Coach Grant earns 300th victory with Flyers win over Southeastern Louisiana

Toumani Camara goes up for a 3-pointer. Photo by Keegan Gupta, director of digital media & photography.

Max Cross | Sports Editor

Following a 67-47 victory on Wednesday, the Dayton Flyers headed into Saturday’s game against the Southeastern Louisiana Lions with some momentum. 

Despite the game being scrappy and surprisingly close throughout much of the game, Dayton was able to outlast the Lions in the end, 80-74. But, once again, it was not an easy victory as many fans expected this season. 

Not only did the Flyers secure the win and improve to 5-4, with all of their five wins coming at home, but some historical markers were cemented into the record books. 

The win was Flyers’ head coach Anthony Grant’s 300th victory as a collegiate coach. Another mile marker that was passed belonged to Toumani Camara, who played in his 100th career game combined between his time at Georgia and Dayton. 

Camara, who led the Flyers in scoring with 20 points, came within one point of his reaching 1,000 total career points. He missed a double-double by one rebound, recording 20 points and nine rebounds. 

Daron Holmes II finished the game with a double-double, scoring 19 points and securing 12 rebounds. 

Mustapha Amzil, who started due to injuries to Kobe Elvis and Malachi Smith, contributed 16 points, while freshman point guard Mike Sharavjamts scored 14 while also recording eight assists. R.J. Blakney added 11 points, which put all five Dayton starters into double figures. 

After getting dismantled in their previous game against Xavier, the Lions not only stayed in the game, they were able to secure the lead, 38-37, heading into halftime. Lions guard Christian Agnew came off the bench and added 18 points shooting 5 of 7 from three point range. 

R.J. Blankey was able to ramp up his defense and was successful in the second half, allowing Agnew to score only two second half points. However, that did not slow down the Lions, as they continued to stay in the game. They were able to tie the game at 51 with eight minutes left. 

Dayton was not going to be denied and exploded for a 12-0 run to take a 63-41 lead with 6:50 to play and it seemed out of reach from there. 

However, the Flyers would only score one more basket in the final five minutes, but the Lions kept sending Dayton to the foul line, where they went 8 of 16 from the charity stripe. Dayton finished 23 of 34 from the free throw line, which made the difference in holding out for the victory in front of another sold out crowd of 13,407 at UD Arena. 

It all added up as Dayton won its 15 straight home game, and Anthony Grant was able to reach another milestone. 

“For me, I’ve had the good fortune of having a lot of good players,” Grant said following the win. ”I have the chance to work with a lot of great people. I didn’t even know about it until today.” 

Dayton looks to achieve its first victory away from UD Arena when it travels to play Virginia Tech. That game is scheduled to tip off Wednesday night at 8pm ET. 

For more sports news, like Flyer News on Facebook and follow us on Twitter (@FlyerNews & @FlyerNewsSports) and Instagram (@flyernews.