Nate Santos got No. 21 Dayton rolling and DaRon Holmes II effectively landed an early knockout punch as the host Flyers routed George Washington 83-61 in an Atlantic 10 Conference matchup on Tuesday night.
Holmes, who earlier in the day was named among the 20 players on the Wooden Award late-season watch list, finished with 25 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and two blocks. He scored the Flyers’ first eight points of the second half as Dayton went on a 15-6 run to push its 14-point lead at the break to 53-30.
George Washington got no closer than 15 the rest of the way.
Santos, who entered Tuesday averaging 11.3 points per game this season, scored 17, all in the first half, as Dayton (17-3, 7-1 Atlantic 10) bounced back from a weekend loss to Richmond that ended its 13-game winning streak. Koby Brea also netted 17 points for the Flyers, who shot 57.1 percent from the floor in the second half to finish at 48.3 percent for the night.
Dayton also made 12 of 24 (50 percent) treys after beginning the night with the ninth-best 3-point percentage in Division I (39.4).
Darren Buchanan Jr. collected 13 points and eight boards to top the Revolutionaries (14-7, 3-5), who lost their fourth straight game. They shot only 32.3 percent from the floor and a miserable 5 of 29 (17.2 percent) from deep, adding to a slump that saw them combine for 37.1 percent shooting from the field and 28.8 percent shooting on 3-pointers in their previous three games.
James Bishop IV, who entered the contest averaging a team-best 17.9 points per game, added 10, but he hit only 2 of 12 shots overall and missed all six of his 3-pointers.
Dayton led by three points midway through the first half but created some distance with a 12-0 run. Holmes hit a layup and then took a feed from Kobe Elvis to start the spurt, and Santos scored on a layup and nailed a 3-pointer off Holmes’ pass to build a 24-9 cushion with 6:49 left.
Santos hit 6 of 8 shots in the first half, including all three attempts from long range. Holmes had nine points, seven rebounds and two blocks.
The Flyers shot 40.6 percent from the floor, but that was more than enough to build their 38-24 lead, because the Revolutionaries hit only 29 percent of their attempts overall before the break.
George Washington’s leading scorer before intermission was Bishop with six points.
–Field Level Media