Men’s basketball defeats Saint Louis 68-63 Tuesday night

The Flyers stand No. 6 in the Atlantic-10 Conference. Photo courtesy of Keegan Gupta, Flyer News

Taylor Robertson | Sports Editor

The Flyer’s men’s basketball team defeated the Saint Louis Billikens 68-63 Tuesday night at UD Arena.

In the first half the Flyers outscored Saint Louis to take a 36-26 lead at halftime.

Freshman Malachi Smith and Kobe Elvis led the team in scoring with 14 points each. Smith continues to control the court and has become a valuable leader on the team.

Head coach Anthony Grant stated that Smith is understanding more every game what it is going to take for him to get to where he wants to be.

Dayton extended its winning streak to five games and avoided its first back-to-back home losses in Atlantic-10 conference play since 2016.

The Flyer’s sunk seven out of the 16 3-pointers that were shot and decreased the number of turnovers to 12 compared to their previous games with at least 15 turnovers.

In the post-game interviews, Coach Grant expressed that him and Saint Louis head coach Travis Ford have a mutual respect and classifies their two teams as rivals.

“Travis has got a really good team,” Grant told Flyer News Tuesday. “They play hard, and they play together. In terms of a competitive standpoint, it was a hard-fought game.”

Dayton is headed to Pittsburgh Saturday to face Duquesne at 12:30 p.m.

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