The Dayton Flyers Score 60 Second Half Points to Defeat the Saint Joseph’s Hawks 94 – 79
PHILADELPHIA, PA. 2/6/2024 –
Hawk Hill was buzzing. The Saint Joseph’s student section in the Hagan Arena was full. The Philadelphia Eagles spirit team and Swoop were in attendance. And the Hawks won five of their last six games. They were ready to pull and upset on #18/17 Dayton. And for the first half it appeared that just might happen.
St. Joe’s played an excellent first half of basketball and took a 38 – 34 lead at halftime.
Dayton flipped the script in the second half. The Flyers began their comeback late in the first half. The Hawks answered then, but could not answer a 24 – 8 charge at the beginning of the last twenty minutes falling behind 61- 44 midway through the stanza. The defense could not stop the Dayton offense, and the shots stopped falling.
“I thought our guys gave a great fight,” said Saint Joseph’s Coach Billy Lange. “When you start four for eighteen in the second half you have to have a maturity and a discipline really down at the other end to just hang. You go through levels like that, especially like that, and they’re good. One of the best defensive teams in our conference.”
The Hawks did not shoot badly on the second half making 16 of 34 field goal attempts. But the Flyers were better going 19 of 28 from the floor in the half, and 8 of 12 from distance. They sank two-third’s of their shots.
The Start In St. Joe’s Favor
The Hawks came out hot making six of their first eight shots, and 3 of 4 from beyond the arc, and took a 15 – 5 lead at the first media timeout. At the 10:35 mark a three-pointer by Hawks guard Cameron Brown gave his team a 23 – 12 advantage. It took Dayton three and a half minutes to wipe out the lead. Saint Joseph’s did come back to be ahead at halftime.
Strength in Numbers
The Dayton starting five all scored in double figures led by forward Nate Santos and guard Kobe Elvis who scored 21 points each. Elvis handed out a career-high 10 assists. Team leading scorer Daron Holmes II scored 13 points, 7 below his average. Javon Bennett totaled 18 points, while Enoch Cheeks added 12. Dayton would up shooting 33 of 58 and 12 of 22 three’s.
“It’s great to see,” said Dayton Coach Anthony Grant about the scoring effort. “Just the ability to get out in transition and run, creating broken floors. And we were able to do some things in the half court to take advantage of the skill set as well. This was a good night for us to be able to see what this team is capable of doing.”
The Hawks Numbers
Four players reached double-digits for the hosts. Brown led the team with 19 points while Lynn Greer III posted 18 points. Xzayvier Brown got 15 points while Rasheer Fleming came away with 14 points. Erik Reynolds II was held to 6 points.
Up Next
Dayton (19 – 3, 9 – 1) has a big game coming up at Richmond (18 – 6, 8 – 1) as the teams battle for the top spot in the Atlantic 10.
Saint Joseph’s levels their conference mark at 5 – 5. They end the two-game homestand with a Saturday game with Saint Louis. There were good things for the Hawks to build on from the game, and things to improve upon. And time to do so.
“We’ll grow from this for sure,” Lange said. “And we move on. It’s still the middle of conference play and it’s not the end of the year.”
Written By: Glenn Papazian
Contact: Glenn@PhillyCollegeSports.com
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