Syracuse (10-1) welcomes St. Bonaventure (9-2) to the Carrier Dome for the second of four home contests to close out the Orange’s month of December. The Orange has won four straight since its loss to Kansas in Miami, but the Bonnies enter with a six-game win streak of their own.

Here’s what you need to know about the Bonnies:

All-time series: Syracuse leads, 24-3.

Last time they played: St. Bonaventure visited SU two years ago and appeared to be on its way out with a victory, until a second-half comeback gave SU a 79-66 win. Jaylen Adams, then a sophomore and now among one of the nation’s best guards, scored 16 for the Bonnies. The only remaining player SU has from that game is Frank Howard, who as a freshman played nine minutes and registered just two assists. Michael Gbinije led the Orange with 23 points.

The St. Bonaventure report: Had they been healthy from the get-go, this could be an undefeated Bonnies team entering this game. But Adams sprained his ankle in a preseason exhibition and did not play until Dec. 2. Before he returned, head coach Mark Schmidt’s team lost its season opener at home to Niagara and fell to Jamie Dixon’s TCU team in the championship game of an early-season tournament in Florida.

Since Adams came back, though, the Bonnies have won all five of their games. In that span, Adams and fellow starting guard Matt Mobley, a duo Syracuse redshirt forward Matthew Moyer said on Tuesday could be the best backcourt in the country, have combined to average nearly 36 points per game, nine assists and shoot 39 percent from behind the arc. No Atlantic 10 team shoots it better from deep than the Bonnies, who knock threes down at a 38.4 percent clip.

Kenpom ranks the Bonnies as college basketball’s 60th-best team. Syracuse currently sits at 52. And the early results from both teams haven’t been all that different. Both have beaten Maryland and Buffalo, and both shoot about 45 percent from the field. St. Bonaventure averages 77 points per game while the Orange go for 74. This is not a given nonconference win for SU.

St. Bonaventure boasts the nation’s 13th best turnover margin at +5.4 and allows 66 points per game. On offense, they spend a lot of time at the stripe, averaging 26.3 free throws per game.

How Syracuse beats St. Bonaventure: As Moyer alluded earlier in the week, stopping St. Bonaventure starts with containing Adams and Mobley. They account for roughly 34 percent of SBU’s scoring and shoot efficiently from three, something visiting teams have been able to hurt the Orange with recently. If SU can contain those guards, continue to make its free throws as it did against Buffalo and use its offensive rebounding as a strong suit against a Bonnies team that can go with a smaller five at times, it should be in a position to win.

Stat to know: Zero

In 10 tries, St. Bonaventure has never won a game in the Dome.

Kenpom odds: Kenpom gives Syracuse a 68 percent chance to win Friday night. For comparison, SU had an 83 percent chance to beat Buffalo on Tuesday.

Player to watch: Jaylen Adams, Guard, No. 3

Adams, maybe the best player in the A-10, is likely still settling into his senior season after missing the Bonnies first six games, but he is the team’s most dangerous offensive threat. Averaging 20.6 points and 6.5 assists per game (good for sixth-best in the country) as a junior landed him on the Bob Cousy Award watch list before this season. The award goes to the nation’s best point guard.

Not that St. Bonaventure is as good as Kansas, because it isn’t, but don’t be surprised if Adams and Mobley team up to torment SU’s zone with the lite version of what the Jayhawks’ Devonte’ Graham and Lagerald Vick did to it earlier this month.

Published on December 22, 2017 at 9:54 am

Contact: jtbloss@syr.edu | @jtbloss