The Dayton men’s basketball team showed why it has the second-best record in the Atlantic 10 Conference during the second half of Wedneday night’s game at the Mullins Center. 

Host UMass trailed the Flyers 37-27 at the half but Dayton took over the game in the final 20 minutes of action, with Kobe Elvis’ 3-pointer with 4 minutes, 44 seconds to play putting the Flyers ahead 70-47. The Minutemen ultimately fell, 72-54.

Dayton (19-9, 11-4 A-10) scored the game’s first nine points, exploding for the 9-0 advantage over the opening 2 minutes, 46 seconds.

The Minutemen (14-14, 5-11) hung around in the first half, eventually cutting the deficit to 25-22 when Isaac Kante converted an and-one for a three-point play with 4:23 remaining.

Mustapha Amzil hit a 3 for the Flyers to aid a late-half run however, as the visitors closed the stanza on a 12-5 spree to take a 37-27 halftime advantage.

Like it did in the first half, Dayton started the second half on fire. DaRon Holmes, Toumani Camara, Koby Brea and Elvis each scored baskets to help the Flyers dart out to a 50-33 lead with 14:58 to play. 

Wildens Leveque, Keon Thompson (2) and RJ Luis responded with baskets for UMass to cut the lead to 53-41 but it was all Dayton from there, as it went on a 17-6 run to build its 23 point lead with just under five minutes to go. 

The Minutemen finished the game 18-for-52 from the field while the Flyers held a 36-26 scoring advantage in the paint. 

Holmes led the way with 22 points for Dayton, with Camara (11), Brea (11) and Elvis (10) joining him in double-figures.

Luis led the Minutemen with 21 points and nine rebounds, Thompson recorded 10 points and five assists while Leveque finished with nine points in the loss. 

UMass is off for a week before traveling to play at Duquesne on March 1.

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