Where: Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
When: 5 p.m. Thursday.
TV/Radio: USA Network/95.7 and 1290 WHIO.
Series: Dayton leads 25-20. Dayton beat Saint Joseph’s 76-56 on Jan. 4 at UD Arena and won 74-62 at Saint Joseph’s last season.
Coaches: Anthony Grant is 122-63 in his sixth season at Dayton. Billy Lange is 38-76 in his fourth season at Saint Joseph’s.
Last game: Dayton lost 65-61 at Saint Louis on Friday in its final regular-season game. Saint Joseph’s beat George Washington 87-76 in the second round Wednesday.
KenPom.com odds: Dayton has a 79% chance of winning. The website predicts a 73-64 score. Dayton ranks 73rd. Saint Joseph’s is No. 201.
NET rankings: Dayton is No. 77. Saint Joseph’s is No. 209.
Probable Dayton starters
Name, Ht., Class, Pos., Points per game
DaRon Holmes II, 6-10, So., F, 18.2
Toumani Camara, 6-8, Jr., G, 13.6
Kobe Elvis, 6-2, R-So., G, 8.5
Malachi Smith, 6-0, So., G, 7.6
Koby Brea, 6-6, R-So., G, 7.4
Probable Saint Joseph’s starters
Erik Reynolds, 6-2, So., G, 19.2
Cameron Brown, 6-5, Sr., G, 13.4
Lynn Greer III, 6-2, So., G, 12.6
Charles Coleman, 7-0, R-Jr., F/C, 1.9
Rasheer Fleming, 6-9, Fr., F, 5.5
About Dayton: Dayton has a 26-25 record in 26 A-10 tournament appearances. That was the sixth-best winning percentage among current A-10 schools entering the tournament behind Davidson (12-6, .667), Virginia Commonwealth (15-8, .652), Saint Joseph’s (43-35, .551), Saint Louis (17-14, .548) and Richmond (20-18, .526). ... Holmes leads the nation with 82 dunks. He has a two-dunk lead over Washington’s Braxton Meah. He has matched his freshman total of 82. Obi Toppin set the single-season school record in 2019-20 with 107. He also set the school’s career record with 191 dunks in two seasons.
About Saint Joseph’s: The Hawks are 45-35 in 41 tournament appearances. They have the most victories of any current A-10 program. ... Reynolds scored a career-high 34 points Wednesday. He made 10 of 22 shots, including 2 of 7 3-pointers. ... According to the 3 Bid League podcast, Saint Joseph’s is the first team to win on the first two days of the tournament since the A-10 expanded to five rounds in 2014. First-round winners were 0-15 until Wednesday.
Other Thursday games: No. 1 seed VCU (23-7) plays No. 8 Davidson (15-15) at 11:30 a.m. VCU beat Davidson 89-72 and 61-59 in the regular season. VCU has won five games in a row.
• No. 4 Saint Louis (20-11) plays No. 5 George Mason (19-12) at 2 p.m. St. Louis beat George Mason 63-62 in St. Louis in the regular season. George Mason has won six straight games.
• No. 3 Fordham (24-7) plays No. 11 La Salle (15-18) at 7:30 p.m. Fordham won the regular-season meeting 66-64 at La Salle.
Looking ahead: The quarterfinal winners get Friday off and don’t play semifinals until Saturday. The first semifinal starts at 1 p.m. Dayton or Saint Joseph’s will play Fordham or La Salle in the second semifinal at 3:30 p.m.
Credit: David Jablonski
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