Dayton led by as many as 12 points in the second half after making four 3-pointers in a row. Rhode Island climbed back into the game with a 9-2 run and then tied the game on a basket by Makhel Mitchell with 3:03 to play. Amzil’s 3-pointer came on the next possession.
Dayton (18-8, 10-3) completed a season sweep of Rhode Island (13-11, 4-8) and moved into second place by itself. The Flyers are a half game ahead of Virginia Commonwealth (16-7, 9-3), which plays at Fordham on Tuesday, and one game behind Davidson (21-4, 11-2), which bounced back from a 72-65 loss at Rhode Island on Saturday to beat Duquesne 72-61 in North Carolina on Monday.
Toumani Camara led Dayton with 17 points. Koby Brea had 12. Amzil finished with 11. R.J. Blakney scored 10. The Flyers shot 45.8% from 3-point range (11 of 24).
HALFTIME RECAP
The Flyers shot 42% from 3-point range (5 of 12) but 11.8% from 2-point range (2 of 17) and found themselves tied 24-24 with Rhode Island.
Camara scored 10 points to lead the Flyers and had the team’s only field goals in the first 13 minutes. R.J. Blakney scored seven points.
Brea had six points and made a 3-pointer with 1:11 to play to give Dayton a 24-22 lead. Rhode Island tied the game on two free throws by Jeremy Sheppard with 55 seconds remaining.
Rhode Island shot 32% from the field (7 of 32) and missed all five of its 3-point attempts. Dayton committed nine turnovers to Rhode Island’s six.
Dayton plays another road game at 1 p.m. Saturday, facing 10th-place Saint Joseph’s (10-13, 4-8) at Hagan Arena in Philadelphia.
At No. 59, Dayton entered the game as the A-10′s highest-ranked team in the NCAA Evaluation Tool. It was one spot ahead of Saint Louis and two spots ahead of Davidson. Rhode Island was the eighth highest-ranked team at No. 119.
In other A-10 action on Monday, fifth-place Saint Bonaventure (15-7, 7-4) beat visiting Saint Louis 83-79 for the second time in four days to sweep the season series and move closer to the top four.
The Bonnies, who won 68-61 at Saint Louis on Friday, trail the fourth-place Billikens (17-8, 8-4) by a half game.
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