Johnell Davis leads No. 15 FAU over St. Bonaventure 64-54 in Hall of Fame Classic

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — Johnell Davis scored 16 points and No. 15 Florida Atlantic held off St. Bonaventure 64-54 on Saturday in the Hall of Fame Classic in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Vladislav Goldin added 11 points for FAU (9-2), nine of them in the second half.

Moses Flowers had 12 points for St. Bonaventure (7-3), which had won five straight coming into the game. Assa Essamvous and Chad Venning each added 11 points. But Venning fouled out with just over 5 minutes left in the game.

The Bonnies led 41-38 before two dunks by Goldin put the Owls back in front. That was part of a 14-0 second-half run that gave FAU a 52-41 lead.

A 3-pointer by Flowers made it a six-point game, but follow-up layup by Alijah Martin pushed the lead back to eight with just 55 seconds left and the Owls held on for the win.

St. Bonaventure had the first big run of the game, holding FAU without a field goal for more than seven minutes during an 11-0 spurt that put the Bonnies up 20-10 in the first half.

But a steal and dunk by Brandon Weatherspoon broke that drought and the Owls took control of the half from there, going on a 15-3 run over the final 6 1/2 minutes of the half and scored the final nine points before intermission.

The Owls went into halftime leading 27-26 after a long 3-pointer by Venning was ruled to have come just after the buzzer.

BIG PICTURE

St. Bonaventure: The Bonnies fell to 30-88 against Top 25 opposition. The Bonnies have not beaten a ranked team since beating then No. 14 Rhode Island in February 2018 at home.

FAU: The Owls came into the game averaging over 85 points a game, but used defense to win this one, scoring 24 points off 21 turnovers.

UP NEXT

St. Bonaventure returns home to face Binghamton on Dec. 22.

FAU: The Owls have a week off before facing top-ranked Arizona in Las Vegas on Dec. 23.

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AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball