Dayton bounces back from St. Bonaventure loss with victory at Saint Louis

What it means: Dayton (15-7, 5-4) finished 1-1 on a road trip that began Tuesday with a 75-53 loss at St. Bonaventure. The team did not go home between games and stayed two nights in St. Louis before playing Friday.

Dayton moved into fourth place by itself in the Atlantic 10 Conference. It has a half-game lead over four teams that are 4-4: Saint Joseph’s; George Washington; Duquesne; and Massachusetts.

Saint Louis (13-9, 6-3) fell out of a tie for second place with Virginia Commonwealth (16-5, 6-2) and sits alone in third place halfway through the league schedule.

Dayton has won three straight games in the series against Saint Louis and 18 of the last 22 matchups.

Star of the game: Javon Bennett led Dayton with 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting. He made 4 of 8 3-pointers.

Stat of the game: Saint Louis committed 19 turnovers. Dayton had 12. That helped Dayton take nine more shots.

Key sequence: Dayton led by as many as 17 points in the first half and had a 14-point lead in the second half. Saint Louis cut the deficit to 54-52 with 7 minutes, 2 seconds to play.

The Flyers answered with a Javon Bennett layup and a Nate Santos 3-pointer. Saint Louis got no closer than four points the rest of the way.

Clutch free throws: Dayton sealed the victory by making 9 of 11 free throws in the final two minutes.

Star struggles: Robbie Avila, the leading scorer on the season for Saint Louis with 17.9 points per game, scored four points on 1-of-7 shooting. He made 2 of 6 free throws. He had 10 rebounds but seven turnovers, including a crucial one in the final minutes.

Looking ahead: Dayton plays Davidson (13-7, 3-4) at 7 p.m. Tuesday at UD Arena. Dayton has won nine straight games in the series. Davidson ended a three-game losing streak with a 72-66 victory at Richmond (7-14, 2-6) on Wednesday. It plays at home against first-place George Mason (16-5, 7-1) on Saturday.

HALFTIME RECAP

For the second time in the last three road games, a strong first-half shooting performance carried Dayton to a double-digit halftime lead.

Dayton shot 69.2% (9 of 12) from 3-point range and led Duquesne 44-25 at halftime on Jan. 21, and it shot 53.8% (7 of 13) in the first half and led Saint Louis 37-25 at halftime Friday at Chaifetz Arena.

Here’s a quick recap of the first half:

Key players: Bennett and Enoch Cheeks each scored nine points, and Nate Santos had eight points in the half.

Key stat: While the Flyers made 7 of 13 3s, Saint Louis shot 25% (3 of 12).

It was the opposite story for Dayton in its last game. St. Bonaventure made 8 of 15 3-pointers in the first half to build a 39-32 halftime lead and won 75-53 on Tuesday.

Big runs: Dayton took control with an 8-0 run early in the half, turning an 8-5 deficit into a 13-8 lead at the 11:58 mark.

Later in the half, a 16-2 Dayton turn turned an 18-15 lead into a 34-17 advantage at the 4:50 mark.