Senior guard Egor Koulechov recorded 20 points and six rebounds, and No. 6 seed Florida dominated the final 23 minutes en route to a 77-62 victory over No. 11 St. Bonaventure on Thursday in a NCAA Tournament East Regional first-round contest at Dallas.

Junior guard Jalen Hudson added 16 points the Gators (21-12), who outscored the Bonnies 41-18 in a stretch of more than 16 minutes that began late in the first half.

Senior point guard Chris Chiozza registered 11 assists and three steals along with eight points for the Gators.

Junior forward Courtney Stockard scored 14 points and senior guard Idris Taqqee collected 13 rebounds for St. Bonaventure (26-8). Senior guard Jaylen Adams had 11 points. Senior guard Matt Mobley had 10 points on 3-of-13 shooting while committing seven of the Bonnies' 18 turnovers.

Adams, the co-Atlantic 10 Player of the Year, shot 4-for-22 in two NCAA Tournament games. The Bonnies shot 35.4 percent from the field Thursday, including 3 of 19 from 3-point range.

The Gators shot 41.5 percent from the field and hit 10 of 32 from behind the arc.

Florida will face third-seeded Texas Tech on Saturday. The Red Raiders beat Stephen F. Austin 70-60 on Thursday in a contest also played in Dallas.

"We are going to treat it like any other game," Chiozza said in a postgame television interview with truTV. "It is a home game for them. They're a great team and they play hard. We know it is going to be a battle, so we're ready to go to war."

Florida controlled the second half while breaking open a close game.

Junior guard KeVaughn Allen opened the half with a 3-pointer, Koulechov added a basket and Chiozza followed with back-to-back layups as the Gators took a 36-22 advantage.

A basket by Stockard moved St. Bonaventure within 47-35 with 10:36 remaining, but it didn't jump-start a comeback. Instead, Florida went on a 15-4 run in which Hudson scored 11 points and Koulechov slammed home a fast-break dunk to make it 62-39 with 6:45 left.

Freshman guard Mike Okauru and Koulechov each hit 3-pointers in the final three minutes of the first half to help stake Florida to a 27-22 lead at the break.

The Gators used a 13-2 run to open up a 20-9 lead that was capped by sophomore forward Keith Stone's 3-pointer with 10:36 left in the first half. However, Florida missed its next 11 field-goal attempts and the Bonnies took advantage with a 13-1 surge to take a 22-21 lead with 3:05 remaining.

The Gators shot just 29 percent from the field in the opening half, while St. Bonaventure was even worse at 26.1 percent.

--Field Level Media