BOCA RATON, Fla. – Aniya Hubbard netted a game-high 17 points, leading Florida Atlantic (3-1) to a 51-41 win over Binghamton (4-2) in the opening round of the FAU Thanksgiving Classic on Friday afternoon at Baldwin Arena. The Bearcats will conclude their stay at the tournament with a 2 p.m. game on Saturday against Butler.

Senior guard Denai Bowman led the Bearcats with 14 points. Redshirt freshman guard Ella Wanzer added 10 points, going 4-for-8 from the field and 2-for-4 from three-point range.

The Bearcats, however, struggled from the field against the Owls, hitting just 19 of their 62 field goal attempts (30.6 percent). FAU also finished with a 55-38 advantage in rebounding, 19 of which came at the offensive end of the court.

Heading into the game, Binghamton was shooting 42 percent from the field and averaging 68.8 points per game.

"Our game plan today was to get inside but we were not as aggressive as we should have been offensively," head coach Bethann Shapiro Ord said. "We also had an off night shooting because we don't normally shoot 30 percent from the field."

Trailing 22-16 at the half, Binghamton came out strong in the third period. The Bearcats went on an 11-4 run to take a 27-26 lead with 5:14 left to go in the period. Wanzer punctuated the run with a three-point field goal that gave Binghamton its first lead of the game.

That lead, however, would be short lived. The Owls closed out the period on a 11-2 run to go up 37-29. Hubbard had four of her points during that stretch.

Wanzer opened the final period with another three-point field goal, trimming the deficit to 37-32 with 9:46 remaining in regulation. From there, however, FAU blew the game open with a 14-2 run to go up 51-34 with 2:04 left to go. Hubbard led the way with a team-high six points during that span.

"I thought we did a really good job coming out after the half," Shapiro Ord said. "We had them on their heels but we needed to sustain that momentum."

Senior forward Clare Traeger finished with six points and six rebounds. Redshirt freshman guard Jadyn Weltz dished out a team-best three assists and recorded a team-high three steals.

In the other first-round game at the FAU Thanksgiving Classic, Butler (3-2) defeated Sacred Heart (1-5) 69-34.

NOTES: Bowman surpassed the 900-point mark in the game at FAU. She now has 905 points for her career at Binghamton.