Dayton plays Saint Louis ‘tough from beginning to end’ in 14-point victory

Fans in the Red Scare student section at UD Arena brought the silver trophy to UD Arena on Friday when the Dayton Flyers played Saint Louis. Eight years ago, the Red Scare and the Saint Louis student group, the SLUnatics created the trophy, which has rarely seen the light of day since even as the Arch Baron Cup itself took off in the minds of fans eager to create some sort of rivalry in the Atlantic 10 Conference.

The Cup may never become an official trophy as the Blackburn-McCafferty Trophy was when Dayton and Xavier played. Any official recognition would take away the fun anyway.

Three days before Dayton and Saint Louis played, UD guard Koby Brea said he had never heard of it. After Dayton’s 70-56 victory against Saint Louis on Friday, Brea and forward Toumani Camara said they didn’t see the trophy in the stands. It doesn’t matter. The fans like it. Dayton fans especially embrace it when they win it, as they have often over the years.

Saint Louis has now lost nine straight games at UD Arena. The latest chapter in the Arch Baron Cup included little of the drama of previous matchups — no Jalen Crutcher heroics, no Jordair Jett controversy — just plenty of dominance by the Flyers, who owned a double-digit lead for the final 17 minutes.

“I feel like we gave them the whole 40 minutes tonight,” Dayton guard Koby Brea said, “and played tough from the beginning to the end.”

In a four-day stretch, Dayton (17-9, 9-4) turned around a season on the brink of disaster with victories against the two teams at the top of the Atlantic 10 Conference standings. It won 62-58 on the road Tuesday against Virginia Commonwealth (18-7, 9-3), which remains in first place, and then beat Saint Louis (16-9, 8-4), which fell from second to third with this loss.

With five games remaining, Dayton sits alone in second place and gets a week off to prepare for the final weeks of the regular season. The Flyers return to action against last-place Loyola Chicago (8-15, 2-9) at 7 p.m. Friday at Gentile Arena in Chicago.

“It’s a good time for us,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “We’re going to try to give the guys a little mental and physical break here before we hit the homestretch.”

Dayton will try to get healthy in the week ahead. R.J. Blakney did not play Friday after suffering an injury Tuesday. He has missed three of the last six games. Grant said he’s hopeful the time off will allow him to heal.

Malachi Smith did return to the starting lineup after missing the VCU game with an ankle injury and scored all 14 points in the first half. He did not play in the last 11 minutes, however, and had a slight limp as he left the court after the game.

Brea scored the first five points and Smith the last four in a 9-0 run that helped Dayton escape an early 18-13 hole.

“Malachi’s a gamer,” Grant said. “He’s tough. He got us off to a great start, not only offensively but defensively”

Smith made 2 of 4 3-pointers. Brea made 3 of 6 and scored 13 points. Toumani Camara, who led Dayton with 17 points, made 2 of 2.

Dayton made 9 of 22 (40.9%) 3-pointers, while Saint Louis made 5 of 15 (33.3%). The Billikens missed all six of their shots from long range in the second half. Dayton had similar success guarding the 3-point shot in the second half Tuesday when VCU missed all nine of its attempts.

Gibson Jimerson, the most accurate 3-point shooter on the Saint Louis roster, hit 3s on the team’s first two possessions but missed his last four attempts. He scored 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting. Grant credited Kobe Elvis and Mike Sharavjamts for limiting Jimerson’s chances.

“He’s really good player,” Grant said. “They run a lot of really good action, and he does a great job of using screens. He’s got one of the quickest releases in college basketball. He doesn’t need a whole lot of time to get it off. I thought he got a couple looks that didn’t go in that he’s more than capable of making.”

Saint Louis took its last lead of the game, 28-27, on a 3-pointer by Javonte Perkins with 5:11 left in the first half. In the next 11-plus minutes, Dayton outscored Saint Louis 23-8 to build a 50-36 lead. Saint Louis made 1 of 10 shots in the first nine-plus minutes of the second half.

In the final 10 minutes, Saint Louis got no closer than 14 points, and Dayton led by as many as 19.

“I’m really proud of the effort the guys put in today,” Grant said. “We knew this was going to be a hard-fought game. We have a lot of respect for St. Louis and the team they have. Our guys understood that these opportunities at home are rare. We wanted to make sure we took advantage of it. I thought we did a great job. Our coaching staff put together a great scouting report. The guys did a great job of following that. I thought we set the tone in both halves.”

FRIDAY’S GAME

Dayton at Loyola Chicago, 7 p.m., ESPN2, 1290, 95.7