CHICAGO, IL — The Dayton Flyers held off a second half rally by the Wyoming Cowboys to win, 66-49, Saturday night in the Legends of Basketball Showcase at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois.
DaRon Holmes II led UD with 24 points and Toumani Camara had 17 points and nine rebounds. Koby Brea added 10 off the bench and played much of the game at point guard as Mike Sharavjamts played only 12 minutes due to foul trouble.
The Flyers improve to 7-5 overall.
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Mustapha Amzil and Camara made back-to-back three-pointers for Dayton as they led, 8-2, to start the game. Hunter Maldonado’s layup for Wyoming got them within two, 10-8, with 15:27 to play in the first half.
Camara buried a trey and Holmes scored six straight points to increase it to 19-8. UD got threes each by Zimi Nwokeji and Holmes to cap a 15-0 run to expand it to 25-8 with 10:18 left until halftime.
Amzil scored six straight points at one stretch of the first half as the Flyers led, 35-21, at the break.
The Cowboys came back to start the second half as Noah Reynolds scored 10 straight points to cut Dayton’s advantage to 35-30. Reynolds made a three-pointer and jumper to get Wyoming within two points, 37-35, with 14:33 remaining.
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They never got closer as Holmes scored four straight points for UD to increase it to 41-35. Brea’s trey, followed by layups each by R.J. Blakney and Camara expanded the lead to 48-37 with 9:34 left.
Hunter Thompson made a three and Reynolds scored to get Wyoming within six, 48-42. But Brea scored five straight points as the Flyers led, 53-44. Holmes added a pair of dunks to increase it to 57-46 with 4:36 to go as Dayton maintained a double digit lead the rest of the game.
UD concludes non-conference play Tuesday night when they host Alcorn State at the UD Arena at 7 p.m.
The game will be broadcast on WHIO Radio. You can also listen to the game here at WHIO.com.