Dayton Grinds Out 71-63 Win at Saint Louis

After a moribund performance at S. Bonaventure three days ago, the UD men's basketball team had every reason to play desperate and angry on Friday night at A10 rival Saint Louis.  With NCAA at-large chances teetering on collapse and free-falling in the conference standings, the Flyers responded with a gutsy 71-63 win before a crowd of 9,819 at Chaifetz Arena.  Dayton improves to 15-7 (5-4) while SLU falls to 13-9- (6-3).
UD won both meetings with SLU last season, a 70-65 home victory followed by a 100-83 win on the Billikens' home court.  The Flyers were 8-2 against SLU in the last 10 games and 17-5 dating back to 2014 -- the last time Saint Louis won consecutive games in the series. Dayton came into tonight's contest with a 42-30 overall lead in the rivalry.
The teams traded three-pointers to open the game in an otherwise sloppy first four minutes. Robbie Avila picked up his second foul just six minutes in as Zed Key drew contact and made 1-2 FTs to trim the deficit to 8-6.  Javon Bennett nailed a triple and Enoch Cheeks made a pair of baskets to give UD a 13-8 lead with 11:58 remaining in the first half.  The Bills answered with a triple, but Bennett and Nate Santos went back-to-back from the half-moon to put the Flyers up 21-15. Cheeks hit another trey after the media timeout and finished a clean steal for an uncontested layup to give UD a 26-15 cushion.  Santos and Bennett kept the bomb squad on target with more triples to open up a 32-17 lead, but a 6-0 Sloo run cut the ...