‘We’ve got to find a way’ — Dayton beats Saint Louis on night shots weren’t falling

Palmer read the names of the Dayton Flyers starters in a recorded video shown on the scoreboard during pregame introductions. He went viral, at least among the Flyer Faithful, for doing the same thing earlier this season in a video filmed by his parents, Nick and Jane Palmer, of Washington Township.

Vincent put extra emphasis on the name of Holmes — and for good reason. For the second game in a row, Holmes took over the game in the second half, scoring 16 of his 29 points in the last six minutes and carrying No. 21 Dayton to a 70-65 victory against Saint Louis.

After the game, Dayton coach Anthony Grant copied and pasted a quote he has used many times this season and will use again as the simplest way to sum up the greatness of Holmes.

“I think DaRon’s one of the best players in the country,” Grant said.

Dayton (14-2, 4-0) won its 11th straight game despite compiling some of its worst offensive numbers of the season. The Flyers shot a season-worst 55.2% (16 of 29) from the free-throw line and posted their third-worst 3-point shooting percentage (28.6, 8 of 28).

What Dayton did — what it has done in every game since a Nov. 19 loss to Houston — is find a way to win. The Flyers avoided an upset one day after entering the top 25 for the first time this season. This was a Quad 4 game for Dayton in the NCAA Evaluation Tool because Saint Louis ranks 222nd. It would have been the worst type of loss, in other words. Saint Louis climbed seven spots because of narrow margin, while Dayton dropped from No. 17 to No. 19.

Although Saint Louis (8-9, 1-3) played one of its better games, it lost its 10th straight game at UD Arena and dropped to 0-8 in Dayton in coach Travis Ford’s eight seasons. Saint Louis lost its 18th straight game against a ranked opponent. Its last win came against No. 25 Virginia Commonwealth in the 2013 A-10 championship game.

Dayton kept pace with Richmond (12-5, 4-0), which won 63-61 at Duquesne, atop the Atlantic 10 Conference. Rhode Island (9-7, 3-0) was the other A-10 unbeaten team entering a game Wednesday at St. Bonaventure. Rhode Island plays at Dayton at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.

Grant credited the team’s maturity for its ability to handle success. This is Dayton’s third-longest winning streak in this century and its 12th winning streak of 11 games or more since 1950. Dayton also has the third-longest active winning streak in the country.

“This team is made up of guys that have kind of been through stuff,” Grant said. “The guys that have been in the program for a couple of years have been on the cusp of accomplishing things that we want to accomplish, but we haven’t been able to do it. The other guys that have joined the team with other experiences understand college basketball and how competitive it is on any given night. Every league is tough. The guys that joined us were in leagues that were really hard, so they understand that everybody can play across the country. I think we have a group that every day comes in and allows myself and our staff to coach them. There’s a trust that’s been built up and belief in what we’re rying to do and guys are showing a level of maturity to stay on task with that.”

Dayton did not trail in its first three A-10 victories against Davidson, Massachusetts and Duquesne. It led Saint Louis for the first 11 minutes. Then the Billikens seized the lead with a 14-0 run. The Flyers trailed 30-28 at halftime.

“It was pretty difficult,” Holmes said. “We have to come in with the same mentality every game and play our version of basketball. In the first half, we kind of slipped, but we had a good locker-room talk, figured it out in the second half, went back out there and played our butts off.”

Kobe Elvis split two defenders with a pass to Holmes in the paint on the first possession of the half. The dunk by Holmes set the tone in the final 20 minutes when he scored 25 of his 29 points. He dunked five times.

An 8-0 run in a 90-second stretch included seven straight points by Holmes. Dayton turned a 50-47 lead into a 58-47 advantage and coasted to victory from that point despite four 3-pointers by Saint Louis in the final 4:09.

“We just had to put whatever it was behind us and flush the first half,” said Elvis, who scored eight points and set a UD record by making his 37th straight free throw. “We didn’t shoot the ball well. Sometimes when we shoot really well, guys are really happy. Sometimes shots affect guys, their attitudes about the game, so it was about being mature enough to battle back and understand that maybe we’re not going to shoot the ball well, but we’ve got to find a way to win the game.”

SATURDAY’S GAME

Rhode Island at Dayton, 12:30 p.m., USA Network, 1290, 95.7