Dayton used a strong second half to defeat the Saint Louis Billikens, 70-62, on Saturday in Atlantic 10 Conference men’s basketball action at UD Arena.
The Billikens fall to 17-10 and 8-6 in A-10 play, while Dayton improves to 18-9 and 10-4 in the league.
Tramaine Isabell Jr. led the Billikens with 23 points and seven assists. It was his second-straight game scoring 20 or more points. D.J. Foreman chipped in 15 points.
Dayton shot 66.7 percent in the second half (63.6 percent from 3-point range) after shooting just 33 percent in the opening half. The Billikens, who also shot better than 50 percent in the second half, finished at 46.4 percent shooting from the field for the game.
SLU opened up a 10-point lead at 19-9 with 6:11 left in the opening half, but the Bills would manage just one field goal the rest of the half. A Dayton 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer gave the Flyers a 22-21 lead at the break.
Both teams came out firing in the second half, but it was Dayton who was burying 3-pointers and it built a seven-point advantage a little more than five minutes into the second half. SLU never led again in the game, but was always able to respond to prevent Dayton from building a double-digit lead. A Javon Bess basket with three minutes left pulled the Billikens to within six of the lead, but that is as close as they would get as Dayton posted the home victory.
Saint Louis stays on the road to face VCU on Tuesday night. Game time is 6:30 p.m. (CT), and it will be televised on CBS Sports Network.
