DAYTON — The No. 16 ranked Dayton Flyers went on the road and earned a 66-54 win over the La Salle Explorers Tuesday night in Philadelphia, PA.
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DaRon Holmes II led all scorers with 22 points while Javon Bennett and Nate Santos each added 13. Kobe Elvis scored 10 points.
UD escaped another upset bid at Tom Gola Arena. Coming into the game, they had lost five of their last six trips at La Salle since 2013.
They built their biggest lead of the game to 40-25 with 16:17 to remaining but the Explorers outscored the Flyers, 18-5 (including nine straight points) to pull within three, 45-42. But Bennett made back-to-back threes and Holmes’ layup put Dayton ahead, 53-45, with 7:33 to go. They never looked back.
The Flyers improve to 16-2 (6-0 in the Atlantic 10).
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Holmes opened the scoring with a layup and two free throws, but the Explorers took a 7-6 lead on a Jhamir Brickus jumper. Holmes buried a three-pointer and Koby Brea scored to give UD an 11-7 advantage.
The Flyers led 20-17 before scoring seven straight points, including five by Holmes and a layup by Elvis to extend the lead to 27-17.
The first half ended as Holmes and Elvis scored to put Dayton ahead, 36-23, at the break.
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Holmes’ dunk put UD up, 40-25, but Fasasi Vahlberg’s three cut it to 40-31. Santos scored five straight points to stretch the Flyers’ lead to 45-33 with 11:27 to play.
Andres Marrero and Rokas Jocius each scored for La Salle to cut it to 45-37. Anwar Gill’s three-point play and Brickus’ jumper capped a 9-0 run to get them closer, 45-42 with 9:04 left, forcing Coach Anthony Grant to call a timeout.
Bennett and Brickus exchanged treys as the Flyers led 48-45. Bennett buried his second straight three-pointer to build the advantage back to six, 51-45. Holmes scored twice to stretch it back to 10 points, 55-45, with 6:33 to go.
Marrero buried a three-pointer to cut it to 55-48 with 4:40 remaining. But Santos’ dunk and Bennett’s third trey halted any thoughts of an upset.
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Dayton’s next game will be Saturday when they travel to Richmond, Virginia to play the Richmond Spiders at the Robins Center at 6 p.m.
Pregame coverage on WHIO Radio begins at 5 p.m. The game will also be carried here at WHIO.com.
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