The American University men's basketball team fell to No. 16/18 Florida 67-48 in the first game of the BB&T Classic Sunday afternoon at Verizon Center.

Junior Troy Brewer led all scorers with 17 points, shooting 75.0 percent from the floor and 2-of-4 from beyond the arc. Senior Vlad Moldoveanu notched 14 points and five boards, while classmate Nick Hendra chipped in nine points and four assists. The Gators had four players in double-figures, led by Erving Walker's 16 points.

"It's hard to have a chance against a team like Florida when you make as many mental errors as we made," Head Coach Jeff Jones said. "Those are the things that we need to do better, not just against teams like Florida, but for us to be the type of team that I certainly believe we can be."

American (5-3) gave up an initial dunk to Florida's Alex Tyus before responding with seven straight points on a pair of buckets by Stephen Lumpkins and a three by Brewer. The Gators answered with senior Vernon Macklin, who finished a roller in the lane and hook over Lumpkins to tie the score at 7-7 with 15:29 remaining in the first half.

Florida controlled the tempo of the game with their full court press, but Moldoveanu and Steve Luptak converted a pair of jumpers with the shot clock winding down to keep the Florida lead to two at the 7:11 mark. Brewer received the inbound pass at the other end of the court and aggressively took it to the rim with 5:30 left to close the Gator lead to three. The Gators, however, finished the half on an 8-2 run to put themselves up 30-21 entering the break.

Chandler Parsons led all scorers at the half with 10 points, while Brewer and Moldoveanu paced the Eagles with eight and seven, respectively. The Gators shot 46.2 percent from the floor and held slight advantages in rebounds (14-12) and turnovers (6-8).

Florida opened up the second period on a 7-0 run to take a 37-21 lead with 17 minutes remaining. A Brewer three just under a minute later sparked the Eagles to a 17-8 run over a five-minute span. Hendra scored seven of his nine points during the spurt, and Moldoveanu converted a pair of three-point plays. After a three by Florida's Erving Walker, Hendra found Brewer slashing to the basket and cut the American deficit to eight with just over eight minutes remaining, 50-42.

With 6:25 left, Hendra converted a putback to keep the Gator lead to single digits, 53-44. Unfortunately for American, they would be on the wrong end of a 14-4 run from that point on. Macklin, Tyus and Walker fueled Florida down the stretch and the Eagles left the Verizon Center with a 67-48 loss.

The Eagles shot 43.2 percent from the floor in the loss and held Kenny Boynton, Florida's leading scorer on the season, to zero points on nine shots.

Next up for the Eagles is a date at UMBC on Tuesday, December 14 at 7:00 p.m. American will remain on the road for the next five games, including matchups at Northwestern and at #3 Pittsburgh.

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