ST. BONAVENTURE BONNIES
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
RICHMOND SPIDERS
1 Mikkel Tyne G, So., 5-10/180, Toronto, ONT
3 DeLonnie Hunt G, Sr., 6-0/175, Upper Marlboro, MD
5 Collin Tanner G, So., 6-6/195, Creedmoor, NC
7 Dusan Neskovic F, Gr., 6-8/205, Banja Luka, BIH
8 B. Artis White G, Gr., 5-10/155, Canton, MI
9 Jonathan Beagle F, Jr., 6-10/240, Hudson Falls, NY
10 Liam Weaver G, R-Jr, 6-2/190, Shawnee, KA
11 Jason Roche G, Sr., 6-5/200, Berkeley, CA
12 Ryan Soulis F, R-Fr., 6-10/215, Athens, GRE
13 Jack Graham G, So., 6-3/185, Smithfield, RI
15 Kirby Mooney G, Fr., 6-3/195, Southampton, PA
21 Mike Walz C, Jr., 6-11/255, Berwyn, Pa
24 Jaylen Robinson F, Fr., 6-6/210, Jacksonville, FL
25 Jack D'Entremont F, Gr., 6-7/195, Bryn Mawr, PA
33 Apostolos Roumoglou F, Jr., 6-8/215, Xanthi, GRE
35 Bryson McGlothin F, Fr., 6-8/180, Plano, TX
40 George Washington III G, So., 6-2/195, Austin, TX
GAME NOTES
OPENING TIP
St. Bonaventure welcomes Richmond Wednesday night in a matchup between teams that each started the Atlantic 10 conference slate with back-to-back wins but enter this week looking to rally after consecutive setbacks to settle at 2-2 in the A-10 standings.
STARTING FIVE
• St. Bonaventure was outscored in the paint for the first time all season in the overtime loss to La Salle on Saturday, 28-26. The Bonnies are still +206 in the paint for the season.
• Lajae Jones recorded a career-high 24 points in Saturday’s game, eclipsing his Division I high of 16 set previously in wins vs. Niagara and CSUN. It was one of the strongest shooting performances in the nation this year: Jones is the only D-I player this season to shoot 88% or better overall from the floor with at least eight attempts while going 4-for-4 or better from both beyond the 3-point line and the foul stripe in a game.
• Noel Brown added to his 17-point effort Saturday by going a career-best 10-for12 at the foul line.
• Brown has scored in double figures in seven consecutive games, a career-high, while Melvin Council Jr. has done so in eight straight contests. Council had a streak of 10 such performances last year at Wagner and he has tallied double figures in 40 of 50 career Division I games.
• SBU is looking to avoid an extremely rare losing streak at home. The Bonnies are 59-18 at home in Atlantic 10 play since 2015-16.
JONES’ OFFENSIVE NUMBERS JUMPING
Junior transfer Lajae Jones continues to become more comfortable on the offensive end for the Bonnies. Jones entered this week ranked second among all Atlantic 10 players in 3-point shooting by connecting on nearly 51% of his attempts from beyond the arc (27-53).
According to KenPom, he started this week with an offensive player rating of 134.3 which ranks 33rd in the nation. His 65.6% true shooting percentage stands 45th among all D-I players in the KenPom rankings.
HIGH-RANKED THIEVERY
Melvin Council Jr. is one of the nation’s leaders in steals. Through 17 games, Council has totaled 40 steals (2.4 spg). 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. So far this season, he’s logging 7.6 rebounds per game – that total ranks fourth 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.
CAPTAIN EFFICIENCY
Noel Brown, one of two captains this season along with Melvin Council, has been one of the nation’s most efficient shooters this year. Despite shooting under 50 percent in a contest for just the second time this year Saturday vs. La Salle, he still leads the entire Atlantic 10 in field goal percentage by shooting a hair under 62 percent for the season, a total that stands 16th nationally.
GAME SCHEDULE
OCTOBER
30 vs. Alfred (Exhibition) W, 63-39
NOVEMBER
4 vs. CSUN ........................ W, 70-56
9 at Canisius W, 87-78
13 at FGCU W, 74-65
16 vs. Le Moyne ................ W, 71-52
20 vs. Mansfield W, 76-54
24 vs. Bryant .........................W, 85-70
NIT
TIP-OFF 28 vs. Utah State L, 67–72 29 vs. Northern Iowa W, 68-56
All game start times are listed in Eastern Time and are subject to change. Home games in bold # = Legends Classic % = Basketball Hall of Fame Classic
decEMBER
4 at Bucknell ...................... W, 64-47 7 vs. Buffalo W, 65-55
BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME SHOWCASE 14 vs. Providence W, 74-70 17 at Siena W, 65-48 21 vs. Niagara W, 71-52 31 vs. VCU W, 77-75
january
4 at Fordham ...................... W, 86-66 8 at Saint Louis L, 73-68 11 vs. La Salle L, 83-82 (OT)
vs. Richmond ................ 7:00 pm 18 at Duquesne 2:00 pm
february 1 vs. Fordham.................12:30 pm 4 at Loyola Chicago 9:00 pm 9 vs. George W. 12:00 pm 12 at Rhode Island .................. 7:00 pm 15 at Massachusetts 12:00 pm 22 vs. Duquesne ................ 4:00 pm
at Saint Joseph's 7:00 pm
march
GAME NOTES
BENCH BATTLE
Wednesday's game features a meeting of the A-10's two coaching deans as Bona head coach Mark Schmidt and Richmond bench boss Chris Mooney are the league's two active leaders in wins and years on the sideline. Mooney is the only A-10 coach to both be at his current institution longer than Schmidt (Mooney is in his 20th season while Schmidt is in Year 18) and score more league wins – Mooney ranks fourth in A-10 history with 177 conference victories while Schmidt stands fifth with 160. Schmidt is 12-11 vs. Mooney during their A-10 battles.
Schmidt and Mooney’s career numbers are mirror images – Schmidt is 398-319 overall while Mooney is 397-317.
The only active D-I coaches to be at the same school for 17 or more seasons: Greg Kampe (Oakland, 41st season), Tom Izzo (Michigan St., 30), Mark Few (Gonzaga, 26), James Jones (Yale, 26), Randy Bennett (Saint Mary’s, 24), Leonard Hamilton (FSU, 23), Bill Self (Kansas, 22), Scott Drew (Baylor, 22), Matt Painter (Purdue, 20), Chris Mooney (Richmond, 20), Ben Jacobson (Northern Iowa, 19), Mark Schmidt (SBU, 18), Tommy Amaker (Harvard, 18).
SERIES HISTORY
This will be the 34th meeting in a series that Richmond leads 19-14. In recent years, though, the Bonnies have controlled the series by winning nine of the past 12 meetings dating to 2016.
In the Robins Center, Richmond has claimed 10 of its 19 wins in the series, including the last time these teams met up when the Spiders claimed the only matchup last year
with a 65-54 win in Virginia. At the Reilly Center, the Bonnies are 8-6 all-time against Richmond.
St. Bonaventure has won five straight matchups against the Spiders at The RC. Richmond’s last win in Western New York came on Feb. 18, 2015.
ABOUT RICHMOND
• Richmond had a disappointing 5-8 non-conference slate with two like opponents to the Bonnies. Richmond lost at Bucknell in double overtime, 8076, on Nov. 16 and finished non-conference play with a home loss to Florida Gulf Coast, 75-57. The Bonnies won at Bucknell (64-47) on Dec. 4 and were victorious in the third game of the year at FGCU, 74-65.
• The Spiders were one of three teams to open Atlantic 10 play at 2-0 – along with the Bonnies and Saint Louis – after scoring a home win over George Washington (66-61) and a road triumph at UMass (72-64). Like the Bonnies, though, Richmond has lost consecutive games since, falling at George Mason (64-58) and home vs. Rhode Island (67-64).
• Points have been at a premium at times for the Spiders as they rank 286th nationally at 70.1 ppg for the season. They get to the line, though – their 21.5 free throw attempts stands 84th in the country while their 78.9 success rate at the charity stripe is 15th in the country and best in the A-10.
• Senior guard Delonnie Hunt paces the Spiders in scoring (16.8 ppg) and no one in the league gets to the line more – he has attempted an A-10 high 121 free throws and his 86.2 free throw percentage is fifth in the conference. Hunt is also second in the A-10 – behind Bona’s Melvin Council Jr. – in steals (35). Hunt missed last year’s game vs. SBU with a wrist injury.
• Grad forward Dusan Nekovic posts 14.1 ppg in his first season with the program after graduating from Dartmouth where he scored 16.0 ppg last year.
ATHLETES OF THE WEEK
Haskell averaged 25.0 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 36.7 minutes per over two games last week for the Bonnies, helping the squad to a win over Saint Louis. Haskell finished the week a perfect 14-for-14 from the free throw line and shot 48.3 percent (14-for29) from the floor, making eight threes. Haskell clutched up for the Brown and White against the Billikens, converting on a pair of free throws with three seconds remaining to give the Bonnies the lead. She finished the game with 21 points on 6-of-12 shooting.
She followed that performance, matching her career-high with 29 points to lead all scorers. Haskell finished the contest 8-for-17 from the field, including five 3-pointers.
Jones recorded a career-high 24 points in Saturday’s game, eclipsing his Division I high of 16 set previously in wins vs. Niagara and CSUN. He went 8-for-9 from the floor against La Salle including 4-for-4 from beyond the arc and 4-for-4 at the foul line. He also hauled in eight rebounds.
It was one of the strongest shooting performances in the nation this year: Jones is the only D-I player this season to shoot 88% or better overall from the floor with at least eight attempts while going 4-for-4 or better from both beyond the 3-point line and the foul stripe in a game.
dani haskell
lajae jones
2024-25 St. Bonaventure athletic
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BEHIND THE BONNIES
Behind The Bonnies is a GoBonnies.com series where we get to know the student-athletes at St. Bonaventure University. In this edition, we meet redshirt junior center Michael Folarin.
Major: Business
Michael Folarin is one of two European players on the Bonnies basketball roster this year, hailing from London, England (Noah Bolanga of France is the other). Folarin came to the United States to play basketball at Bella Vista College Preparatory School in Scottsdale, Ariz. four years ago. As a senior, he was ranked as Arizona’s top center in the 2021 recruiting class. He started his collegiate career with a season at Eastern Washington University and then moved to Nevada but missed his sophomore season due to a preseason injury. Last year, he played at Salt Lake CC where he averaged 8.1 points and 5.8 rebounds for a team that finished 30-4. In high school, he also ran track and holds his school’s 100-meter hurdles record.
Folarin posted six rebounds and three blocks vs. CSUN in his Bonnies debut and had perhaps his best game of the year with a key performance off the bench vs. Buffalo, posting six points and five rebounds in a rivalry win.
How did you find out about SBU? Where I’m from, there’s a high school called St. Bonaventure. In looking that up, I found out there’s a college by that name, too.
Favorite thing about playing basketball: The process of learning, messing something up and getting better the next time. The learning process is my favorite thing. Favorite food: Jamaican food, you can’t go wrong with jerk chicken.
Hobbies: Gaming, talking to my family... I don’t do a ton outside of basketball. I need to expand what I do outside of basketball, probably.
Favorite basketball memory: My first dunk. It was the start of my sophomore year (in high school). All of my teammates celebrated around me at the timeout afterward.
Hidden talent: Growing up in London, I grew up playing soccer and I’m pretty good at it still.
