Dayton (11-5 SU, 8-8 ATS, 3-0 A10) meets surprising Fordham (13-3 SU, 9-7 ATS, 1-2 A10) on Tuesday night from Rose Hill Gymnasium in New York City at 7pmET.
These teams met once last season with the Flyers beating the Rams 68-61 at home as a 15-point favorite.
Dayton has won six straight games after getting crushed at Virginia Tech 77-49 on Dec. 7. On Jan. 4, they were victorious over St. Joseph's 76-56 as a 13.5-point home favorite. Daron Holmes led the Flyers with 20 points and 12 rebounds, while R.J. Blakney added 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting. Dayton didn't dominate early, but they pulled away late in the second half thanks to a strong shooting performance (57%, 10-20 3pt). They also held the Hawks to just 31% shooting and 5-of-24 (21%) from long range.
What. A. Play ????#GoFlyers // @DaytonMBB pic.twitter.com/dQPgTF1GPN
— Dayton Basketball (@DaytonMBB) January 6, 2023
Holmes (6-10, 220) is a budding star for a Dayton team ranked 64th in the latest Net Rankings. He's averaging 19 points, 8.4 rebounds and 2.0 blocks on 60.1% shooting and 42.9% from long range. Junior forward Toumani Camara (6-8, 220) adds 11.4 points and 9.3 rebounds on 50.3% shooting so they have a lot of size for a so-called mid-major. On the season, the Flyers are averaging 67.7 points on 45.9% shooting from the field. If they have a weakness, it's at the three-point line (31.7%) and foul line (68.9%). They dominated the boards (+8.9) and have one fo the premier defenses in the nation, allowing just 58.4 points per game (10th) on 37.2% (7th) shooting and 26.5% (4ht) three-point defense.