Saint Louis fell 70-65 at No. 21 Dayton on Tuesday night in Atlantic 10 Conference men’s basketball action at UD Arena.
SLU fell to 8-9 overall and 1-3 in league play. Dayton (14-2) won its 11th in a row and kept pace with Richmond for first place in the A-10 with a 4-0 A-10 mark. The Flyers also extended their winning streak to 10 against the Bills at UD Arena.
Gibson Jimerson (team-high 13 points), Terrence Hargrove Jr. (12) and Bradley Ezewiro (10) all scored in double figures for the Billikens. Ezewiro added a team-high seven rebounds.
Michael Meadows Jr. posted a season-high eight assists to just one turnover. Sincere Parker played his most substantial minutes since breaking his foot on Nov. 16, scoring nine points and grabbing five rebounds.
The back-and-forth battle featured six lead changes and two ties. Saint Louis utilized a 14-0 run in the first half and built a six-point lead at one point in the opening half of play. The Billikens led by two, 30-28, at halftime.
Behind All-American candidate DaRon Holmes II, Dayton rallied in the second half to grab the lead several minutes in, and it didn’t trail again. Holmes finished with a game-high 29 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and blocked four shots.
The resilient Billikens came back from several deficits and was in it until the final minutes of play. Dayton tried stretching a double-digit lead, but SLU would always have an answer. The Flyers were up by 10 with less than four minutes to go, but SLU cut it to five late with a Jimerson trey. Kobe Brea’s 3-pointer in the final minute put Dayton up by eight, and the Flyers hung on for the victory.
The Billikens are back in action Friday night when they travel to Richmond, Va., to take on VCU. Game time on ESPN2 is 6 p.m. (CT).
