DAYTON — The No. 21 Dayton Flyers overcame a halftime deficit to beat the Saint Louis Billikens, 70-65, Tuesday night at the UD Arena.
>>Dayton’s DaRon Holmes II earns pair of Player of the Week honors
DaRon Holmes II scored 25 of his 29 points in the second half and grabbed 14 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season, the 21st of his collegiate career.
UD trailed 30-28 at halftime but made 48% of their shots in the second half.
The Flyers have now won 11 straight games as they improved their record to 14-2 overall (4-0 in the Atlantic 10).
>>Dayton Flyers earn top 25 ranking from AP, USA Today Coaches Poll
Dayton jumped out to a 10-2 with 14:18 to play after a three-pointer by Enoch Cheeks. He buried another trey that put UD ahead 16-8.
The Billikens went on a 15-1 scoring run to take a 23-17 advantage with 6:07 left until halftime.
The Flyers responded with a 9-2 run that was capped by a Kobe Elvis three to reclaim the lead, 26-25, but Saint Louis got a three-pointer by Terrence Hargrove and a basket by Sincere Parker to go into the locker room with a 30-28 advantage.
>>DaRon Holmes II posts double-double to lead Dayton past Duquesne, 72-62
Holmes opened the second half with seven straight points for Dayton as they led, 37-34. Gibson Jimerson’s trey tied it at 37-37 with 16:21 remaining. UD scored seven straight points to take a 44-37 lead.
The game remained close throughout the second half as the Flyers led, 50-47, with 7:02 left. Cheeks made one of two foul shots to put them up 51-47. Holmes scored seven straight points, including a steal and two-handed dunk, to extend the lead to 58-47 with 5:06 remaining.
He scored 13 consecutive points during a nearly four-minute stretch starting at the 5:57 mark as the Flyers led 65-57. But Jimerson buried his third trey of the night to cut it to 65-60 with 1:13 remaining. Koby Brea ended any hopes of a Saint Louis comeback with a three to put the Flyers up, 68-60.
>>Dayton Flyers hang on to beat UMass, extend winning streak to nine games
Dayton’s next game will be Saturday afternoon when they host the Rhode Island Rams at 12:30 p.m. at the UD Arena.
This will be former Dayton head coach Archie Miller’s return to the UD Arena for the first time since he left Dayton for Indiana in 2017. Miller is currently in his second-year coaching at URI.
Pregame coverage on WHIO Radio begins Saturday at 11:30 a.m. The game will also be carried here at WHIO.com.