Dayton routed La Salle 77-53 on Tuesday in the final home game of the regular season at UD Arena. The Flyers have won their final home game in 12 straight seasons.
Here’s a quick recap of the game:
What it means: Dayton (20-10, 12-5) secured a top-four seed in the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament and a double bye to the quarterfinals. That means the Flyers will have to win three games in four days at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., to play in the NCAA tournament. They will play their first game March 9.
Dayton reached the 20-win mark for the second straight season and the fourth time in coach Anthony Grant’s six seasons. This is the the 16th 20-win season in the first 23 seasons of this century.
Dayton ended a two-game losing streak in the series with La Salle and bounced back from a 74-69 loss at home Saturday to George Mason.
Star of the game: DaRon Holmes II scored 16 points on 7-of-13 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds. He’s five points short of the 1,000-point mark.
Key stat: Dayton made 12 of 23 3-pointers (52%), while La Salle made 7 of 24 (29%).
Big run: Dayton led 52-45 with 10 minutes to play and then went on a 10-0 run in the next two-plus minutes. Mike Sharavjamts capped the run with a 3-pointer.
Looking ahead: Dayton closes the regular season at 7 p.m. Friday against Saint Louis (19-11, 11-6) at Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis, Mo. Saint Louis lost 79-67 at Virginia Commonwealth on Tuesday as VCU clinched the A-10 championship outright and the No. 1 seed in the A-10 tournament.
Credit: David Jablonski
HALFTIME RECAP
La Salle outscored Dayton 8-0 in the last two minutes of the first half to cut the deficit to 33-27 at halftime./
Here’s a quick recap of the first half:
Key player: Toumani Camara, who was honored on Senior Night before the game, led the Flyers with 10 points. He made 3 of 3 field goals, including 2 of 2 3-pointers, and 2 of 2 free throws.
Key stat: La Salle committed eight turnovers to Dayton’s four.
Big run: Dayton opened the game with a 10-2 run with Camara scoring five points during that stretch.
Largest lead: Dayton led 24-8 with 9:18 to play. At that point, La Salle had made 4 of 13 shots from the field.
Rotation news: For the third time this season, Dayton has its entire roster available. It has lost the two previous games against George Washington and George Mason when that’s been the case.
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