Duquesne goes cold down stretch, loses to No. 16 Dayton

DAYTON, Ohio — DaRon Holmes II had 24 points and 11 rebounds as No. 16 Dayton bounced back from an ugly loss and ran away from Duquesne, 75-59, on Tuesday night.

Down by four with 6 minutes, 17 seconds left in the game, the Flyers went on a furious 22-2 run that included 10 free throws and played terrific defense to bury the Dukes.

“I felt like maybe (we) got a little tired,” Dukes coach Keith Dambrot said. “It wasn’t anything complicated.”

Jimmy Clark III had 14 points, and Jake DiMichele added 12 for Duquesne (14-10, 4-7), which entered the game having won five of the last six.

Dayton struggled with rhythm early in the game and looked as if some of the issues that led to Friday’s lackluster 49-47 loss to VCU might be lingering.

“It was back and forth,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “You know for most of the (second) half we never really got separation. The last eight minutes or so of the game, it came down to really our guys’ grit and toughness and determination. They showed great poise.”

Nate Santos had 15 points and eight rebounds for Dayton (20-4, 10-2 Atlantic 10).

Holmes, averaging 19.4 points, came back from a 12-point performance at VCU in which he missed a last-second shot that could have tied the score. Tuesday was his seventh double-double of the season.

“They make plays. They’ve got the best player in the league — he made plays,” Dambrot said. “We didn’t do a very good job of getting to the free-throw line. They did.”

Dayton started slow again, hitting just 1 of 8 shots in the first 15 minutes of the game. Duquesne worked up an 11-point lead with just under 10 minutes left, but a 9-2 run got the Flyers back in the game.

Dayton got its first lead of the game with 2:54 left in the first half and led 36-33 at the intermission.

“That was on us,” Holmes said. “We just have to a better job executing and figuring out what’s working. So we figured it out in the second half. They played pretty good defense, but we could do better coming out of the gate.”