Virginia Tech 73, St. Bonaventure 64

BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP)

Erick Green scored the majority of the points for the Virginia Tech basketball team, but Victor Davila scored most of the attention following the game.

Green scored 19 points to lead Virginia Tech past cold-shooting St. Bonaventure 73-64 on Sunday night.

Virginia Tech center Victor Davila added 13 points for the Hokies, but it was his strong defense on St. Bonaventure center Andrew Nicholson that was invaluable to the Hokies in their win over the Bonnies.

''I didn't want him to get tight touches (close to the basket),'' Davila said. ''I just tried to get in front of him and get some backside help. I wasn't going to let him get close to the basket.''

Nicholson came in averaging 19 points per game, but was held to just nine in this contest.

''I thought (Davila) did a terrific job of defending the post early,'' Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg said. ''I thought we gave him good help. I thought we had a good defensive game plan against Nicholson.

''We've challenged Victor before. We need this from him each and every night,'' Greenberg continued. ''The challenge for Victor is real simple - consistency. We need Victor that engaged each and every night. He was awfully good defensively. I thought he worked hard and defended the post early, which was key against a kid like Nicholson.''

The Hokies (5-1) led for the entire game. Virginia Tech opened a 40-30 lead in the second half on Cadarian Raines' dunk, but the Bonnies (2-2) cut that lead to three on a 3-pointer by Michael Davenport with 7:31 left.

The Hokies responded with two free throws from Green and, after a St. Bonaventure turnover, Virginia Tech's Jarell Eddie hit a 3-pointer to make it 53-45 with 6:48 remaining. St. Bonaventure got no closer than five the rest of the way.

Virginia Tech's defense held St. Bonaventure to just 38.1 percent shooting from the floor (24 of 63).

Davila scored in double figures for just the second time this season, hitting 5 of 8 from the floor, and the career 49.0 percent free-throw shooter made all three of his free-throw attempts. But the 6-foot-8 senior's defense stood out.

Playing in front of pro scouts from four different NBA teams, the 6-9, 240-pound Nicholson finished just 4 of 14 from the floor. He also turned the ball over four times in 36 minutes.

''Andrew struggled, and that hurt us,'' St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt said. ''They were doubling him, and we didn't do a great job of kicking the ball out and making shots. When you don't make the shots, it becomes more of a double-team. We've got to get better movement when the ball goes inside, and we've got to knock down some shots.''

Eddie and Dorian Finney-Smith added 11 points each for the Hokies, who shot 48.9 percent from the floor (23 of 47) and 80 percent from the free-throw line (20 of 25). Also, Virginia Tech did not turn the ball over in the second half.

Demitrius Conger paced St. Bonaventure with 23.