FORT MYERS, Fla. – St. Bonaventure moved in front early and weathered multiple comeback attempts from host FGCU to take a 74-65 win Wednesday night at Alico Arena.
Reigning Atlantic 10 Player of the Week Chance Moore posted a game-high 18 points along with eight rebounds and three steals to power the Bonnies. Four Bona players logged double-figure scoring: Noel Brown totaled 13 points and Dasonte Bowen along with Jonah Hinton each had 11 .
After leading by three possessions or more for most of the night, FGCU closed within two with under nine minutes to go.
With the Eagles student section roaring, the Bonnies again showed their mettle down the stretch.
Following the under-8 media timeout, the visitors put together a game-changing 8-0 break.
Brown started the run with a turnaround jumper in the lane. Following a forced turnover on the defensive end, a fall-away floater from Lajae Jones extended the lead back to seven. More work by Brown in the paint pushed the lead back to 11 and the Eagles never again threatened.
St. Bonaventure (3-0) gained control early thanks to a 15-2 run resulting in a 17-7 lead just over six minutes in.
The Bonnies continued to maintain a 10-point edge at 32-22 with 4:30 left before the break, but FGCU turned the tables with a 7-0 sprint in just over 90 seconds, extending that to 9-0 to cut Bona’s lead to just one.
After taking a four-point lead to intermission, the Bonnies soon enjoyed a 10-point cushion once more early into the second half and seemed poised to take control.
Once again, though, the Eagles had other plans as the hosts built another rally.
Rory Stewart charged up the crowd with three from the wing for a two-point spread at the nine-minute mark, 57-55.
Then, the Bonnies had the final word.
Zavian McLean had 16 points for FGCU (0-3).
“It wasn’t pretty, but we found a way and I thought we played, really, really hard. We were good enough to get the lead up to 10 and bad enough to let them back in it. But we responded,” said St. Bonaventure head coach Mark Schmidt. “Duane came in and gave us a lift. I thought collectively our effort was really good and that overcomes a lot of deficiencies.”
