The No. 21 Dayton Flyers needed about five minutes to find the same energy after a six-day break and then brought plenty of it and rode a 40-21 halftime lead to an 80-66 victory against Davidson.
With the victory, Dayton (22-5, 12-3) bounced back from a 71-67 loss at George Mason last week, took another step toward locking up a NCAA tournament at-large bid, completed a season sweep of Davidson (15-13, 5-10), stayed perfect at home with a 14-0 record and secured a top-four seed and double bye in the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament.
“I was proud of our guys for their resiliency early,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said, “because obviously you want to start the game well, and we didn’t necessarily start our best. But I thought they stayed the course. Defensively, we got great efforts tonight all the way across the board. Offensively, the ball movement in the first half was as good as we’ve had in quite some time. I thought they really shared the ball. When you look at the stat sheet, you see six guys in double figures. I think that’s indicative of what this team is capable of.”
Here are three takeaways from Dayton’s 27th game:
1. Dayton took over the game with a 22-4 run: Davidson opened the game with a 6-0 run. In that span, Dayton missed four shots and committed a turnover.
Baskets by Enoch Cheeks and Nate Santos cut the Davidson lead to 6-4. Davidson had an 8-4 lead when the game turned Dayton’s way for good. Koby Brea made a 3-pointer with 14 minutes, 57 seconds remaining in the half to start a 10-0 run in the next two minutes.
Dayton kept riding that momentum as the run reached 22-4. Cheeks scored seven of his 15 points in that stretch.
The Flyers led by double digits the rest of the way. Davidson got no closer than 13 points in the second half despite making 7 of 17 3-pointers in the second half and trailed by as many as 22.
This was Dayton’s most dominant performance since a 94-79 victory at Saint Joseph’s five games ago on Feb. 6.
“We really wanted to get ourselves going before we went into Loyola,” guard Kobe Elvis said.
2. The victory sets up a key matchup Friday: Dayton moved into a tie for second place with Loyola Chicago (20-8, 12-3), which lost 79-64 Tuesday at St. Bonaventure. Loyola’s seven-game winning streak ended. The Flyers, who have lost three of their last four road games, play at Loyola at 9 p.m. Friday.
“They’re a really good team,” Grant said of Loyola. “They’ve had a great year, and it’ll be a great challenge for us to be able to go on the road in that environment and try to get a win. It’s a quick turnaround. I know our guys will be excited to play.”
Richmond (20-7, 12-2), which plays at Saint Louis on Wednesday, leads the A-10 by a half game.
3. Dayton won with balanced scoring: Six Dayton players scored in double figures: Brea (17); Cheeks (15); DaRon Holmes II (14); Elvis (11); Javon Bennett (10); and Nate Santos (10).
Dayton made 12 of 28 3-pointers (42.9%). It has topped 40% in 17 games.
“It was good that we had a week to prep for this,” Elvis said. “We studied hard.”
“That was the biggest thing for us,” Brea said. “Watching film as a as a team and seeing for ourselves what we can do better.”
STAR OF THE GAME
Koby Brea led Dayton with 17 points. He made 5 of 9 3-pointers. He leads the nation in 3-point shooting percentage (78 of 159, 49.1%).
Brea also became the eighth Dayton player to make more than 200 3-pointers in his career. He has made 202 on 474 attempts (42.6%) in four seasons. He ranks eighth in school history in made 3-pointers. He’s five behind Norm Grevey (208 of 481, 43.2%).
Brea also became the 79th player in UD history to score 800 points. He has 809 points and ranks 77th in career scoring.
STAT OF THE GAME
Dayton made 12 of 28 3-pointers (42.9%). It has topped 40% in 17 games. In addition to Brea’s 5-of-9 performance, Kobe Elvis made 3 of 6 after making 3 of 11 in the last four games. Javon Bennett made 2 of 3 and has made 6 of 11 in the last three games.
LOOKING AHEAD
Dayton plays Loyola Chicago at 9 p.m. Friday at Joseph J. Gentile Arena in Chicago.
Dayton beat Loyola 85-81 in overtime last season at UD Arena and then won 65-49 at Loyola. The teams play only once this season. That was Loyola’s first season in the A-10.
Those were the first two meetings between the programs since 1993. The first game took place in the 1928-29 season. Dayton leads 34-16.
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