DaRon Holmes II aims to continue his torrid stretch on Saturday afternoon as No. 16 Dayton returns to the court to host Fordham.
Holmes recorded his second straight double-double and seventh of the season with his 24-point, 11-rebound performance in the Flyers’ 75-59 victory over Duquesne on Tuesday. He made 10 of 18 shots from the floor for Dayton (20-4, 10-2 Atlantic 10), which erased a four-point deficit with a 22-2 run to secure the victory.
“It was back and forth,” Flyers coach Anthony Grant said. “You know for most of the (second) half we never really got separation. The last eight minutes or so of the game, it came down to really our guys’ grit and toughness and determination. They showed great poise.”
Holmes, a junior forward, was a big part of that. In fact, his grit, toughness and determination likely are contributing factors as to why he’s been named the Atlantic-10 Player of the Week three times this season.
Holmes, who leads the A-10 at 19.6 points per game, was named as one of 30 players selected to the Naismith Trophy Men’s College Player of the Year Midseason Team on Thursday. He’s also a finalist for the Wooden Award (another national player of the year honor) and the Karl Malone Award, which celebrates the nation’s top power forward.
Holmes likely will receive some attention from the Rams (10-14, 4-7) based on a pair of performances last season. He scored 32 points on 12-of-15 shooting from the floor in Dayton’s 82-58 win in the regular season and added 20 points on a 7-of-11 effort a 78-68 victory in the A-10 tournament semifinal.
While Holmes has team-best averages in points and rebounds (7.9), Nate Santos is second in the team with 12.1 and 6.6, respectively. Santos had 15 points and eight rebounds versus the Dukes.
Koby Brea made 4 of 5 shots from 3-point range against Duquesne to boost his percentage from beyond the arc to a sterling 48.9 percent. That percentage is tops in the nation heading into Thursday’s games.
The Flyers are tied atop the Atlantic 10 with streaking Loyola Chicago. Dayton will put their perfect 12-0 home record on the line versus Fordham, which fell for the sixth time in eight outings with an 85-67 setback against St. Bonaventure on Wednesday.
Will Richardson scored in double figures for the sixth time in eight games by matching Kyle Rose with 10 points on Wednesday. Unfortunately for the Rams, they allowed the Bonnies to shoot a robust 60.0 percent from the floor (30 of 50) and 66.7 percent from 3-point range (12 of 18).
“We were down a lot (points) but continued to play hard. The effort was there right to the end,” Fordham coach Keith Urgo said.
Japhet Medor boasts a team-best 11.4 points per game for the Rams, followed by Richardson (10.3) and Elijah Gray (10.2).
Dayton has won 35 of 41 games in the all-time series against Fordham.
–Field Level Media