Bonnies Travel To VCU For Friday Night Showcase

By: Scott Eddy, Assistant Athletics Director for Strategic Communications

ST. BONAVENTURE (15-5, 3-4 A-10) at VCU (15-4, 5-1 A-10)
Friday, Jan. 24 – 9:00 p.m.
Richmond, Va.
TV: ESPNU
Radio: Bonnies Online Network / 100.1 FM The Hero

OPENING TIP

St. Bonaventure is looking to sweep the season series vs. VCU for the second consecutive season after winning the Atlantic 10 opener on Dec. 31, 77-75, at the Reilly Center. Bona took last year’s meeting at VCU with a convincing 89-78 victory on Jan. 3, 2024 for Bona’s third win all-time at the Siegel Center. 

The Bonnies have won six of the past seven games vs. VCU dating back to the 2021 Atlantic 10 Championship victory over the Rams and seven of the last nine overall.

St. Bonaventure has been playing short-handed: starting point guard Dasonte Bowen has missed the last month due to a foot injury. Chance Moore, who entered last week leading the Bonnies in both scoring and rebounding, missed Tuesday’s game vs. George Mason with a foot injury of his own. 

STARTING LINEUP

• Redshirt freshman Duane Thompson has turned in his two best career performances in back-to-back games. After scoring seven points with four rebounds at Duquesne last Saturday, he turned in a career-best 16 points and seven boards vs. George Mason on Tuesday in 20 minutes off the bench, another career-high.
• Bona entered Tuesday’s game averaging under six bench points per game in Atlantic 10 play but had doubled that before halftime.
• The Bonnies continue to rank top-20 nationally in scoring defense. By allowing 63.6 ppg for the season, St. Bonaventure stands 17th in Division I. The Atlantic 10 continues to be a defensive league – while the Bonnies stand 17th nationally, they are third in the A-10 behind George Mason and VCU. 
• St. Bonaventure continues to rank in the nation’s top-100 squads in NET (88) and KenPom (92).
• Bona is shooting 73.2 percent at the foul line this season, third-best among A-10 squads behind only Richmond (78.3%) and Saint Joseph’s (73.4%).
• Miles Rose played a career-high 19 minutes off the bench in Saturday’s game while Thompson logged a then career-high 17. Rose and Thompson each were members of Bona’s squad last year as two of three scholarship players who returned for this year along with Noel Brown.
• Melvin Council Jr. is eighth among all Atlantic 10 players during conference play in scoring, averaging 17.0 ppg in A-10 games thus far.
• Noah Bolanga earned his first career start Tuesday vs. George Mason, posting a new career-high in points with eight after making a pair of 3-pointers for his first game of multiple field goals from beyond the arc this season.
• Noel Brown scored his first career double-double in his 119th career Division I game (19 points, 10 rebounds) at Duquesne last weekend. The 10 boards were a new career-high.
• Chance Moore was held scoreless first time this season after being limited to just 12 minutes vs. Duquesne due to injury. Moore then missed the George Mason game, the first game he has missed this year.

TRENDING NUMBERS

3 – Melvin Council Jr. hit the game-winning layup with just over three seconds to play in the Dec. 31 win over VCU. He finished with 20 points, eight rebounds and four assists in that game.
1:13 – Melvin Council Jr. has played all but 1:13 in Bona’s last seven games.
16 – Duane Thompson posted his first career double-figure scoring effort vs. George Mason with 16 points off the bench. That is more than the Bonnies have scored as a team off the bench in all but three games this year.
26 – In the first meeting of the season, the Bonnies and VCU shared a combined 26 ties and lead changes. 
45% – Lajae Jones is shooting over 45 percent from beyond the arc this season, a total that ranks third in the Atlantic 10.

SERIES HISTORY

This will be the 20th meeting all-time between St. Bonaventure and VCU. The Bonnies have won seven of the last nine contests between the two programs. 

Last year, the Bonnies led wire-to-wire in a convincing win in Richmond over the Rams, 89-78. The 89 points posted by Bona’s in that game represents the program’s all-time high vs. VCU and gave the program back-to-back wins at VCU’s Siegel Center for the first time.  Later in the season, the Bonnies capped their first-ever season sweep of VCU with a 67-62 win at the Reilly Center.

The rivalry has been an entertaining one in recent years. In 2022-23, the Bonnies scored a dramatic 61-58 win at VCU. The 2021 Atlantic 10 Championship Game came as the rubber match between the Bonnies and Rams after splitting two regular season meetings that year. St. Bonaventure captured its second Atlantic 10 title in program history, 74-65, over VCU in Dayton that season.

Prior to their first matchup as A-10 foes in 2013, the Bonnies defeated VCU in back-to-back years during the late 70s – a 63-61 victory in the 1978 ECAC Championship Game to reach the NCAA Tournament as well as a victory in the following season on home court. In the 1978 ECAC Championship, Tim Waterman’s buzzer-beater sent the Bonnies to victory – and a spot in the NCAA Tournament – in Rochester’s War Memorial Stadium with one of the most memorable shots in program history. 

ABOUT VCU

 • The Rams were picked as the A-10 preseason favorite after returning a conference-high 65 percent of its scoring from last year’s team that finished 24-14 overall. Preseason First Team selection Max Shulga and Second Team honorees Zeb Jackson and Joe Bamisile lead the way. Bamisile posts 17.0 ppg and 5.4 rpg while Shulga (16.5 ppg, 6.1 rpg) and Jackson (11.3, 3.1 rpg) are scoring threats in any contest. Jackson was also selected to the league’s preseason All-Defensive Team. 

• VCU has won five straight games since losing at Bonaventure to begin Atlantic 10 play on Dec. 31. VCU has since scored road wins at Loyola Chicago (84-65), Saint Joseph’s (78-69) and Rhode Island (81-57) and at home vs. Saint Louis (78-62) and Fordham (73-61). 

• VCU ranks 12th nationally in defense, holding opponents to just 62.5 points per game as well stand 35th in the country in turnover margin (+3.3).