No. 21 Dayton rebounds from last weekend's loss with 83-61 rout of George Washington

Updated Jan. 31, 2024 12:17 a.m. ET

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DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — DaRon Holmes II had 25 points and 12 rebounds as No. 21 Dayton bounced back from its first loss in over two months to rout George Washington 83-61 on Tuesday night.

Nate Santos and Koby Brea each added 17 for the Flyers (16-3, 6-1 Atlantic 10), whose five-point loss to Richmond last Saturday ended a 13-game win streak and dropped them five spots in the AP Top 25.

Holmes, the Flyers’ leading scorer, staged a comeback of his own after one of his worst games of the season in which he scored just nine points on 2 of 12 shooting from the floor.

“We just tried to put it beside us and understand that we're not perfect. We're human. So there might be games like that,” said Holmes, who is averaging 19.1 points per game. “I thought tonight we did a pretty good job with everything.”

Darren Buchanan Jr. paced GW with 13 points and eight rebounds, and James Bishop IV had 10 for GW (14-7, 3-5), which lost its fourth straight.

Early shooting issues again plagued Dayton, which shot just 33.9% in the loss to Richmond. On Tuesday, the Flyers missed their first five shots before Brea and Enoch Cheeks hit back-to-back 3-pointers.

George Washington's start was even worse. The Revolutionaries sank only one of their first 10 shots and were 1 for 11 from 3-point range when Dayton went up by 10 with 7:42 left in the half. The Flyers led 38-24 at the intermission.

Dayton was ahead by as many as 26 in the second half.

“We played them last year at our place, beat them, and I think (this season) they've really put a lot of team speed around DaRon," George Washington coach Chris Caputo said. "That also includes shooting,”

BIG PICTURE

George Washington: Shooting just 29% in the first half put the Revolutionaries in a hole. They kept firing away from 3-point range — and kept missing — hitting just 5 of 29 attempts for the game. The Revs shot 32%.

“We've got a little bit of a bump in the road here,” Caputo said. "Obviously, this wasn't going to be a ‘get-well’ game. But I hoped it would be a ‘get-better’ game."

Dayton: The Flyers got back on the winning track by finally overpowering GW. They play four straight games against opponents with winning records, although just one (VCU) is above .500 in the A-10.

“I thought our defense kind of set the tone for us tonight,” Flyers coach Anthony Grant said. “Guys did a great job of sharing the ball — 18 assists tonight. (They) did a great job of taking care of it.”

UP NEXT

George Washington hosts Rhode Island Feb. 6.

Dayton hosts St. Bonaventure on Friday night.

___

AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball

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