Dec. 6, 2008

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GAME DAY CENTRAL
DATE:Dec. 7, 2008
TIP-OFF:12:00 p.m.
LOCATION:St. Bonaventure, N.Y.
ARENA:Reilly Center
COURT: Bob Lanier Court
CAPACITY: 5,780
WEB RADIO & VIDEO: www.GoBonnies.com
SERIES: First Meeting
LAST MEETING: N/A
UP NEXT: @ Bowling Green on December 14

AT A GLANCE
St. Bonaventure heads into Sunday's match-up against #21/24 Michigan State University coming off a home win over IPFW earlier this week 69-58. The Brown and White will attempt to stay perfect at home, where they are 3-0 so far this season. The Bonnies will look to keep the high-scoring Spartan offense in check, as they are averaging 77.2 ppg this season. The Bonnie defense, however, is only surrendering 61.0 ppg and have held four teams under 60 points so far this season.

SERIES HISTORY
Today's matchup will be the first meeting between these two schools. The Bonnies hold a 3-2 all-time record against the Big Ten Conference. The Bonnies were victorious in their most recent meeting against a Big Ten opponent, beating Michigan, 56-50, on December 22, 2006.

THIS DAY IN BONA HISTORY
St. Bonaventure is 3-4 all-time when playing on December 7 since 1985.

HEAD COACHING MATCHUP
ST. BONAVENTURE HEAD COACH
Jim Crowley
@ St. Bonaventure: 92-142 (9th)
Overall: 131-180 (12th)
Vs. Michigan State: 0-0

MICHIGAN STATE HEAD COACH
Suzy Merchant
@ Michigan State: 29-16 (2nd)
Overall: 224-135 (13th)
Vs. St. Bonaventure: 0-0

SCOUTING THE SPARTANS
Michigan State (6-2) enters today's game against the Bonnies ranked #21 in the AP Top 25 Poll and #24 in the ESPN/USA Today Poll. The Spartans are coming off back-to-back road losses against #10 ranked Notre Dame and Georgia Tech. Turnovers have been the problem of late for the visitors, as they have turned the ball over an average of 26 times per game over the last two games. The Spartans are led by Preseason Wooden Award List nominee Allyssa DeHann. DeHann, the tallest player in MSU program history at 6-foot-nine, averages 9.6 ppg and an astounding 3.4 bpg. Aisha Jefferson leads the team in scoring at 15.1 ppg and is second on the team averaging 5.3 rpg. The Spartans return all five starters from last year's squad that finished 23-14 last season and lost in the WNIT Championship Game to Marquette 81-66.

LAST TIME OUT: Bonnies rebound with win over IPFW
A collective effort on the offensive end and solid foul shooting late lifted the St. Bonaventure women's basketball team to a 69-58 win over Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) Tuesday evening at the Reilly Center. The Bonnies were able to bounce back against the Mastodons after suffering their first loss of the season last time out against Oakland, 76-72. With the win, the Brown and White have now won seven straight non-conference games at the Reilly Center. Junior Andrea Doneth led four Bonnies who scored in double figures, pouring in a season-high 17 points while grabbing eight rebounds. Dana Mitchell, who tallied 15 points, had her streak of 20 point games stopped at four. Eva Ivanova made two free-throws for IPFW to bring the visitor's within two at 54-52 with 3:13 remaining. The Bonnies, however, would take control and finish the game on a 15-6 run. The Brown and White did most of their damage during the run from the charity stripe as they received 12 made free-throws from a multitude of players in the last three minutes of the game to put IPFW away.

Elite Company
Dana Mitchell scored her 1,000 career point in a 71-67 win at Akron on November 22. Mitchell not only became the 16th member of the 1,000 point club, but she also moved into 16th place on the Bonnies all-time scoring list with 1,006 career points. The Fairless Hills, Pa. native needed only 64 games to reach the impressive milestone. Mitchell, currently in 14th place all-time, needs only 24 more points to move into 13th place, passing Roni Hergenroeder who has 1,069 points.

Non-Conference Success
Dating back to last season, the Bonnies have notched 17 victories in their last 21 games outside of the Atlantic 10, including six in a row at the Reilly Center. St. Bonaventure is also 10-4 in its last 14 non-conference contests away from home.

Double Trouble
The scoring duo of senior Katelyn Murray along with junior Dana Mitchell are at it again for the Brown and White this season. The tandem have accounted for 48 percent of the Bonnies offense this season. Mitchell is averaging 18.2 points per game and Murray is scoring at a 14.8 clip per game this season. The dynamic duo is the highest scoring combination in the Atlantic 10 so far this season at 33.0 points per game. The Bona combo leads the Kristin Daugherty/Justine Raterman (30.7) duo from Dayton for the honor.

Can't Catch Them
The Bonnies have dominated at times during their 5-1 start this season. The Brown and White have opened up a lead of at least 10 points in five of their six games this season. In three games, wins against Canisius, Akron and IPFW, the Bonnies have led wire-to-wire not once surrendering the lead.

Doing The Time
Senior guards Katelyn Murray and Priscilla Edwards are the only Bonnies so far this season to log over 30 minutes of playing time in a game. Murray played 36 minutes and scored 18 points against Canisius on November 19 while logging 34 minutes and scoring 20 points on November 30 at Oakland. Edwards logged 35 minutes of action against IPFW on December 2 and scored 12 points in the victory.

5-5-5 Deal
Junior Andrea Doneth achieved something in the Bonnies loss at Oakland that no other member of the team has done this season. Doneth notched five points, eight rebounds, and six assists making her the first Bonnie with five tallies in each statistical category this season.

Inside The Numbers
Scoring in double digits not only have benefitted the Bonnies' individual statistics, it has also equated to wins for the Brown and White so far this season. St. Bonaventure owns a 3-0 mark when three players reach the double digit plateau and 5-1 when two players score in double digits.

Four of a Kind
In the Brown and White's win over IPFW on Tuesday, four Bonnies reached double figures scoring in the same game for the first time all season. Andrea Doneth led the way with 17 points, Dana Mitchell had 15, Priscilla Edwards netted 12 and Katelyn Murray tallied an even 10 points in the victory.