs. La Salle he went 8-9 from the floor and 4-4 from deep for 24 points.

For the year, he stands seventh among all A-10 players in 3-point percentage at 40.9 percent. In A-10 action, he entered the last weekend of the season shooting over 47 percent overall from the floor.

ABOUT DUQUESNE

• Duquesne entered this week ranked 14^th in the Atlantic 10 in offense at 69.5 ppg and fifth in defense, holding opponents to under 67 points per contest, a mark that also ranks 54^th nationally.
• The Dukes have often spread the wealth, ranking 39^th nationally in bench points at over 27 points off the bench per game.
• Junior guard Kareem Rozier ranks ninth in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.22) while handing out 3.3 apg. Senior guard Tre Dinkins, who started his collegiate career at Canisius, is a threat from beyond the arc, ranking eighth in the A-10 with 76 3-pointers on the season entering this week.
• The defending Atlantic 10 tournament champions, Duquesne is in its first season under the leadership of Dru Joyce III who served on the staff of previous head coach Keith Dambrot the past two years. As a player, Joyce handed out 503 assists for Akron as the team's point guard when Dambrot was head coach of the Zips.