Bonnie’s Tip Off 2025 Home Slate vs. La Salle

By: Scott Eddy, Associate Athletics Director for Strategic Communications

ST. BONAVENTURE (14-2, 2-1 A-10) vs. LA SALLE (8-7, 0-2 A-10)

Saturday, January 11th – 12:00 p.m
Reilly Center
TV: YES / ESPN+
Radio: Bonnie’s Online Network / 100.1 FM The Hero

OPENING TIP
St. Bonaventure looks to bounce back from its first conference loss of the season, 73-68, on Wednesday night in Saint Louis. The Bonnies fought back from a 16-point deficit with 6:10 to play and got within three points in the final minute before the Billikens held on. This ended an eight-game winning streak for the Bonnies, their longest since 2018.

START FIVE

• Chance Moore posted his fourth double-double of the season with 23 points and 10 rebounds on Wednesday night. He had scored in the single digits in each of the first two Atlantic 10 games, the only time he did not score in double figures in consecutive games this year.
• The Bonnies have led for more than 35 minutes in 11 of the 16 games this season. Bona hadn’t trailed by more than three since Nov. 29 against Northern Iowa before Wednesday’s game at SLU. The Billikens’ 16-point second-half lead is the Bonnies’ largest deficit this year.
• Noel Brown has scored double-digit points in six straight games, twice as many as he previously scored in the first four seasons of his college career.
• A win on Saturday would give the Bonnies a 3-1 start in Atlantic 10 play for the first time since the 2021-22 season. The Bonnies have started 3-1 or better four times in the first four games of A-10 play Mark Schmidt Epoch.
• The Bonnies were ranked No. 58 in the NCAA NET rankings as of Thursday, the highest ranking of any Atlantic 10 team, one spot ahead of VCU (59) and two ahead of Dayton (60).

Broadcast coverage

Saturday’s game will be the third 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 broadcast both men’s and women’s games on the station in 2024-25. The YES broadcasts will also be streamed on the Gotham Sports app. YES has been the most-watched regional sports network in the country for 18 of the last 21 years and owns exclusive regional media rights to the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets. Click here to learn more about the agreement.

All Bonnies basketball games broadcast on YES will continue to be streamed on ESPN+ for fans with a subscription to that service.

As always, fans can also listen to the audio broadcast for free anywhere online via the Bonnies Online Network or locally on terrestrial radio at 100.1 FM The Hero.

Honoring the 1968 NCAA tournament team
The 1967-68 St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team, still the only Bonnies team to go undefeated in a regular season, will be honored during Saturday’s game.

The team will be recognized during the game against La Salle. Additionally, there will be a post-game reception for the team that is open to the public in the Hall of Fame Room.


Members of this team confirmed to participate include head coach Larry Weise, Jim Satalin, Billy Kalbaugh, Gene Fahey, Mike Kull, Vinny Martin, Dick Ulaszewicz and team manager Art Roberts. Other members of the team included the late Bob Lanier, Bonas All-America center and Basketball Hall of Fame member Bill Butler, John Hayes, Jim Gagnier and Pete Wisniowski.


Lanier, Butler, Kalbaugh, Satalin, Hayes and Weise, as well as team coach Dick Gigliotti, are all members of the St. Bonaventure Athletics Hall of Fame.


Led by Lanier, a sophomore this season, the Bonnies went 22-0 in the regular season. Their potent offense averaged 85 points per game and St. Bonaventure was ranked third in the Associated Press Top 25 poll. Bona then beat Boston College in its first NCAA Tournament game, but lost to North Carolina in the next round and Columbia in a consolation game, finishing the year 23-2.

SUPPORT A GOOD CAUSE
Fans attending Saturday’s game are asked to bring a non-perishable food item as a donation.

Donations will be collected at all arena entrances and the SBU ticket office. The donated food will benefit the Salvation Army.

TRENDING NUMBERS

13 – The Bonnies commit just 13 fouls per game, which ranks 10th^Th Nationwide for fewest fouls per contest.

14 – As of Friday, the Bonnies were one of 15 teams nationwide to have 14 or more wins this season. Only one team in the country — Utah State, to whom the Bonnies suffered a 72-67 setback in the ESPN NIT Tip-Off on Thanksgiving — has more wins (15).

38 – Melvin Council Jr. has 38 steals this season, the most among any A-10 player and 12^Th national.

50% – Noel Brown Went 5-for-11 from the floor in a win at Fordham last Saturday. It was the only time all season that he shot below 50% in a single game. Brown has a shooting percentage of over 63% this season, the best among all qualified A-10 and 11 players^Th national.

+208 – SBU has the edge in paint so far: Bona’s is +208 in paint rating this year and has achieved a plus lead in paint in all competitions. SBU scored a season-high 48 paint points in its win over VCU on December 31st.

HISTORY OF THE SERIES

La Salle leads 20-19
The teams met 39 times in a series that has historically been almost even.

The Bonnies had won five of their last six meetings before a home loss in 2022, and SBU fell to 6-10 all-time with a setback in late February at Tom Gola Arena in La Salle.

However, the Bonnies returned to the right side of the series by winning a wild Atlantic 10 second-round game last season. It was the third time the programs met in the Atlantic 10 tournament: The last time the teams met in the A-10 tournament was a decade ago, when the Bonnies lost 82-70 to La Salle in a second-round matchup at Barclays Center . Three years earlier, La Salle scored a double-overtime thriller at the Reilly Center.

ABOUT LA SALLE

• La Salle is led by legendary head coach Fran Dunphy, a Philadelphia basketball institution for five decades. After starting coaching at Army as an assistant from 1971 to 1975 and then coaching at the high school for two seasons, he first moved to La Salle as an assistant in 1979. After a stint at American, he returned to the staff at La Salle from 1985 to 1988 before moving to Penn, where he was head coach from 1989 to 2006. He then successfully served as program director at Temple from 2006 to 2019 and took over the position at La Salle in 2022. Dunphy went 7-1 against the Bonnies at Temple and is 2-1 against SBU over the past two seasons, leading the Explorers.
• Saturday’s game is a rematch of an entertaining Atlantic 10 second-round contest last year in Brooklyn. The Bonnies held the Explorers to 75-73 when an attempt by La Salle’s Daeshon Shepherd for a put-back dunk that would have tied the game failed as time expired. Noel Brown scored 11 points off the bench in the win.
• Offensively, the Explorers rank fifth in the A-10 this season with 77.4 ppg, but just 13^Th on the defensive side by allowing over 74 points per contest. They are dangerous in the open court, rank second in the league in fastbreak points (14/game) and are strong on the boards with a +4.1 rebound margin, good for fifth in the conference.
• Corey McKeithan, a graduate transfer guard from Rider, ranks seventh in the A-10 and top 100 nationally with 17.3 ppg, while Daeshon Shepherd (11.1 ppg) and Jahlil White (10.3 ppg) also do so achieve threats. Demetrius Lilley leads the team on the glass with over seven rebounds per game.
• La Salle is seeking its first A-10 win after losing its opener in Dayton (84-70) and falling at home to Loyola Chicago (79-68).

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