ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — In a building where they have played with so much energy, Mark Schmidt said his St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team looked “fatigued” and the opponent a “step quicker”.

“It just looked like we were sloppy … coming off of finals maybe,” the 16th-year coach said. “I don’t know. We just didn’t have the step that we needed to have against a good team.”

Florida Gulf Coast took advantage, burying the Bonnies after halftime for a 71-58 non-conference victory before a student-less crowd of 3,005 at the Reilly Center on Friday night.

Bona (6-5) started slow and finished the same way. After recovering and taking a four-point lead early in the second half, it was all FGCU (9-3) the rest of the way.

A 16-5 run provided for a 47-40 lead with 13 minutes, 37 seconds remaining, and the Bonnies never got closer than five.

The Bonnies, dominant over their first five home games averaging nearly 73 points and winning by more than 13 points per game, were dealt a thumping similar to those it had doled out to opponents to start the season.

When asked about fatigue, Daryl Banks III, one of the few bright spots for Bona with 18 points and three steals said: “There’s no excuses. We have to come out and play. That’s all it really comes down to.”

WITH FINAL exams this week, the Bonnies hadn’t played since suffering a 72-57 loss to Iona on Sunday. Now they face challenging games at Siena and Northern Iowa before returning home to meet Massachusetts in their Atlantic 10 opener on New Year’s Eve.

Still, Schmidt dismissed the idea that this is a critical juncture for his team.

“Every game is important,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where we’re at. The first game is just as important as a game in February.”

Bona wasn’t close to being at its best against Atlantic Sun conference member FGCU, which came in at No. 91 in the NCAA’s NET national rankings.

The Eagles, who have won seven of their last eight games, outrebounded the Bonnies by 13 (41-28) and, thanks to 22 points from reserve guard Chase Johnston, held a 33-8 edge in bench points. FGCU also topped Bona in points in the paint (32-18).

“We have to come out to play,” Banks said. “We have to play way harder. They beat us with all of the effort things. We have to go back to practice and change our habits and get back to work.”

The Bonnies couldn’t keep up because they couldn’t score in the second half. They shot 6-of-25 overall and 3-of-13 on 3-points in the final 20 minutes.

After freshman Yann Farell connected on a 3-pointer to cut the Bona deficit to 57-51 with six minutes left, the Bonnies missed their next four shots and didn’t make a field goal the rest of the way.

Farell, who was 1-of-8 from the field, missed a pair of 3-pointers after his make that would have cut further into FGCU’s lead.

Banks was the lone Bonnie to make more than half of his shot attempts, going 6-for-11 and 3-of-6 from deep.

“We took a couple rushed shots … missed some stuff inside,” Schmidt said. “We just didn’t do a good job finishing both on the offensive and defensive ends. We couldn’t get a rebound. We missed some easy ones inside. When you do those things, that’s not a recipe for success.”

Chad Venning added 15 points on 5-of-13 shooting and 5-of-6 free throws, seven rebounds, and four blocked shots, while Kyrell Luc netted 10 points before fouling out with 1:07 left. Farell led Bona with 10 rebounds, five on the offensive end.

FGCU darted out to a 14-6 lead before Bona responded with a 16-5 run to take its first lead. Banks netted nine points in that span, including a pair of 3-pointers.

The Bonnies led 33-31 at half and went ahead further on a Banks layup out of the break. They connected on half of their first 10 3-point attempts to possess the short-lived lead.

To Schmidt, the turning point was a Dahmir Bishop putback bucket for FGCU’s first score of the second half.

“We didn’t block out and they got a layup,” he said. “It went downhill from there.”

One of Johnston’s four 3-pointers broke a 40-40 tie with 15:30 to go, and the Eagles never trailed again. Purdue transfer Isaiah Thompson added 12 points and six assists and Andre Weir put in 10 points for FGCU, which also got four steals from Johnston.

FGCU has held opponents to 65 points or less in each of its victories.

“We just have to play with more energy,” Schmidt said. “We’ve got to be quicker to the ball. We’ve got to execute better on both ends. We’ve got to block out. You can’t get outrebounded by 13. We’ve got to keep the ball above the foul line – all the things that you need to do win or lose.”

In falling, Bona failed to clinch a winning non-conference record for the 14th time in 16 season’s under Schmidt. It gets another chance at Franciscan Cup rival Siena at 7 p.m. Monday.