Dayton Flyers play strong 2nd half as they beat Cincinnati

CINCINNATI — The Dayton Flyers played a solid second half Saturday night to beat the Cincinnati Bearcats, 82-68, in the Hoops Classic presented by altafiber and CareSource at Heritage Bank Arena in Cincinnati.

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UD shot 52% in the second half and made 22 of 23 free throws after halftime.

DaRon Holmes II led all scorers with 28 points while Kobe Elvis added 27. Koby Brea scored 12 points off the bench.

The game was played in front of a crowd of 12.547.

This marked the first time that the two schools met in a men’s basketball game since November 2010.

The Flyers have now five straight games and improved to 8-2 on the season.

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UC scored the first five points of the game and then Holmes scored the first points of the game for Dayton with a three-pointer. Brea buried his first trey to put them ahead for the first time, 10-8, with 16:03 left in the first half.

UD stretched the advantage to five, 24-19, on Elvis’ layup but the Bearcats scored six straight points to go up 25-24 with 5:09 to go until halftime.

Elvis scored two more times as the Flyers reclaimed the lead for good, 28-25. C.J. Frederic scored to cut it 28-27 but Dayton ended the half on a 7-2 run to lead 35-29 heading into the locker room.

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Aziz Bandaogo scored for Cincinnati to start the second half and they trailed 35-31. They never got closer.

UD responded with a 7-0 run. Elvis made two free throws and Holmes scored to increase to 39-31. Elvis buried a three-pointer in transition to expand the lead to 42-31 forcing UC to call a timeout with 17:32 remaining.

The Bearcats got within seven points twice, but UD scored seven straight points, including five from Nate Santos to go up 53-39.

The Flyers led by as much as 18 points, 63-45, with 9:02 remaining. Cincinnati outscored Dayton, 17-8, to cut the lead to 71-62 with 3:15 to go. But Holmes sealed the game with a dunk and three-pointer and UD never looked back.

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Santos added nine points while Enoch Cheeks scored four. Petras Padegimas played 12 minutes off the bench and grabbed three rebounds.

Dayton will host Oakland on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at the UD Arena before going into the Christmas break.

Pregame coverage on WHIO Radio begins at 6 p.m. The game will also be broadcast here on WHIO.com.

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