Holmes took over the game and the arena on a night Dayton likely punched its ticket for a return to the top 25. He scored 33 points, one short of his career high, on 12-of-18 shooting and grabbed 12 rebounds.
Holmes scored 14 points, nine on three 3-pointers, in a five-minute stretch to secure the victory after Duquesne trimmed a double-digit deficit to four points with 10 minutes left in the second half.
“That’s what you want to to see out of, in my opinion, one of the best players in the country,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “The maturity to come into this environment on the road and to understand what needed to be done and to take control like that, I’m just really proud of him.”
Dayton (13-2, 3-0) won its 10th straight game and moved into first place by itself in the Atlantic 10 Conference by a half game over Richmond (10-5, 2-0) and Rhode Island (8-7, 2-0). Duquesne (9-6) fell to 0-3 in the A-10 for the first time since 2016.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Here are three takeaways from Dayton’s 15th game:
1. Dayton has not trailed in three A-10 games: The Flyers led from start to finish in a 72-57 victory last week at Davidson and then never trailed in a 64-60 victory against UMass on Sunday. They opened this game with a 13-2 run and led 31-21 at halftime.
Except for a brief stretch in the second half when Duquesne ran off seven straight points to cut Dayton’s lead to 45-41, Dayton had control of this game the entire way in front of Duquesne’s first sold-out crowd in years.
“I thought, first of all, this was a great college basketball environment,” Grant said. “The student section. We had a great turnout from the Flyer Faithful. It was great to see the building packed. An ESPN game. The atmosphere was great. I thought our guys understood Duquesne’s a really good team. I know they’ve started off rough here in A-10 play. I have no doubt they’re going to make a run. They’re a good team. Our guys did a great job of following the scouting report. Their three-headed monster in the backcourt is really dangerous and one of the best in the league. Our guys were able to limit opportunities for them. We were able to to get out in transition because of that. They made the run, and then DaRon just dominated.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
2. The Flyers turned a weakness into a strength: Dayton turned 13 offensive rebounds into 16 second-chance points. Duquesne had 11 offensive rebounds and nine second chance points.
Dayton had a 39-27 rebounding advantage after being out-rebounded by 12 against UMass. The Flyers entered the game ranked 12th out of 15 teams in the A-10 in rebounding margin (minus 0.57).
“I thought we did a really good job in the first half,” Grant said, “and in the second half, we kind of let up a little bit.”
3. Dayton continues to dominate the Duquesne series: The Flyers have won 10 of the last 11 games in the series and are 10-2 against Duquesne in Grant’s tenure.
Duquesne guards Dae Dae Grant and Jimmy Clark, who average 34.2 points between them, combined for 26 points on 10-of-24 shooting.
In addition to the big night from Holmes, Dayton got nine points each from Javon Bennett and Nate Santos and eight from Enoch Cheeks. Koby Brea and Isaac Jack each scored six.
“If you look at who they’ve played and the games they’ve been in, you have to say they’re a really good team,” Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot said. “What they have is that inside threat, and they’ve surrounded him with shooters.”
STAR OF THE GAME
DaRon Holmes II improved his season scoring average to 18.7 points per game with 33 points, his season high and the second-highest points total of his career. He had 34 points against George Mason in a loss at UD Arena last February. He now has 1,354 points in his career. He ranks 27th in school history.
STAT OF THE GAME
Dayton made 7 of 19 3-pointers (36.8%), while Duquesne made 8 of 30 (26.7%). Dayton ranks sixth in the country in 3-point shooting percentage (40.6).
LOOKING AHEAD
Dayton plays Saint Louis (8-8, 1-2) at 8 p.m. Tuesday at UD Arena. The Billikens opened the A-10 schedule with an 80-73 loss at home to Loyola Chicago and then lost 79-67 at George Mason. On Wednesday, they beat Saint Joseph’s 88-85 in St. Louis. They don’t play again until Tuesday.
Dayton beat Saint Louis 70-56 at UD Arena last season and lost 65-61 at Saint Louis in the final game of the regular season. The Billikens have lost nine games in a row at Dayton.
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