It’s happened once before … by chance.

In 2016-17, the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team hosted UMass in its regular season finale, then happened to play the Minutemen again in its next game, five days later, in the second round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament. That was the only time that Bona had played consecutive contests against the same opponent under Mark Schmidt.

Until now. In a late scheduling reconfiguration, the Bonnies were designated to play Davidson twice in a three-day stretch as part of its final week of the regular season.

Schmidt’s team “took care of home court” in Game 1, shooting its way to a 69-58 triumph on Sunday inside the Reilly Center. Now, it’ll try to “steal one” in today’s rematch (5 o’clock, ESPN+-live stream, WPIG-FM, WHDL-AM) inside Belk Arena.

THE CIRCUMSTANCES in this one, of course, are much different. Bona (11-3, 9-3) is getting the Wildcats in their North Carolina gym, where an already good team historically plays even better. They’ll also see a Davidson group that now finally has a real game under its belt after returning from a month-long pause Sunday with only the benefit of a Division III tuneup from two days before.

And they know: Game 2 figures to be a much stiffer test.

“It’s going to be a great challenge,” said Schmidt, whose team is now tied with VCU for first place in the A-10 standings following Tuesday’s results. Everybody plays better at home — even though Davidson was undefeated on the road this year (it was 4-0 before Sunday’s loss to Bona) and had lost two games at home (to Richmond and Dayton).

“But traditionally everybody plays better at home, shoots better at home, (is) more comfortable. So we have to play better than we did in Game 1, in all facets … if we expect to win.”

For Bona, the trip south represents another last-minute adjustment, but that’s something it’s used to: After playing its first three league games as scheduled, every contest since has been altered in some capacity.

But this particular sequence came with an added quirk.

BY BEATING the Wildcats on Sunday (Davidson fell from No. 74 to 78 in the NET rankings as a result), Bona actually lessened the overall value of these two potential wins, as its home victory moved from a Quad 2 to 3 and a road win would dip from a Quad 1 to 2.

For now.

Of course, it was put in that position by the conference. And the A-10 didn’t exactly do it a favor by giving it back-to-back matchups with Davidson (11-6, 6-3) rather than, say, a road game with the Wildcats (as originally scheduled) and a home rematch with either Richmond or Saint Louis (which would have been a guaranteed Quad 2 triumph).

But the Bonnies aren’t interested in being bogged down by all the math, metrics and scenarios. Their attitude on the matter is simple: You go with who’s next.

“You just go with what the league tells you to go with,” Schmidt said. “You really don’t have any say in what they do. When they say, ‘this is who you’re playing, this is when you play,’ you show up and you play.

“It is what it is. This is the year, it’s unique, it’s different. It’s not always fair. But like I’ve said many a time, our guys are just happy to play, no matter if it’s Davidson three or four times, it doesn’t matter. Our guys want to play and this is the next game on the schedule. It’s just the hand we’re dealt.”

Despite surrendering 13 3s, Bona did a solid job defensively on Sunday, limiting the Wildcats to just 39.6 percent shooting and only eight 2-pointers. A big part of that was keeping the ball out of the paint, where Davidson totaled just 16 points, and containing big man Luka Brajkovic, who scored only eight points on 3-for-9 shooting.

In the aftermath, Davidson coach Bob McKillop lamented his team’s inability to get the ball inside and said it would be a much bigger focus in Game 2. And to Schmidt, winning the paint remains, perhaps, the biggest single key.

“A lot of times, people get caught up in their 3-point shooting, but they’re a team that tries to get the ball into the paint, by the dribble or by the pass, and they try to pound it inside (to Brajkovic),” the 14th-year coach said, “and I can expect them to try to do that (today).

“Hopefully we can keep it out of there, and hopefully we can do a good job once (Brajkovic) gets it, trying to bring different guys at him. Who knows? But he’s definitely a concern.”

AS PART of that defensive effort in Game 1, Bona held two Wildcats starters (Sam Mennenga and Carter Collins scoreless) and allowed just 32 second-half points while essentially keeping everybody — including star senior Kellan Grady — except junior forward Hyunjung Lee at bay. And if it can come close to emulating those numbers, it figures to have a good chance in the rematch.

To Schmidt, in this rare instance of back-to-back contests, nobody has a distinct leg up in Game 2.

“It’s the same,” said the 14th-year coach, whose Bonnies were firmly in (as a No. 11 seed) ESPN’s Joe Lunardi’s latest NCAA Tournament projection, “because whatever advantage we have, they have; and whatever disadvantage we have, that’s what they have.

“I’ve never (played consecutive games under these circumstances). And Coach McKillop — he’s older and coached a lot more games — (probably hasn’t either). Maybe once in a while you have a week off, then you play that same team again, but back-to-back is unusual. We’ll see how it turns out, but I don’t think anybody has an advantage.”