ST. BONAVENTURE (20-10, 8-9) at DAVIDSON (16-14, 6-11)
Saturday, March 8 – 2:00 p.m.
Davidson, N.C.
TV: ESPN+
Radio: Bonnies Online Network / 100.1 FM The Hero

OPENING TIP
St. Bonaventure closes the regular season with a trip to North Carolina for the first meeting of the year with the Davidson Wildcats. Fresh off a win on Wednesday night vs. UMass in the home finale, the Bonnies are 8-9 in the Atlantic 10 standings and will play next in the second round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament in Washington, DC on Thursday, March 13 regardless of the result this weekend.

STARTING FIVE

• The Bonnies reached the 20-win plateau with Wednesday's triumph, an accomplishment that has become a regular occurrence during the Mark Schmidt Era. SBU has now won 20 or more games seven times under Coach Schmidt while the program has now posted 19 20-win seasons all-time.
• Redshirt freshman Duane Thompson was an important contributor off the bench in Wednesday's win, posting eight points and four rebounds as the Bonnies held on late. Thompson saw additional minutes in the frontcourt with freshman center Xander Wedlow sidelined. Wedlow is out for the season due to a knee injury, joining guards Dasonte Bowen (foot) and Jaxon Edwards (groin) on the shelf for the season due to injuries.
• Bona looks to turn the tide on some road woes during the second half of the season. SBU started the year 5-0 on the road before losing five consecutive contests. They snapped that streak with a Feb. 15 win at UMass, but fell in their last trip at Saint Joseph's. Still, the Bonnies are tied for the A-10 lead in overall road wins with six along with VCU and George Mason.
• SBU continues to hang on to the top-20 defenses nationally, ranking 20^th in scoring defense among all Division I teams by allowing 64.7 ppg.
• Melvin Council Jr. has scored in double figures in every Atlantic 10 game thus far and has done so in 21 consecutive games overall.

NOTABLES

• St. Bonaventure won for the first time on Wednesday when trailing at the half. Bona trailed UMass by a 39-38 tally at the break before scoring a 73-72 win. The Bonnies are now 1-5 this season when trailing at the break, 0-1 when tied, 19-4 when leading.
• Bona improved to 4-4 in games decided by five points or less.
• A win on Saturday would give the Bonnies seven true road wins on the year which would be the most for the program since going 7-4 in true road games in 2021-22.
• St. Bonaventure is 15-2 when reaching 70 points this season.
• Chance Moore recently reached a career milestone as he surpassed 1,000 career points during Bona's win Feb. 22 vs. Duquesne.
• Despite not being a natural point guard, Melvin Council Jr. stands among the A-10 leaders in assists this year. He is sixth overall at 4.1 apg, just behind Japhet Medor of Fordham at 4.2 apg for a top-five spot. Sebastian Thomas of Rhode Island leads the league by a large margin at 6.1 apg. Council is also tied sixth in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.3). Council needs 22 more assists to break into the program's top-15 single season leaders. The all-time mark of 216 was set by Marques Green in 2002-03.
• Council has recorded seven games this season with six or more assists.  
• St. Bonaventure is 18-4 when winning the turnover battle this season. 
• The Bonnies are committing just 13.3 fouls per game on the season, ranking ninth in the country for fewest fouls per contest.
   

TRENDING NUMBERS
+10 – Duane Thompson was a team-best +10 in nearly 15 minutes of action off the bench in Wednesday's victory over UMass. He scored six of his eight points during the second half.
15 – SBU has three players in the top-15 of A-10 field goal percentage during conference play: Noel Brown (51.3%, 7^th), Lajae Jones (47.4%, 11^th) and Melvin Council Jr. (46.0%, 15^th).
43.6% - Lajae Jones stands third in the A-10 this season in 3-point percentage at 43.6 percent. Only Cameron Crawford of Duquesne (44.2%) and David Green of Rhode Island (43.9%) have a higher percentage.
900 – Wednesday's game will mark the 900^th radio broadcast for the Voice of the Bonnies, Gary Nease. This is his 30^th year on the call for Bonnies games as part of a five-decade career overall in radio.  In addition to men's basketball, Nease has been on the call for many Bonnies baseball and women's basketball contests throughout the years. Since taking over play-by-play duties for St. Bonaventure men's basketball beginning with the 1995-96 season, Nease has been a constant for both Bonaventure and Atlantic 10 fans as he has missed only a handful of games in the years since.
 
ABOUT DAVIDSON

• Davidson seeks to snap a three-game losing streak with setbacks at Loyola Chicago (82-72) and VCU (80-56) and home vs. Saint Louis (57-56). DC is 11-4 on home court as opposed to 5-9 away from home.
• Reed Bailey leads the A-10 in scoring at 19.1 ppg and also is in the league's top-10 for assists (3.9 apg) while standing 14^th in the conference in rebounding (6.2 rpg). Bobby Durkin is one of the A-10's top 3-point threats, hitting nearly three per game with his 88 overall triples third overall in the conference.
• The Wildcats are the A-10's top-ranked team in assist-to-turnover ratio, also standing 19^th nationally in that statistic (1.57). Davidson turns it over less than 10 times per game on average.
• Davidson stands 10^th in the A-10 in scoring (72.9 ppg) and also 10^th in defense, allowing nearly 71 ppg.
• Davidson struggles to get to the line – the Wildcats average 17 free throw attempts per game, ranking 283^rd nationally.

SERIES HISTORY
This will be the 21st meeting between the teams and the 17th since Davidson joined the Atlantic 10. The Wildcats hold an 12-8 series lead and had been Bona's nemesis in recent years, winning seven of nine meetings with the exception coming in a key home-and-home series during Bona's 2021 Atlantic 10 Championship season when the Bonnies defeated the Wildcats twice in the span of four days. Last year, though, the Bonnies got back on the right side of the series as they held off the Wildcats in a thriller, 81-80. 

The Bonnies led by three, 81-78, following a pair of free throws from Mika Adams-Woods with 21 seconds left. Davidson went for the tie, but Reed Bailey's trey try bounced off the rim. The Wildcats pulled down an offensive rebound, though, and momentarily seemed to force a second extra period as the shot from Connor Kochera was true from the wing.

After an official review, however, Kochera's foot was deemed to be on the three-point line, rendering his bucket merely a two-point field goal and the Bonnies were able to exhale with a one-point win.

Bona is 2-6 at Belk Arena with the last win coming in February 2021.

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The first-ever meeting between the schools came in the 1970 NCAA Tournament when the Bonnies won, 85-72, en route to that year's Final Four.