Holmes II, Elvis hit career highs in Dayton’s victory at Duquesne

The name, image, likeness era has created all sorts of new opportunities for college athletes. This is the latest for Dayton players. Dayton assistant coach Ricardo Greer kidded Holmes II about his new role as a pitchman after a 72-52 victory against Duquesne on Saturday at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.

“Hey, man, I need some chicken,” Greer said.

“I got you,” Holmes II told him.

Holmes II proved he’s more than a celebrity spokesman in Dayton’s third straight Atlantic 10 Conference victory. He led the Flyers with a career-high 18 points on 9-of-12 shooting.

Holmes II dunked five times, but no dunk brought the hundreds of Dayton fans among the 3,012 spectators in the building to their feet faster than the alley-oop dunk with 43 seconds left in the first half. Malachi Smith lobbed a pass from about four steps behind the 3-point line to Holmes, who got behind the defense and threw it down.

Dayton, which took control earlier in the half with a 17-3 run, took a 40-28 lead into halftime after that play.

“That’s one of our favorites,’ Holmes II said, “and it was a good one. I came around the corner, and Mali threw it up pretty high.”

Smith jumped almost as high as Holmes II in celebration after the dunk.

“Mali can jump,” Holmes II said. “I think Mali can dunk, too.”

This Dayton performance had everything but a dunk by the freshman point guard. The Flyers (11-6, 3-1) improved to 2-0 on the road in the A-10 by excelling from 3-point range (8 of 18) for the third straight game. They have made 23 of 50 (46 percent) 3-pointers in victories against George Washington (4-10, 0-2), Saint Louis (10-5, 1-1)and Duquesne (6-9, 1-2).

Kobe Elvis had the most success from long range Saturday. He made all four of his 3-point attempts and scored a career-high 16 points. Kobe Brea made 2 of 5 3-pointers. R.J. Blakney and Mustapha Amzil each had one.

“It feels really good,” Elvis said. “Especially going into our next game, it’s something we really need.”

Dayton will play preseason favorite St. Bonaventure (10-3, 2-0) at 7 p.m. Tuesday at UD Arena. It’s a matchup of the A-10′s most veteran team and its youngest.

Duquesne, like Dayton, is one of the most inexperienced teams in the country. According to KenPom.com, the Dukes rank 354th in experience. Dayton ranks last (358th).

The Flyers held the Dukes to 40.4 percent shooting, their worst mark in three A-10 games, and had a 35-24 rebounding advantage. Dayton even played well in its weak spot, committing only 10 turnovers — two more than its season low — to Duquesne’s 12.

All in all, this goes down as one of Dayton’s best performances of the season. The Flyers led by as many as 25 points and didn’t let Duquesne get any closer than 17 points in the last 10 minutes.

“Our guys understood what we had to take away from them and did a really good job making it difficult for them,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said, “and then offensively, for the majority of the game that day, we did a hell of a job taking care of the ball. They were going to be aggressive. We understood that. Guys made good decisions. They took care of the ball. They shared the ball. It was just I thought all sides of the ball to show, we showed some maturity.”

TUESDAY’S GAME

St. Bonaventure at Dayton, 7 p.m., Spectrum News 1, 1290, 95.7