ST. BONAVENTURE — Sophomore Jaren English delivered the best performance of his Bonnies career, leading St. Bonaventure to a dominating win over George Washington, 72-47, Wednesday night at the Reilly Center.

English poured in game-high 21 points, adding six rebounds, sinking 3-of-4 shots from beyond the arc and 7-of-14 overall from the floor. The Michigan native led four Bonnies in double figures – Osun Osunniyi posted 16 points and seven rebounds in another strong effort vs. the Colonials. Justin Winston and Dominick Welch each had 11 points as well.

“I thought ‘Shoon and Jaren did a terrific job, both offensively and defensively,” Bonnies coach Mark Schmidt said. “I thought Justin was a big plus, especially in the first half, (he) got us off to a good start. We had four guys in double figures. We’re getting better, certainly not all the way there, but I thought the effort was pretty consistent. We didn’t have too many lulls in the game, offensively. But our defense and our rebounding were key.”

The Bonnies (15-8, 7-3 Atlantic 10) started out red hot, jumping to a 10-0 lead before many fans even got to their seats. The advantage was still double digits, 17-7, six minutes in, but the visitors would launch a run of their own to even the score.

GW (10-13, 4-6) came right back with an 11-2 sprint to pull within a point – and still just nine minutes elapsed from the clock.

Both teams shot better than 50 percent during the first half, but the Bonnies still pushed out to a 39-27 advantage at halftime.

“In the first half, I didn’t think we played particularly well, especially defensively,” Schmidt said. “But I thought in the second half we did a much better job of keeping them in front of us and contesting shots. Going into the game, we always talk about you have to defend, rebound, take care of the basketball, and make your foul shots. We missed some foul shots, but they had one offensive rebound for the game, we outrebounded them by 18, and we took care of the basketball.”

From there, it was all Bonnies.

Bona limited GW to just 7-for-22 shooting during the second half and left little doubt. The hosts opened the second half on a 12-5 break, setting the tone for the rest of the evening. Soon, the lead was out to 20 and the Bonnies never looked back from there.

The boards belonged to the Bonnies – St. Bonaventure owned a 38-20 cushion in rebounding and the Colonials did not have a single offensive rebound until the waning seconds and finished with just one on the night. As such, GW had zero second chance points and saw the Bonnies mount a 48-28 advantage in the paint as Armel Potter, the team’s leading scorer, sat with injury.

Jameer Nelson Jr. paced the visitors with 19 points.

The Bonnies hit the road for a trip to Pittsburgh Saturday afternoon to play Duquesne at Robert Morris. Tip time is slated for 3 p.m. and will be broadcast nationwide on NBC Sports Network.

NOTES: The Bonnies honored 2012 graduate Andrew Nicholson as the team’s honorary captain and officially welcomed him as a member of the program’s Centennial Season All-Time Team. The former NBA first round pick was key to Bona’s 2012 Atlantic 10 Championship and finished with over 2,100 career points … English’s previous Division I scoring high was previously 17 set at Dayton and vs. Hofstra. He entered the day averaging nearly 14 points per game during A-10 play. … The Bonnies have swept the season series with three home-and-home partners now this season after winning at GW in January … Osunniyi has shot 86 percent from the floor in three career games vs. GW, averaging better than 17 points per contest … SBU has held opponents to 50 points or less six times this season.