Dayton basketball: Flyers dominate second half to rout Loyola Chicago

What it means: Dayton (14-4) won its fifth straight game. It is 5-0 in the A-10 for the second time in three seasons and the third time in coach Anthony Grant’s nine seasons.

Dayton moved into a first-place tie with George Mason (17-1, 5-0) in the Atlantic 10 Conference.

Dayton swept the season series from Loyola Chicago for the second time in the Ramblers’ four seasons in the A-10. This victory came 13 days after a 70-68 victory in Chicago.

Loyola (5-14, 1-5) suffered its fifth straight loss. It is 0-4 at UD Arena in the last four seasons.

Star of the game: De’Shayne Montgomery led Dayton with 21 points on 7-of-14 shooting. He made 3 of 8 3-pointers.

Stat of the game: Dayton shot 43% (10 of 23) from 3-point range. Loyola shot 24% (4 of 17).

Big run: Dayton opened the second half with a 10-2 run to take a 41-32 lead.

Looking ahead: Dayton plays two games in Philadelphia next week, facing La Salle (5-13, 1-4) at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday and then Saint Joseph’s (11-7, 3-2) at 6 p.m. Saturday.

HALFTIME RECAP

Dayton ended the first half on an 8-2 run to take a 31-30 lead into halftime.

Here’s a quick recap of the first half:

Key players: Jaiun Simon led Dayton with nine points. He made 7 of 8 free throws.

Joshua Ola-Joseph scored eight points for Loyola on 4-of-7 shooting.

Key stat: Dayton made 12 of 16 free throws. Loyola made 6 of 7.

Cold shooters: Dayton made 2 of 12 3-pointers. Loyola made 3 of 11.

Big run: Loyola led 28-23 with 3 minutes, 43 seconds to play after a 5-0 run.

Simon scored four straight points at the free-throw line. Then Javon Bennett converted a 3-point play to give Dayton a 29-28 lead. Jacob Conner made 1 of 2 free throws with 38 seconds remaining to complete an 8-0 run.

A turnover by Conner on an errant alley-oop pass with five seconds to play led to Loyola scoring the final two points of the half at the free-throw line.

Injury news: Amaël L’Etang returned to action after missing four games with an injury. He played six minutes in the half and missed his only field-goal attempt.

Malcolm Thomas missed his fourth straight game for Dayton, and Jordan Derkack missed his second straight game.

Loyola Chicago played without six players who were listed as “Out” on the Atlantic 10 Conference’s availability report.