Women's Basketball readies for road opener at Binghamton

DATE: Nov. 13, 2009
TIP-OFF: 7:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Vestal, N.Y.
ARENA: Events Center (5,142)
CAPACITY: 5,780
SERIES: St. Bonaventure leads, 2-0
LAST MEETING: W, 66-51 (11/14/08)

Last Time: Bonnies push past Mansfield
The St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team streamlined to a 71-18 victory against Mansfield in an exhibition contest at the Reilly Center. The Bonnies jumped right out of the gate against the Mountaineers with scores by preseason Atlantic 10 All-Conference first team selection Dana Mitchell and redshirt sophomore Armelia Horton. A lay up by freshman Chelsea Bowker put the Brown and White up 13-0 with 13:53 remaining in the 1st half. Mitchell led the way for the Bonnies dropping in 17 while Megan Van Tatenhove added 12. Junior Cara Gustafson pulled down a team-high six rebounds. The rookies, Bowker, Colleen Kiss, Cyndra Couch and Alaina Walker added in 21 points as a group.

Preseason Accolades
Senior Dana Mitchell was tabbed as a Preseason Atlantic 10 All-Conference first team member. Mitchell returns for her final season in the Brown and White following a junior campaign in which she garnered All-Conference second team accolades for the second consecutive year. She averaged 15.5 points to rank second in the conference and pulling down 5.6 rebounds per contest. The Fairless Hills, Pa., native also shot 50.3 percent from the field and 82 percent from the free throw line to rank seventh and fourth, respectively, in the conference.

Can’t Wait to get on the Road again...
The Bonnies only travel to six non-conference games this season, but will travel more than 4,000 miles and spend almost six combined days traveling. St. Bonaventure hopes to continue its out-of-conference road success in the 2009-10 season following a 6-3 non-conference road record last season.

Moving Up in the Books
Senior Dana Mitchell is only 115 points away from moving into the fourth spot and 148 to move into third on the all-time scoring list in the program record books. Even with two consecutive seasons of scoring 500+ points, the Fairless Hills, Pa., still trails the top spot held by Hilary Waltman by 643 points.

Super Seniors
When seniors Andrea Doneth and Dana Mitchell joined the team in 2006-07, the Bonnies had not had a winning season in eight years. In their rookie season, St. Bonaventure went 16-15 to break the trends of years past. Now, three seasons later, the Bonnies have 57 triumphs, totaling more than the program’s combined total from the last six years (2000-06).

Winning Ways
For the second time since 1981 and the first time ever at the Division I level, the Bonnies posted three consecutive winning seasons. Prior to the Bonnies arrival in Division I, Bona tallied four straight winning seasons between 1977 and 1981 as well as back-to-back positive campaigns in 1984-85 and 1985 all under former boss Mary Jane Telford.

Atlantic 10 Efficiency
Last year’s squad opened A-10 play with two wins for the first time since the 2001-02 season. After a four-game Atlantic 10 winning streak in February, the Brown and White also established the school mark for most A-10 wins with nine victories. The fourth place finish is the team’s best position in the final standings since the 2003-04 season when the A-10 was divided into regions.

All-Conference Accolades
For the second consecutive season, Dana Mitchell and Katelyn Murray were each cited by the Atlantic 10 Conference with postseason honors conducted by the league’s head coaches and sports information directors. Head coach Jim Crowley also made history by being named the 2008-09 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year, becoming the first coach in program history to earn the honor. Murray earned a spot on the Academic All-Conference team. Murray’s selection was the second of her career as well as the 15th overall Academic All-Conference selection for the Bonnies. Mitchell is the fifth player to notch multiple All-Conference honors and the seventh player in program history to make the second squad. She is the first Bonnie to be named to the second team twice since Stefanie Collins’ selection in 2004-05.

Rewriting History
St. Bonaventure made history in several different ways on its way to a record-setting season. First, the Brown and White beat nationally ranked Michigan State 63-52, on Bob Lanier Court. The Bonnies received their first postseason opportunity with a bid to the WNIT. St. Bonaventure then went on to defeat West Virginia in the first round and Wisconsin in the second. The 1997-98 squad is the only other team in program history to beat two BCS schools in the same season, when they beat Syracuse and Northwestern. Also, the win against WVU was the first postseason victory by any of the Big 4 women’s basketball teams in the Division I era.

Court Smarts
Senior Katelyn Murray was named to the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America second team, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America. Murray’s ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America nomination is her second in as many years, as she made third team in the 2007-08 season. Murray graduated with a 4.0 grade point average in biology.

As a team, for the sixth time in the last seven academic years, St. Bonaventure earned a spot on the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Academic Team Honor Roll as the Bonnies ranked 16th in the country among NCAA Division I institutions with a cumulative team grade point average of 3.35.

G-Force
Dana Mitchell scored her 1,000th career point in a 71-67 win at Akron on November 22. Mitchell became the 16th member of the 1,000 point club, needing only 63 games to reach the milestone. Katelyn Murray also earned a nod into the club after scoring her 1,000th point on February 10 at home against Rhode Island. Mitchell and Murray became the 16th and 17th players in program history to enter the exclusive club in the school’s 38 seasons of collegiate basketball.

It’s Raining Threes
Last season, St. Bonaventure shot 42 percent from beyond the three-point line, which ranked first in the A-10 and 19th in the nation. The Brown and White made at least six trifectas in a contest 18 times, while shooting at least 40 percent 12 times last season. Three players (Katelyn Murray, Erica Schiefen and Jessica Jenkins) nailed 142 combined three-pointers. Murray ended her career ranking third on the St. Bonaventure all-time three-pointers made list with 197

Double Figures Club
The Brown and White owned an 8-3 record last season when someone scored 20 or more points in a game. Dana Mitchell led the way in 20-point games with eight and Katelyn Murray tallied behind her with four. When senior Ashley Edwards had a 10-point game against Fordham, all 10 of the Bonnies in coach Crowley’s regular rotation scored in double figures at least once last season. Mitchell led the way with 31 double figure scoring outputs, while Murray notched 21 double figure games.

1,000-500 Club
Dana Mitchell collected the 500th rebound of her career in the Brown and White’s loss to Duquesne on February 18. With that milestone rebound, Mitchell became just the eighth player in the 38-year history of St. Bonaventure women’s basketball to score 1,000 points and grab 500 rebounds in their career.

Two-Minute Warning
St. Bonaventure showed a knack for putting opposing teams away down the stretch last season. The Bonnies were an incredible 21-0 when leading in a game with less than two minutes remaining in the game.

Defensive Attitude
A key ingredient to the Bonnies’ success in the 2008-09 campaign was the consistent play on the defensive end. Through 34 games, the Brown and White conceded only 58.3 points per game which ranked the Bonnies 77th in the nation. St. Bonaventure owned an 18-1 mark when limiting opponents to under 60 points, and an 8-1 mark when holding opponents under 50 points.