The junior forward, who took over the game in the second half, scoring a season-high 33 points, and the seventh-year coach walked past a section full of Dayton Flyers fans, and it wasn’t the only section cheering “Let’s go Flyers” and “This is our house.” The Flyer Faithful helped Duquesne sell out a game for the first time since it renovated the arena formerly known as the Palumbo Center three years ago. The crowd of 3,724 broke the previous record of 3,333 set last February.
The fans in the Duquesne showed enthusiasm from the start, chanting derogatory things about Ohio before tipoff. One fan held up a sign reading, “What is a Flyer?” By the end, everyone knew as the Flyers (13-2, 3-0) added another impressive victory to a resume that ranks among the best in the nation at the halfway point of the regular season.
“It was awesome,” guard Koby Brea said. “We dream about playing in atmospheres like this. To go into a road game and have such a good crowd out there and have our own people there supporting us as well, it’s always a great feeling.”
“It means everything,” Holmes said. “Road wins are not easy. It just takes a level of mental toughness and togetherness.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Dayton jumped from No. 21 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool to a season-best No. 18. It moved to the top of the Atlantic 10 Conference standings with a half-game lead over two other unbeaten teams, Richmond (10-5, 2-0) and Rhode Island (8-7, 2-0) who played George Mason (13-3, 2-1) and Massachusetts (11-4, 2-1), respectively, on Saturday.
The Flyers likely will crack the Associated Press top-25 poll on Monday. They had the 26th-most votes last week, and two of the teams near the bottom of the ranking, No. 21 Clemson and No. 23 Gonzaga, lost earlier in the week. Dayton has not been ranked at this point in the season since the 29-2 season of 2019-20.
The Flyers have also won 10 games in a row for the first time since that magical season four years ago when they ended the season with 20 straight victories. Prior to that streak, they had not won 10 in a row since a 13-game winning streak in the 2007-08 season.
This is Dayton’s third-longest winning streak this century. It passed four Dayton teams that won nine games in a row (2002-03, 2003-04, 2015-16 and 2016-17). The 2003-04 team won nine games in a row twice.
In short, Dayton is building the type of season everyone on the roster and everyone in the fan base has waited four years to experience, the type of season that could soothe the pain caused by the disappointment in 2020 when the pandemic ended so many dreams.
Beating Duquesne (9-6, 0-3) was the next step.
“That’s a very good team,” Holmes said. “We just had to stay locked in together. We made some great plays down the stretch, got great defensive stops. I thought we did a good job.”
Dayton led the entire way — it has yet to trail in three A-10 games — after Holmes grabbed an offensive rebound and scored on a short hook shot on Dayton’s first possession. That started a 13-2 run over the first four-plus minutes. Holmes scored six points in that stretch.
Holmes had 14 points in the first half as Dayton built a 31-21 halftime lead. He dominated even more in the second half. In a five-minute stretch, he scored 14 points, nine on three 3-pointers, turning a 45-41 lead with 10 minutes to play into a 61-47 advantage at the 4:08 mark.
“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 of Dayton. “What they have is that inside threat, and they’ve surrounded him with shooters.”
Holmes made 12 of 18 shots, including 3 of 5 3-pointers, and grabbed 12 rebounds
“That’s what you want to to see out of, in my opinion, one of the best players in the country,” 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.”
Guard Brady Uhl put an invisible crown on Holmes’ head before going through the handshake line after the game.
“He’s going to go down as one of Dayton’s best players,” Uhl said.
Holmes improved his 3-point shooting percentage to 44.4 (16 of 36). He has made three 3s in four of the last six games. Prior to this stretch, he had made a total of 11 3s in his career and had only made two 3s in a game once.
“He’s taking my role now,” said Brea, who ranks among the nation’s best 3-point shooters (43 of 89, 48.3%), “and it’s good to see. The work he put in over the summer is paying off. That’s something that I truly do respect because I know, as a shooter, it’s not easy to get them to finally drop.”
Dayton played without freshman forward Petras Padegimas (illness) for the third straight game but did have guard Kobe Elvis, who injured his knee in the previous game. Elvis had one point and four turnovers in 19 minutes.
Turnovers hurt Dayton throughout the game. It had 17. Duquesne was nearly as sloppy, committing 13 turnovers.
The Flyers won the game by controlling the boards. It had a 39-27 rebounding advantage. Dayton turned 13 offensive rebounds into 16 second-chance points.
Dayton made 7 of 19 3-pointers (36.8%), while Duquesne made 8 of 30 (26.7%), its third-worst percentage of the season. Dayton ranks sixth in the country in 3-point shooting percentage (40.6).
Duquesne guards Dae Dae Grant, Jimmy Clark and Terry Rozier, who average 41.7 points between them, combined for 30 points on 12-of-31 shooting.
“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.”
TUESDAY’S GAME
Saint Louis at Dayton, 8 p.m., CBS Sports Network, 1290, 95.7
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
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