Hagan Enviornment in Philadelphia performed host to a pivotal Atlantic 10 conflict that pitted conference-leading Dayton in opposition to fifth-place Saint Joseph’s on Tuesday evening.
After struggling its first convention loss at co-leader Richmond to shut out January, the Flyers arrived on Hawk Hill with back-to-back house wins over George Washington and St. Bonaventure.
For St. Joe’s, who was chosen fifth within the A10 preseason ballot, it’s been an up-and-down season that’s featured wins over Villanova and Princeton, in addition to losses to Texas A&M-Commerce and Saint Louis.
Highlighting the parity inside this convention, St. Joe’s soared out to a 15-5 lead by the primary media timeout, led by an early eight factors from Cameron Brown.
Extending the lead out to 21-10 on the under-12 break, the Hawks opened the evening taking pictures 5-for-8 from three with Brown an ideal 4-for-4 from the ground for 11 early factors.
From there, Dayton scored 13 unanswered and briefly grabbed their first lead of the competition at 24-23 with junior guard Kobe Elvis main the offensive effort.
The Hawks answered with the following 5 factors to re-establish a bonus. A 3 from Enoch Cheeks pulled the Flyers again inside one simply earlier than halftime. To as soon as once more ignite the Hawk followers, Rasheer Fleming hit a last-second three pushing St. Joe’s forward 38-34 on the halftime buzzer.
Within the first half, St. Joe’s moved the ball nicely, created open appears to be like from three and performed strong bodily protection exterior of the 13-0 Flyers run. They restricted Dayton’s main scorer in DaRon Holmes II to simply six factors.
Dayton acquired contributions throughout the beginning lineup to climate St. Joe’s early taking pictures success, and returned the favor by ending the half at 40% from 3-point vary to the Hawks 37%.
Early into the second half although, it was all Flyers as Elvis drained a 3 virtually instantly out of the halftime locker room to chop the lead inside one.
Brown answered with a 3-point jumper to set the rating at 41-37 in favor of St. Joe’s with 19:26 on the clock, however by the under-16 timeout, the Flyers had managed a 10-0 run.
That six-point lead at 47-41 shortly blossomed right into a double-digit benefit on the second media timeout because the St. Joe’s student-section went quiet and the Flyers noticed contributions from Cheeks, Elvis and Nate Santos.
By the under-8 timeout, the Hawks had contrasted that first half 5-for-8 begin from 3-point land by going 1-for-9 to open the second. In consequence, Dayton pulled forward 65-48.
Making an attempt to route a late comeback, St. Joe’s introduced the lead inside 13 simply previous to the under-4 timeout and pulled inside 10 with slightly below a minute in regulation.
Ultimately, it was too little, too late from the Hawks, and Dayton claimed a 94-79 win behind 21 factors from Santos, 19 of which got here within the second half. Kobe Elvis matched that with with a double-double of 21 factors and 10 assists.
On an evening during which the Flyers had 5 double-digit scorers it’s the defensive efficiency that deserves consideration, finest emphasised by the trouble on Erik Reynolds II, who was averaging 17.3 PPG because the Hawks leading-scorer. The Flyers held him to simply six factors on 2-for-11 taking pictures.
For Dayton head coach Anthony Grant, after battling by means of the early barrage of buckets from SJU, that defensive set the tone to assist the Flyers robust begin within the second half.
“We had been in a position to climate that storm early,” Grant mentioned. “I assumed after that we had been in a position to chip away and put ourselves in an excellent place. Within the second half, we did an incredible job of being aggressive and defensively [that allowed] us to remove a number of the stuff that was hurting us early.”
Nevertheless, notably within the first half, St. Joe’s supplied aggressive stretches led by Brown who completed with 19 factors and 5 boards, alongside Lynn Greer III with 18 factors and 4 assists.
Whereas this Hawks squad remains to be pretty younger with only one senior taking part in constant minutes, Grant knew this matchup would pose a serious problem for the Flyers on the highway.
“We knew right this moment was going to be a really difficult setting to return into,” he mentioned. “That’s a really gifted, very well-coached group. They got here out early with nice power, made pictures and constructed a lead, however our guys confirmed nice resiliency.”
The Hawks are bolstered by one of many convention’s finest backcourt rotations and might be a darkish horse contender come early March.
“You might want to have a maturity and a self-discipline to simply form of grasp in since you undergo lulls [on the court],” St. Joe’s head coach Billy Lange mentioned. “We’ve received to try to hold it a bit of bit nearer whenever you’re going by means of these lulls in opposition to a extremely good group, and we weren’t in a position to do this. That’s a credit score to Dayton. They had been an enormous a part of that.”
Following the win over St. Joe’s, Dayton is solely atop the convention standings with a troublesome highway battle in opposition to fourth-place VCU awaiting the Flyers on Friday.
After falling to the Rams in final season’s A10 Championship closing, this may undoubtedly be one other vital check for Dayton in hopes of garnering that illustrious NCAA Event bid.
St. Joe’s will look to remain within the high half of the convention with a return matchup in opposition to Saint Louis on Saturday.