CHAMPAIGN — Illinois junior Brandon Paul scored 11 of his team-high 17 points in the final 3 minutes, 55 seconds to lead the 24th-rated Fighting Illini past the St. Bonaventure Bonnies 48-43 at the Assembly Hall.

Paul ignited a 15-4 run in the final four minutes with his baseline drive and two-handed dunk. It was one of the few times in the game that the Illini took the ball to the basket against the Bonnies.

“I didn’t want to lose the game,’’ Paul said. “We were grinded it out, it was kind of slow and shots weren’t falling for us. I felt I needed to get to the basket.’’

After the dunk that seemingly got all 14,711 at the Assembly Hall onto their feet, Paul had two more drives to the basket on the same possession.

He was fouled on both layups, but a missed free throw after the first attempted three-point play was tipped out by Illinois 7-foot-1 sophomore Meyers Leonard, setting up Paul for a repeat performance. This time, he made the free throw, tying the game at 41-41 with 2:39 left.

“I hate missing free throws,’’ Paul said. “I wanted to make it a focus to get to the basket. I haven’t been finishing layups, so I was happy about getting to the basket, drawing contact and making the layup.’’

After those back-to-back plays, St. Bonaventure (3-4) adjusted its defense, leaving Sam Maniscalco and Paul open from 3-point range. But, the Illini, who made 5-of-10 behind the arc in the first 13 minutes was just 2-of-16 from long range after that.

Illinois grabbed offensive rebounds on both misses and it set up Leonard for a quick hook shot.

“We tried every set that we have in the two halves,’’ Illinois coach Bruce Weber said. “I pulled one out of the hat. It was getting our three guys that can do stuff, Sam, Brandon and Meyers on one side, see if they can guard us.

“Brandon got a couple of drives to the basket and then we got the ball to Meyers for a big shot.’’

And how does the coach feel about the game?

“You don’t feel great, but we still found a way to win,’’ he said.

St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt thought his team let a possible win over a top-25 ranked team get away from them. The Bonnies have lost 17th straight against nationally-ranked opponents.

“I thought it was two physical teams that played great defense. It was hard to score. We had some opportunities, but we didn’t cash in,’’ he said. “We just couldn’t get that stop or that basket that we needed.

“I thought Paul took over the game a little bit. Illinois made the plays at the end and we didn’t.’’

St. Bonaventure led by as much as nine (39-30) with 5:22 left when Andrew Nicholson, who led the Bonnies with 17 points, made 1-of-2 free throws.

From that point, the Illini held the Bonnies to just two field goals on five shot attempts and they were guilty of three turnovers.

“You win games pretty and skillful like Saturday and if you are going to be a good team, when the ball is not going in the hoop, you still have to guard, have energy and play your butts off,’’ Weber said. “You find a way to a win games ugly. We found a way to win.’’

Illinois junior D.J. Richardson, who had 11 points, started the comeback with his third 3-pointer and he pointed out that this Illini team is different from the one that lost to Illinois-Chicago last year.

“We have a different team this year,’’ he said. “We are tougher and we have guys that are hungrier. They took a shot at us and we found a way to bounce back at the end of the game.’’

With the victory, Illinois improves to 9-0 to start the season for the first time since 2005-06, when the Illini won their first 15 games. The win also extended the team’s non-conference home win streak to 24 games and it’s the 12th consecutive December home game victory.

The Fighting Illini will be back in action on Sunday night when Illinois hosts Coppin State in a 7 p.m. contest at the Assembly Hall.