Dayton (22-9, 14-4) earned the No. 2 seed in the A-10 tournament with the victory and Virginia Commonwealth’s loss Saturday at Saint Louis. Dayton will play in the quarterfinals at 6 p.m. Friday against No. 7 George Washington or No. 10 Massachusetts.
To beat Davidson, the Flyers made 10 of 19 3-pointers and shot 54.9% from the field. Holmes scored 20 points. Koby Brea had 18 points, including a go-ahead 3-pointer with 43 seconds to play.
Kobe Elvis and R.J. Blakney made 4 of 4 free throws in the final 14 seconds to clinch the victory. There were 12 ties in the game and 11 lead changes.
Davidson (25-5, 15-3), which clinched a share of the A-10 title on Wednesday, lost despite shooting 47.8% from 3-point range. Foster Loyer scored 25 points. He made 3 of 3 free throws with 1:05 left to give Davidson a 76-75 lead, but Brea followed with a 3-pointer.
HALFTIME RECAP
Loyer made three free throws with eight seconds left in the first half to give Davidson a 35-34 halftime lead.
Loyer drew a foul from Malachi Smith on a 3-point attempt after Dayton had taken the lead on a dunk by DaRon Holmes II.
Both teams made 12 field goals and four 3-pointers. Davidson made one more free throw than Dayton.
Holmes led Dayton with 10 points. Loyer, who had missed the last four games with an injury, scored 11 in the half.
Davidson led by as many as five points twice. Dayton’s biggest lead was three points.
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