Bonnies head to Ohio to face unbeaten Bobcats

Courtesy of GoBonnies.com.

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The game will be shown live in the Rathskeller on campus, and all are welcome to attend. The ‘Skeller will be open beginning at 6 p.m., and both the bar and kitchen will be open.

Opening Tip
St. Bonaventure plays its fourth straight game away from the Reilly Center on Wednesday when it battles 5-0 Ohio University. The Bobcats, who return all five starters from last year’s Sweet 16 team which lost in overtime to North Carolina, are Receiving Votes in both national polls. Meanwhile, Bonaventure will be looking to start a season 4-1 for the first time since the 2000-01 campaign.

Fastbreak Fact
The last time these two teams met, Bonaventure came away with a 112-107 four-overtime victory in the Reilly Center on Dec. 18, 2010. The game – the longest in SBU history – pitted stars Andrew Nicholson and D.J. Cooper against each other as Nicholson scored 44 points and Cooper tallied 43. Nicholson went to the free-throw line 25 times by himself, while Ohio as a team attempted 24 free throws. Cooper nearly finished with a quadruple-double as he fell two rebounds and two assists shy. The Bobcats attempted 101 field goals compared with 67 for the Bonnies. Two of the last four times Ohio and St. Bonaventure have met, both teams have scored 100+ points as during the 2002-03 season SBU claimed a 104-101 win.

Historically Close Encounters
Each of St. Bonaventure’s first four games have been decided by 10 points or less, including three in a row which have been decided by five points or less. The last time that SBU had three of its first four games of a year decided by five points or less was the beginning of the 1938-39 season.

Johnson Hot To Start
During the offseason, head coach Mark Schmidt called Chris Johnson the one player who would surprise opponents this year. So far, that’s exactly what the senior has done as he’s tied his career high for scoring in each of the last three games, netting 19 points in consecutive games against Cornell, Canisius and Niagara. Through four games, he’s already scored 66 points – a plateau he didn’t reach until the 13th contest last year. Additionally, the Nova Scotia native has already tied, or broken, a career high in six other categories (rebounds: 6; field goals made: 8; 3-point field goals made: 3; minutes played: 34; field goals attempted: 17; 3-point field goals attempted: 6).

‘E’ Is For Efficient
Guard Eric Mosley has played just 54 minutes this season – seventh-most on the team – but has scored 39 points – third-most on the team. Ten of the senior’s 12 field goals have been from 3-point range (10-19), which has him averaging a 3-pointer every 5.4 minutes played. Additionally, his 52.6-percent clip from 3-point range ranks 20th nationally. Once this year already Mosley has scored more points than minutes played (14 points, 12 minutes at Canisius), and he nearly equaled that feat in SBU’s win over Niagara on Saturday when he tallied 11 points in 12 minutes of action. In that game at Canisius, he became the first Bona player since Andrew Nicholson on Dec. 22, 2009 against Niagara to score more points than have minutes played. Nicholson tallied an incredible 24 points in just 16 foul-plagued minutes against the Purple Eagles.

Last Time Out
Despite trailing at the half for the first time this season, and facing its largest deficit of the year, the Bonnies scrapped out an 80-75 victory over Little Three rival Niagara in a neutral-site contest at Rochester’s Blue Cross Arena. SBU knocked down 10-of-23 3-point attempts, tied for the most 3’s it has hit in a game in the last two years (10 vs. Saint Joseph’s in a double-overtime contest on Feb. 29, 2012).

Scouting Ohio
# The Bobcats have defeated Portland, UNC-Wilmington, Wofford, Hampton and Richmond – all at home – to open their season 5-0 for the first time since 1969-70
# Ohio has won those five games by an average of 24.6 points, and that scoring margin ranks 8th in the nation
# After trailing at the half, 30-27, against Richmond on Saturday, Ohio blitzed the Spiders in the second half, outscoring them, 46-18, as it made more field goals (17) than Richmond attempted (16) en route to a 73-48 win
# Ohio ranks 4th in the country in steals per game (12.8), and is 2nd in the nation in turnover margin (+8.6)
# D.J. Cooper is averaging 6.6 assists per game, which ranks him 14th nationally in that category, and also averages 2.8 steals per contest, which ranks him 25th in the country
# The Bobcats have five players averaging double-figure points (Cooper: 13.6; Ivo Baltic: 12.4; Walter Offutt: 11.6; Nick Kellogg: 10.6; Reggie Keely: 10.2)
# Ohio was chosen to win the Mid-American Conference title
# Junior guard Nick Kellogg is the son of CBS lead college basketball analyst Clark Kellogg, who played collegiately at Ohio State and was a 1982 First Round Draft Pick of the Indiana Pacers

Bounce-Back Bonnies
With its 80-75 win over Niagara in Rochester on Saturday, St. Bona improved to 10-1 in its non-conference slate over the last two-plus years in games following losses. The only two-game losing streak during that timeframe came against Virginia Tech (73-64) and Arkansas State (58-52) last year.

‘Quise Shaping Into Form
After tearing his Achilles just two minutes into last season, Marquise Simmons has gradually worked his way back into game form. After opening the season with a pedestrian four-point, one-rebound performance in 13 minutes against Bethune-Cookman, the Washington, D.C., native has seen his minutes and production increase each game. He tallied 14 points and grabbed six rebounds in 20 minutes at Cornell – the 14 points being the most he’s scored in a game since the 2010-11 season when he netted 18 versus La Salle on Feb. 12, 2011. He then played 27 minutes off the bench against Canisius, recording five points and pulling down a game-high eight rebounds. He capped the three-game stretch with arguably his best performance in a Bona uniform on Saturday when he recorded his first career double-double and grabbed a career-best 12 rebounds in 20 minutes of action.

Good Things Come In Pairs
Demitrius Conger (18 points, 11 rebounds) and Marquise Simmons (12 points, 12 rebounds) each registered a double-double in the Bonnies’ victory over Niagara. The last time two St. Bonaventure players recorded double-doubles in the same game was Feb. 29, 2012, when Conger tallied 16 points and 10 rebounds and Andrew Nicholson produced 32 points and 14 rebounds in a 98-93 double-overtime victory opposite Saint Joseph’s. The last time two Bona players recorded double-doubles in the same regulation game was Feb. 25, 2012, when Conger had 12 points and 11 rebounds and Nicholson posted 25 points and 11 boards in a 72-56 victory over Charlotte.

Bonnies vs. Mid-American Foes
St. Bonaventure is 36-22 all-time against teams from the Mid-American Conference. SBU has met Kent State more than any other opponent, owning a 14-7 series edge over the Golden Flashes. The game against Ohio will be the first of two straight contests this week for the Bonnies against MAC opponents as they will face the University at Buffalo in the Reilly Center Saturday night.

Akron: 0-1
Bowling Green: 2-3
Buffalo: 5-1
Eastern Michigan: 1-2
Kent State: 14-7
Northern Illinois: 1-1
Ohio: 6-3
Toledo: 7-4

Second-Half Outburst
The Bonnies poured in 48 points in the second half of their 80-75 victory over Niagara on Saturday. The last time SBU scored that many points in a half was March 10, 2012, when it netted 48 in the first half of an 84-80 victory over Massachusetts in the Atlantic 10 Tournament Quarterfinals. The last time SBU scored as many points as 48 points in a second half was Feb. 16, 2011, when it registered 51 points in an 83-73 victory over Saint Louis.

Balanced Offensive Attack
St. Bonaventure has had four players reach double-figure scoring in consecutive games. The last time the Bonnies had four players score 10 or more points in back-to-back games was during the 2010-11 season. Bonaventure did that in a 92-88 triple-overtime victory against Charlotte (Jan. 8, 2011) and in an 83-55 loss to Temple (Jan. 12, 2011).

Quick Hitters
^ The seven-point deficit the Bonnies faced in the first half against Niagara was the most they have fallen behind this season.
^ SBU also trailed at the half for the first time this season against the Purple Eagles.
^ Bonaventure has scored more points off turnovers than its opponent in each of the first four games (59-37 overall).
^ Niagara was the first opponent this season to outscore the Bonnies in the paint, 32-22.

National Exposure
St. Bonaventure picked up its 12th regular-season television appearance earlier this week as the NBC Sports Network will broadcast nationally the Bonnies’ meeting with Siena this coming Tuesday, Dec. 4, in the Reilly Center. The game time has been moved to a 9 p.m. start from 7 p.m. Bonaventure made its first TV appearance of the year in a victory against Cornell on Nov. 14. The Siena contest will mark the second of three scheduled national appearances this year for the Brown and White. SBU was 2-3 in national TV games last year, but all three losses – at Illinois, vs. Temple and vs. Florida State – came by a combined 14 points. Over the last two-plus years total, including the 2012-13 season, St. Bona is 12-9 in TV games.

Finally A Victory In ROC
For the first time in seven tries, the Bonnies claimed a victory in Rochester when they defeated Niagara on Nov. 24, 80-75. SBU had lost those six games – against NC State, Virginia Tech, St. John’s, West Virginia, Syracuse and Saint Louis – by a combined 22 points, an average of 3.6 points per loss. The win in Blue Cross Arena was the first since a 79-78 decision over Charlotte in November of 2000.

Next Up
The Brown and White returns to the Reilly Center for the first time in three weeks when it battles the University at Buffalo on Saturday evening at 7. The Bonnies hold a 5-1 all-time series edge over the Bulls, and have each of the last four meetings.

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