Dayton basketball: Flyers stop four-game skid thanks to free throws in final seconds vs. Bonnies

What it means: Dayton (15-8, 6-4) snapped a four-game losing streak, its longest since January 2014. It avoided its first five-game losing streak since the 2005-06 season when it lost seven straight games.

St. Bonaventure (13-10, 2-8) fell short of its first victory against Dayton at UD Arena in 10 years. The Bonnies have lost six straight games at UD Arena since a 79-72 victory in 2016.

Star of the game: Javon Bennett scored 20 points on 6-of-10 shooting. He made 4 of 6 3-pointers and 4 of 4 free throws.

Stat of the game: Dayton shot 85% (28 of 33) at the free-throw line. St. Bonaventure shot 82% (14 of 17).

Derkack made 12 of 15 free throws. He scored 18 points.

Amaël L’Etang made 7 of 8 free throws and scored 16 points.

Big plays: Dayton trailed 68-68 with 2:50 to play. L’Etang scored with 2:23 remaining, cutting the St. Bonaventure lead to one point.

Derkack made 1 of 2 free throws at the 1:24 mark to tie the game at 68-68. Bennett then gave Dayton the lead on a layup with 48 seconds to play.

St. Bonaventure tied the game at 70-70 by making two free throws with 13 seconds to go.

That led to Derkack driving to the basket and drawing a foul in the final seconds.

St. Bonaventure’s Darryl Simmons II missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

Comeback: Dayton led by 47-34 early in the second half but gave up a 14-0 run. St. Bonaventure took a 48-47 lead at the 12:41 mark. The game was close the rest of the way.

Lineup news: Dayton forward Jaiun Simon was listed as “Out” on the availability report for the first time. He said after the Saint Joseph’s game on Jan. 24 he had a back issue. He played 21 minutes in the next game against Rhode Island but was limited to eight minutes against Saint Louis.

Looking ahead: Dayton plays Virginia Commonwealth (17-6, 8-2) at 7 p.m. Friday at the Siegel Center in Richmond, Va. VCU won 63-59 on Tuesday at Fordham.

HALFTIME RECAP

Bennett scored 16 points to lead Dayton to a 41-30 halftime lead.

Here’s a quick recap of the first half:

Key players: Bennett 5 of 7 field goals, including 4 of 5 3-pointers, and 2 of 2 free throws in the first half. He made 6 of 26 3s in Dayton’s previous four games, all losses.

Cayden Charles led St. Bonaventure with 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting.

Key stat: Dayton made 5 of 14 3-pointers (36%). St. Bonaventure missed all eight of its attempts.

The Bonnies rank 25th in the country in 3-point shooting percentage (37.5), but they don’t shoot many 3s. They rank 12th out of 14 teams in A-10 play in 3-point attempts.

Turning point: Dayton’s Jordan Derkack made 2 of 2 free throws at the 7:27 mark to break a 22-22 tie. That started an 11-2 Dayton run, which included two 3s by Bennett.