St. Bonaventure’s first and only major conference test of the regular season comes Saturday in a match that has gotten considerably tougher over the last two weeks.

The Bonnies will face Providence College on a neutral site and play at Mohegan Sun Arena (5 p.m., CBS Sports Network) in Uncasville, Connecticut.

The Friars were an “other getting votes” team in the AP Top 25 poll for four weeks before suffering three straight losses at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas.

But when the calendar turned to December, they got a big boost. Senior guard/forward Bryce Hopkins returned from a torn ACL suffered in January 2024 and now looks like the prized Kentucky transfer and All-Big East player he was before his injury. Hopkins averaged 17.0 points and 7.7 rebounds in his first three games and led the team to a 2-1 record, its only loss coming last Saturday in Rhode Island.

“He’s a mismatched guy,” Bona coach Mark Schmidt said of Hopkins. “He’s a foursome, a threesome, he plays fivesome. So it creates a lot of problems. You really have to embrace it. You really have to focus on him, and when you do focus on him, they have really good guards and big guys that are big and athletic. So he changes the whole look of their team, like if we had Andrew Nicholson or one of our best players.”

Providence (7-4, 1-0) made its Big East debut Tuesday night with an overtime win at DePaul, but still has one more nonconference game left with the Bonnies. Bona (9-1), meanwhile, completes non-conference play with Siena and Niagara next week.

Saturday offers one last big chance to boost one’s non-conference resume. Since 2017-18, Schmidt’s teams have an 11-8 record against the Power Four conferences and the Big East. They last split against Oklahoma State in 2023 and Notre Dame in 2022.

“We approach every game the same,” said Schmidt. “We plan a game like this because it takes place at a neutral venue. It’s like playing in the Atlantic 10 tournament in DC. They are a really good team. They are the team that statistically ranks higher than us in terms of their conference. So it’s a challenge for us. We want to play this Power Five or Power Four and the Big East at a neutral site as often as possible. You never want to let them play on their home court, but the opportunity to play against teams of this caliber on a neutral court is certainly beneficial for us.”

On the sideline is a familiar face, PC coach Kim English, who took the Friars job in 2023, replacing Ed Cooley after leading George Mason for two seasons. The last time Schmidt and English met, Bona won 73-69 against Mason on January 4, 2023 at the Reilly Center.

“They are fast and athletic. They really push the ball,” Schmidt said of the England team. “They are a team that goes after you on defense. Almost like a pro style. Defensively, they play drop defense with a five-man chain. So they distance you offensively, a lot of one-on-one plays in an isolation style. It’s all about spacing, lots of high ball screens and trying to give their guards a chance to really develop and get into the game, and they make nine 3s a game. But they are very isolated offensively and get the ball defensively.”

Saturday marks a week between games since Bona beat Buffalo 65-55 at RC last weekend, but it hasn’t been a week off for the Bonnies. It was finals week on campus, so Bona gave his players three days off to train with the full team, but kept the gym open for individual workouts and weight room sessions.

“We didn’t go back to work until Wednesday,” said Schmidt. “This is a tough week. It’s always been a tough week to pass final exams and complete papers, and everyone goes through that. But that’s exactly what we did. The boys did individual training in the gym, lifting weights and so on.

“But in terms of practice, you don’t have to put in as much effort or as long for them to learn again.”

Both teams are ranked in the top 100 in the NET (Bona 58, Providence 72) and KenPom (Providence 76, Bona 86) in the NCAA. The Bonnies (15th, 60.5 points per game) and Friars (30th, 63.7) both rank in the top 30 in the NCAA in scoring defense.

In the last game against UB, Bona once again showed impressive defense, but struggled at times on offense. And while Schmidt claims Bona needs to get better, Schmidt sees some good signs in the team’s stats.

“If you look at it, I’m a tough critic, but I think we’re shooting 45% (46.6 from the field),” Schmidt said. “We need to get our 3-point shooting up to about 35 (from 31.6). But if you look at the stats, we have a positive assist-to-turnover ratio. We play defense, so there aren’t many possessions in the game. So it’s not like you can score 80 or 90 points a game unless you score some crazy rate.

“But we need to have more speed, better execution and some easy baskets in transition. But our halffield needs to offer more speed and more execution. And I think the better the children understand our pieces, the better it will be. When you think rather than react, things slow down a little, and when you’re slow, it’s easier to protect yourself.”