TEAM ROSTERS
ST. BONAVENTURE BONNIES
0 Chance Moore G, Sr., 6-6/210, Brookhaven, GA
1 Duane Thompson F, R-Fr., 6-8/210, Boston, MA
2 Jaxon Edwards G, Jr., 6-5/195, Indianapolis, IN
3 Miles Rose G, So., 6-4/195, Rochester, NY
4 Ebrahim Kaba G/F, Fr., 6-9/200, East Orange, NJ
5 Dasonte Bowen G, Jr., 6-2/175, Boston, MA
7 Michael Folarin C, R-Jr., 6-11/225, London, ENG
8 Jonah Hinton G, R-So., 6-3/185, Chicago, IL
10 Lajae Jones G, Jr., 6-7/220, Jacksonville, FL
11 Melvin Council Jr. G, Sr., 6-4/180, Rochester, NY
15 Jack DeRose G, So., 6-0/175, Olean, NY
21 Xander Wedlow PF/C, Fr., 6-10/230, Detroit, MI
23 Noah Bolanga G, Fr., 6-8/180, Poitiers, FRA
24 Noel Brown C, Gr., 6-11/255, Leesburg, VA
30 Broek Ostrom G, Jr., 6-2/180, Holley, NY
UB BULLS
0 Omar Migues-Hibeljic G, Fr., 6-5/200, Quebec City, QC
1 Noah Batchelor G/F, Jr., 6-8/210, Frederick, MD
2 Ryan Sabol G, So., 6-3/195, Washington, DC
4 Anquan Boldin Jr. G, So., 6-4/194, Delray Beach, FL
5 Tyson Dunn G, Sr., 6-3/190, Newmarket, ON
7 Brayden Jackson G, Fr., 6-8/185, Milton, ON
8 Ben Michaels F, Fr., 6-8/210, Ipswich, ENG
9 Lloyd McVeigh G, So., 6-6/205, Cabarita Beach, AUS
10 Eric Kenesie Jr. G, Fr., 6-0/180, Kenosha, WI
11 Bryson Wilson G, So., 6-5/210, Washington, DC
14 Frederiks Meinarts C/F, Fr., 7-0/196, Riga, LVA
Kavon Bradford
Tim Oboh
HEAD COACH: Mark Schmidt
2024-25 St. Bonaventure bonnies
TEAM STATISTICS
2024-25 UB BULLS
TEAM STATISTICS
GAME NOTES
OPENING TIP
After playing three consecutive games away from home, St. Bonaventure returns to the friendly confines of the Reilly Center with an 8-1 record on the season. The Bonnies enter this weekend as one of two eight-win teams in the Atlantic 10 along with Rhode Island (8-0).
HOT START
St. Bonaventure has matched its best start through nine games since 2021. Bona’s +12.4 margin of victory thus far is the program’s best through the first nine contests of a season since 2000-01 when the Bonnies also began with an 8-1 record and a +12.9 margin of victory. Currently, the Bonnies have the 67th highest margin of victory in Division I.
Since 2000, Bona’s highest margin of victory through nine games:
2000-01: +12.9 (8-1)
2024-25: +12.4 (8-1)
DEFENSE ON LOCK
2017-18: +11.0 (7-2)
2020-21: +9.5 (8-1)
2021-22: +8.9 (8-1)
One of the keys to Bona’s great start has been the strong play on the defensive end. By nearly all metrics, the Bonnies have ranked as one of the nation’s top defenses thus far. Entering this weekend, the Bonnies stand 19th in the country in scoring defense by allowing just over 61 points per game to opponents. In Wednesday’s win at Bucknell, Bona held the Bison to 47 points on their home court. It was the lowest scoring output by a Bonnies opponent since SBU limited Cleveland State to 42 points in a win at home Dec. 7, 2022. It was the first time that the Bonnies have held an opponent under 50 points on the road since holding George Mason to 49 in a win on the Patriots home court Jan. 8, 2020.
How Bonaventure ranks defensively among all Division I teams (as of Dec. 5):
Steals per game – 42nd (9.3)
Blocks per game – 50th (4.8)
Field goal percentage defense – 67th (39.9%)
Rebound margin: 92nd (+5.1)
Turnovers forced per game: 95th (14.2)
The Bonnies have been strong defensively without fouling – Bona is committing an average of only 13 fouls per game, ranking 12th nationally in fewest fouls per contest.
WEEKLY HONORS
A pair of Bonnies guards earned accolades in the past week.
Melvin Council Jr. was named to the ESPN NIT Tip-Off All-Tournament Team after helping Bona to a 1-1 record in Disney World over Thanksgiving. He averaged 14 points and eight rebounds in the tournament, notching his first double-double with the program vs. Utah State (13 points, 12 rebounds).
Dasonte Bowen was on this week’s Atlantic 10 Weekly Honor Roll following a strong performance of his own in Disney. He logged 16.0 points and 3.5 assists including matching his career-high of 17 points in last Friday’s win over Northern Iowa.
NET GAIN
With the NCAA NET rankings being released for the first time this week, the Bonnies have another strong set of metrics to compare themselves to the rest of the nation following their outstanding start.
As of Thursday, the Bonnies stood as the Atlantic 10’s top-ranked team in the NET after jumping 14 spots with a double-digit road win at Bucknell. St. Bonaventure leapt to No. 45 in the NET, sliding ahead of Dayton (51) as the A-10’s top-ranked squad.
Continued on Page 9
GAME SCHEDULE
OCTOBER 30 vs. Alfred (Exhibition) W, 63-39
NOVEMBER 4 vs. CSUN ........................ W, 70-56
at Canisius W, 87-78
at FGCU W, 74-65
vs. Le Moyne ................ W, 71-52 20 vs. Mansfield W, 76-54
decEMBER
february
january
GAME NOTES
Continued from Page 6
Bona’s only loss has come at the hands of Utah State, which remained undefeated at 8-0 and ranked as high as 12 in the NET before sliding back to No. 21 on Thursday.
TRENDING NUMBERS
• 4 – Melvin Council Jr. and Lajae Jones both had four steals apiece in Wednesday’s win at Bucknell. It marked a new Division I career high in swipes for Jones while Council matched his D-I best set twice last year with Wagner.
• 27 – St. Bonaventure’s defense has accumulated 27 steals combined in the last two games – 14 vs. Northern Iowa and 13 at Bucknell. The 14 steals vs. UNI marked the most for the team in a single game since hitting that same number at VCU March 1, 2022. The last time Bona’s had more steals in a game: 15 vs. Jackson State on Nov. 10, 2018.
• 70.8% – Noel Brown ranks seventh among all players in Division I for field goal percentage this year, shooting 70.8 percent from the floor.
• +102 – SBU has had power in the paint so far: Bona’s is +102 in paint, scoring though nine games and has held a plus paint margin in all contests. The Bonnies have posted 46 paint points in a game three times already.
ABOUT BUFFALO
• Buffalo travels to the Reilly Center with a 5-4 record under second-year head coach George Halcovage III, who has already led the team to more wins this season than they had in total last season.
• The Bulls return three players who appeared in last year’s matchup against the Bonnies: Anquan Boldin Jr. (5 pts., 6 reb.), Ryan Sabol (3 reb., 3 ast.), and Lloyd McVeigh, who did not record any stats.
• The squad was ranked 12th out of 12 in the MAC Preseason Poll, but currently sits above five other teams in the standings.
• The Bulls have faced some strong competition early in the season, playing on the road at Notre Dame, Vermont, and Penn St.
• Sabol, a sophomore guard, leads the team in scoring, averaging 18.3 points per game entering this week. Senior guard Tyson Dunn is the team leader in assists per game (6.4) and is adding 5.5 rebounds per game.
SERIES HISTORY
St. Bonaventure leads, 12-5.
Despite their campuses being separated by only approximately 90 minutes, the two schools had never met in men’s basketball as varsity programs prior to Dec. 12, 1995, when the Bonnies scored a 74-64 win at The RC. After a four-year stretch of games, the series was sidelined for another decade before its renewal in 2010. St. Bonaventure has controlled the series for the most part, winning 12 of the 17 games.
The Bonnies owned a five-game winning streak in the series between 1996-2012 and another four-game winning streak between 2014-2017. Buffalo won its first back-to-back games in the series in 2018 and 2019 before the series was shelved in 2020 due to the pandemic.
The teams played in UB’s Alumni Arena each of the last two years – SBU won, 80-65 last year following a 2022 Bulls win – but the last meeting in The RC was a thriller.
Jalen Adaway drilled a 3-pointer with 1.3 seconds remaining to break a late tie and send the Bonnies to a thrilling 68-65 victory Dec. 4, 2021.
ATHLETES OF THE WEEK
Bowen starred in Bona's two games at Disney World in the ESPN NIT Tip-Off over Thanksgiving, averaging 16.0 points and 3.5 assists.
In the opener vs. Utah State, Bowen posted 15 points, four rebounds and four assists. In a win over Northern Iowa, he matched his career-high with 17 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field and 8-8 at the foul line. For the season, he's averaging 11.8 points and 4.0 assists in over 30 minutes of action per contest.
Joefield helped the women's swimming and diving team to their 10th consecutive win over Little Three rival Canisius. Joefield completed a sweep on the diving boards to lift the Bonnies to a 148-76 victory.
The Niskayuna, N.Y. native posted a 210.98 on the 1-meter board to beat out all three Golden Griffin competitors.
In the 3-meter competition, Joefield recorded a 214.35 to collect her second win of the night.
Joefield and the Bonnies return to action after the new year in the Reilly Center Pool as they host Cleveland State Jan. 17-18.
dasonte bowen
The GoBonnies.com Student-Athletes of the Week presented by CPL are men's basketball junior Dasonte Bowen and women's diving junior Sanayia Joefield.
sanayia joefield
2024-25 St. Bonaventure athletic
CORPORATE SPONSORS
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Sports Locker • Stark Tech Group • Studio 4 East • Tasta Pizza • Three Sixty Graphics • Tim Hortons • Toshiba
Try-it distributing • Universal Primary Care • Valley View Dental • Worth W Smith • Wright Beverage • Zippo
BEHIND THE BONNIES
Welcome to "Behind The Bonnies," a new GoBonnies.com series where we get to know the student-athletes at St. Bonaventure University. In this edition, we meet Bonnies redshirt freshman Duane Thompson.
Duane Thompson committed to St. Bonaventure in 2023.
As a freshman in the 2023-2024 season, Thompson redshirted.
He earned his first collegiate start in the second game of this season at Canisius and immediately drilled a 3-pointer on the first possession of the game. Thompson has played in all nine games this season. The forward played a career-high 14 minutes against Northern Iowa in the ESPN NIT TipOff at Disney World Nov. 29. He posted a career-best seven points twice in the first month of the season – at Canisius and again in a win at Florida Gulf Coast.
Before joining the Bonnies, the forward helped guide Putnam Science Academy to a 39-3 record and a national championship during his prep career. In that time, Thompson was ranked as the No. 10 prospect in New England according to the New England Recruiting Report. Thompson averaged 21.7 points per game as a freshman at Holbrook High.
Thompson is a native of Boston, Mass.
What is your favorite thing about basketball? Competing against other players
Where is your favorite place on campus? The Hickey Dining Hall’s ice cream bar
What is your favorite food? Anything that my mom cooks
Who is your favorite basketball player? Paul George
Who is your favorite athlete that is not a basketball player? Lamar Jackson
What is your favorite emoji? The crying laughing emoji
What’s the last TV show you’ve binge watched? Snowfall
What is your go-to road trip snacks? Mike and Ike’s and Purple Skittles
What is your pregame pump-up artist? Lil Durk and YoungBoy
