ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – With the St. Bonaventure men's basketball team heading into the holiday break following Friday night's game vs. Binghamton, the Bonnies found themselves firmly situated on Santa's nice list thanks to a 90-64 victory inside the Reilly Center.

Moses Flowers poured in a game-high 25 points while Mika Adams-Woods posted 14 points and six assists. Charles Pride (13 points, six rebounds) and Noel Brown (12 points, six rebounds) gave the Bonnies four players in double-figures.

With the win, the Bonnies move to 8-3 following their penultimate non-conference contest.

Coming into this season, the depth of the Bonnies roster was cited as a main reason for fans to be excited about the campaign.

That showed in full force Friday night as the bench provided energy and 46 points to completely change the momentum of the game.

Both teams started out hot as Binghamton (7-5) made 11 of its first 18 field goal tries in a back-and-forth first half that saw the Bonnies take a 41-37 lead to intermission.

Bona finally started to stretch out the lead on a 10-1 lead over a three-minute span at the start of the second half for the home team's first double-digit advantage. That run extended to 14-3 following back-to-back buckets from Kyrell Luc for a 60-48 score.

From there, the rout was on as the Bonnies outscored the visitors by a 49-27 margin after halftime.

SBU shot the ball at a 55 percent clip for the day and slowed the Bearcats to an 11-for-28 success rate in the second half. The visitors went just 3-for-15 from long range, but the Bonnies finished the day with 10 treys, half of those coming from Flowers.

Flowers scored nearly a point a minute, posting his 25 tallies in just under 26 minutes off the bench as he sank 8-of-13 tries overall and 5-of-8 from distance. He also went 4-4 at the foul stripe in the best scoring performance of his Bonnies career. Fifteen of his points came during the second half as the Bonnies soared to victory.

Tymu Chenery paced the Bearcats with 14 points while Dan Petcash added 10 points for the visitors.

GAME NOTES

• Flowers' previous high-scoring output in a Bonnies uniform was a 20-point effort vs. Richmond last year. His overall career-best came in a 28-point effort vs. St. Francis Brooklyn in 2019 while with Hartford.
• Flowers had played four games vs. Binghamton while with Hartford previously and owned career averages of 15.2 ppg, 9.5 rpg vs. the Bearcats entering Friday.
• Luc had perhaps his best game of the year, going 3-for-3 from the floor for seven points off the bench.
• Chad Venning chipped in nine points and four boards but was limited to 17 minutes due to foul trouble.
• Barry Evans did not score but had eight rebounds, four assists and two steals.
• Melian Martinez finished the scoring with a dunk in the last minute as the Bonnies reached 90 points for the third time in the past five contests.
• Bona made the most of its opportunities at the line, going 16-for-18 at the stripe.
• The last time the Bonnies bench scored 40 or more points: Dec. 16, 2017 when they had exactly 40 in an 81-79 win over Vermont in Rochester.

QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH MARK SCHMIDT
"It was all defense. In the first half, we didn't have much resistance. They got to the paint too much, they were going by us. In the second half, we had much more of a presence defensively. We were just more energetic. We got offense off of our defense."

"Our bench guys gave us a lot. I thought Kyrell was terrific in giving us a lift. Barry didn't have a point but made a huge difference defensively. He showed that you don't necessarily have to score to make a big impact. Moses, the way he shot the ball was great, and Noel gave us a lot. The bench was critical."

"Moses is a talented shooter. When he's hot he can knock down some shots. Sometimes he takes some shots he shouldn't take, but he can create his own shot and did a heck of a job for us tonight."
 
UP NEXT
The Bonnies are back in action Saturday, Dec. 30 to take on Akron as part of the Legends Showcase in Cleveland. Tip time at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse is set for 4 p.m.

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