DAYTON – Three Flyers in double figures and a solid defensive effort gave the University of Dayton men’s basketball team a successful Atlantic 10 Conference-opening win over Duquesne, 69-57. 

Dayton was led by DaRon Holmes II, who scored 22 points and had 13 rebounds.  R.J. Blakney had a stellar night with 17 points and lockdown defense on the sixth-leading scorer in the A-10, Dae Dae Grant.  Grant was held to eight points, less than half his average of 17.9 ppg. Mustapha Amzil added 13 points and five assists.

Dayton is now 9-5 on the season, and has won its last four.  Duquesne is now 10-4 on the year.

First Half – Dayton 37, Duquesne 32

• Off winning the opening toss, Dayton scored the game’s first 10 points, with DaRon Homes II getting six of those 10.
• Duquesne got on the board three minutes and 37 second into the game.  
• Two turnovers on offensive fouls by Zimi Nwokeji and Toumani Camara allowed the Dukes to cut the lead to 7 at 14-7.
• Duquesne was able to cut it to three (14-11) with 12:02 left in the half,  but R.J. Blakney answered with an acrobatic press-breaking reverse layup to make the score 16-11. It was the last time the game was a single-possession game.
• Dayton’s largest lead of the first half was 11 points, The last time the margin was 11 was with 1:48 left in the half, when Mustapha Amzil sank a three-pointer to make the score 37-26.  
• The Dukes scored the last six points of the half to cut the Flyer lead to 37-32 at the break. 
• Blakney led the Flyers with 12 points (5-7 FG), while Holmes II scored 10 (4-6 FG) alongside five rebounds.

Second Half – Dayton 69, Duquesne 59

• Dayton opened the half with a 9-4 spurt to lead by 10 at the first media timeout of the second half.
• The UD advantage remained 10 (55-45) at the next break with 10:05 to go.
• The Flyers scored next on a Camara layup, and the game was never as close as 10 again.
• Dayton’s largest lead was 15, which it reached four times in the last eight minutes.
• A Duquesne three with eight seconds left made the final 69-57.

BY THE NUMBERS

• DaRon Holmes II led UD with 22 points and a career-best 13 rebounds.  
• He has four games in a row with 20+ points, and is averaging 24.0 points a game during UD’s four-game win streak.
• Dayton out-bounded the Dukes 41-27, with 14 of those 41 being offensive.
• The Dukes came into the game seventh in D-I in offensive rebounding (14.2).  The Flyers limited them to seven offensive boards, which is also the number of offensive rebounds Holmes had by himself.
• R.J. Blakney’s 17 points were a season high. He was also a game-high +16 in the contest.
• Mustpaha Amzil added 13 points and five assists.
• Dayton never trailed, and it longest scoring run was the game-opening 10-0 run.
• The Flyers lead the A-10 in scoring defense at 58.8 points allowed per game, and have held their opponents under 60 points nine times in 14 games this year.
• This was the fourth consecutive game allowing less than 60 points, and that is first time a Dayton team has done that since Dec. 8-21, 2009.

UP NEXT

• UD travels to Davidson, North Carolina for their match with Davidson on the 31st of December.
• Game time is 2 p.m. ET.
• Dayton’s next home game is Wednesday, Jan. 4 against Saint Joseph’s.

COURTESY DAYTON MEDIA RELATIONS