By Malcolm Price

1 28 2025

GAME NOTES

https://gobonnies.com/documents/2025/1/27/Game_Notes_22_-_Dayton.pdf

BONAVENTURE (15-6, 3-5 A-10) vs. DAYTON (14-6, 4-3 A-10)
Tuesday, Jan. 28 – 8:00 p.m.
Reilly Center
TV: YES Network / ESPN+
Radio: Bonnies Online Network / 100.1 FM The Hero

OPENING TIP
The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team returns home to the Reilly Center to face off against Dayton on Tuesday night. The Bonnies are seeking to bounce back from a three-game losing skid against a trio of the A-10’s front-runners in VCU, George Mason and Duquesne while welcoming in a Dayton squad that responded from a three-game skid of its own earlier this month with wins in their last three.

STARTING FIVE

• St. Bonaventure is looking to snap what is just its second three-game losing skid in Atlantic 10 play since 2020.
• Bonnies head coach Mark Schmidt enters Tuesday’s game with 399 career victories as a
  Division I head coach. He has scored 317 of those wins leading Bona’s program.
• Senior Chance Moore returned to the Bonnies lineup Friday night at VCU and responded with a game-high 21 points along with eight rebounds. Moore played all but one minute of action after missing the game last Tuesday vs. George Mason due to a toe injury suffered Jan. 18 at Duquesne.
• Fifth-year captain Noel Brown had his second double-double in the last three games with 10 points and 10 rebounds Friday night. Prior to the game at Duquesne, Brown had never recorded double-digit rebounds in a game.
• Bona is trying to snap a rare two-game losing skid in A-10 play at home. The Bonnies are 60-19 at home in Atlantic 10 play since 2015-16.

BROADCAST COVERAGE
Tuesday’s game will be the fifth of five Bonnies men’s games broadcast live on YES Network this season. St. Bonaventure Athletics and YES announced a partnership earlier this fall to air both men’s and women’s games on the network in 2024-25. The YES broadcasts will also be streamed on The Gotham Sports App. YES has ranked as the most-watched regional sports network in the country in 18 of the last 21 years and owns the exclusive regional media rights of the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets. Click here to read more about the agreement. 

All Bonnies basketball games broadcast on YES will also still stream through ESPN+ as well for fans with a subscription to that service. 

Fans can also listen to the audio broadcast as always for free anywhere online through the Bonnies Online Network or locally on terrestrial radio at 100.1 FM The Hero.

TRENDING NUMBERS
1:13 – Melvin Council Jr. has played all but 1:13 in Bona’s last eight games.
2 – Noel Brown has two double-doubles in the past three games after not recording one in his first 119 career 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.
43 – Melvin Council Jr. has scored double figures 43 of 54 career D-I games.
75-14 – The Bonnies fell to 75-14 when leading at the half since the start of the 2019-20 season with Friday’s loss at VCU.

ABOUT DAYTON

• Dayton was picked to finish second in the A-10 preseason poll, receiving six first-place votes to slot behind preseason favorite VCU.
• Senior forward Nate Santos was named to the A-10’s preseason first team. Santos finished last year as the second leading scorer (11.7) and rebounder (6.3) for Dayton. He was also fourth in the A-10 in three-point shooting. This season, Santos paces the squad at 14.6 ppg while Enoch Cheeks checks in at 13.1 ppg.
• Dayton has two ranked wins on the season, scoring impressive non-conference triumphs over then-No. 2 UConn and then-No. 6 Marquette.
• Dayton comes into the game 22^th in the nation in assist/turnover ratio (1.57). Malachi Smith is the A-10’s leader in assists at six per game.
• Dayton is second in the A-10 in field goal percentage at over 47 percent and first in 3-point field goal percentage at better than 36 percent.

SERIES HISTORY
This marks the 41st meeting all-time between the Bonnies and Flyers with Dayton owning a 29-11 advantage.

In the last meeting at the Reilly Center back in February 2023, St. Bonaventure snapped what was a seven-game losing streak vs. Dayton dating to 2016 which had been far and away the longest skid for the Bonnies vs. an A-10 opponent in recent memory.

Last year, the Bonnies lost their fifth in a row at UD Arena against a nationally-ranked Flyers squad. The Bonnies have not won in Dayton against the Flyers since 2016, but in years since, though, the Bonnies have picked up two big wins otherwise in Dayton: St. Bonaventure defeated VCU in the 2021 Atlantic 10 Championship Game at UD Arena and also won at the venue in 2018, knocking off UCLA in the First Four of the NCAA Tournament that year.

COURTESY ST. BONAVENTURE ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS