Dayton pulls away in 2nd half to win season opener

DAYTON — After a close first half, the Dayton Flyers used a strong second-half performance to beat SIU-Edwardsville (SIUE), 63-47, Monday night at the University of Dayton Arena to open the 2023-24 season.

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Junior DaRon Holmes II led all scorers with 19 points while Nate Santos pulled 14 points. Kobe Elvis had nine points and five assists. Holmes also made 11-12 free throws.

Javon Bennet and Enoch Cheeks each played extended minutes after starting point guard Malachi Smith left the game with an injury in the first half.

“We don’t anything,” said coach Anthony Grant in his postgame press conference. “We’ll find out. Once we know, we’ll let you know.”

Dayton improves to 1-0 to start the season.

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UD scored the first five points of the game. Holmes scored off an alley-oop from Smith for the first points of the season and Elvis followed up with a three.

The Flyers had a scoring drought of over four minutes, missing five straight shots, and went 1-12 from the field with 10 minutes left in the first half trailing, 12-8.

The Cougars extended the lead to 24-16 after a steal and layup. It forced Grant to call a timeout.

Momentum swung in Dayton’s favor after a Santos steal led to a Koby Brea trey to cut the deficit to 24-21.

SIUE was called for an offensive foul on their next possession and Santos’ putback got UD to within one, 24-23, with 1:14 left until halftime.

Elvis’ steal led to a Brea three as the Flyers reclaimed the lead, 26-24. Elvis ended the half making 1-2 free throws as Dayton led, 27-24, at the break.

UD forced four turnovers during an 11-0 run to end the first half.

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It stayed close to start the second half as the Flyers led, 43-39, with 9:55 to play after Lamar Wright’s two free throws.

Holmes countered with two foul shots of his own to extend it to 45-39. Isaac Jack scored four of his six points, including a dunk, that expanded it to 51-39. Cheeks capped a 10-0 run with a steal and dunk to increase it to 53-39 with 6:34 to play and never looked back.

Dayton’s next game will be Friday night at 8:30 p.m. when they travel to Evanston, Illinois to play Northwestern.

Pregame coverage starts at 7:30 p.m. on WHIO Radio. The game will also be carried here at WHIO.com.

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