Dayton Flyers win on Senior Night for 11th straight season

Dayton dominated Saint Louis from the start on Friday, opening the game with a 10-0 run and coasting to a 76-53 victory to sweep the season series for the second straight season. UD avoided its first three-game losing streak in Atlantic 10 Conference play since January 2019.

The game included a delay because of a broken shot clock in the second half. The final 10 minutes were played with the public address announcer counting down the seconds on the shot clock.

While it was Dayton’s last home game of the regular season, the team can earn another game at UD Arena by advancing to the A-10 tournament championship game. The conference announced Thursday the first four rounds of the event will take place in Richmond from March 3-6, but then the championship game will take place at UD Arena on March 14.

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Dayton (12-7, 8-6) likely will start play in the A-10 tournament in the second round on March 4. Saint Louis (11-4, 4-3) could also play that day. It still had NCAA tournament at-large hopes entering this game, though it will fall further away from the bubble with a second loss to Dayton.

Crutcher led the Flyers with 19 points in his final regular-season home game. He moved into 19th place in school history in scoring in the first half, passing Keith Waleskowski.

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Watson scored 14. Mustapha Amzil had 10 points. Chatman scored nine points. Tshimanga had eight points and eight rebounds.

Dayton shot 50 percent from the field and held Saint Louis to 27 percent shooting.

HALFTIME RECAP

The Flyers shot 64 percent from the field and built a 43-23 halftime lead against Saint Louis. It was the biggest halftime lead of the season for UD.

All eight players who saw action for Dayton in the first half scored. Watson led Dayton with nine points. Amzil scored eight points off the bench, including a 3-pointer in the final seconds.

Crutcher and Jordy Tshimanga each scored six points. Elijah Weaver had five points.

Zimi Nwokeji, who made the first start of his career, scored four. Chatman, who returned to the starting lineup for the first time since Dec. 30 when he suffered a hand injury that cost him 11 games, scored 11. R.J. Blakney had two points.

Nwokeji and Chatman moved into the starting lineup in place of Weaver and Amzil. It’s the first starting lineup change for Dayton since early in Atlantic 10 Conference play.

Saint Louis shot 31 percent from the field in the half and committed twice as many turnovers as Dayton (8-4). Dayton had an 18-13 rebounding advantage.