Koby Brea dazzled his home folks with four straight threes.
UD’s Flyers pushed their Atlantic 10 conference record to 4-0, best in the league, and to 12-5 overall with their seventh straight double-digit victory, an 82-56 destruction of Fordham in Rose Hill gym as Daron Holmes II tied his career-high with 32 points.
Bronx, N.Y. — They tossed the basketball in the air to start the game and 11 minutes later Fordham felt as if it had been hit by a Mack truck, a Greyhound bus and a Sherman tank.
Hall of fame writer Hal McCoy covers the UD Flyers for Press Pros Magazine.com
The University of Dayton used historic, ancient and decrepit Rose Hill gym as a trampoline and bounced out to a 22-4 lead Tuesday night in an Atlantic 10 game.
And the Flyers lead never shrank below double digits as they bolted to an 82-58 victory. It was their seventh straight win and pushed their league-leading A10 record to 4-0 and their overall work sheet to 12-and-5.
For the seventh straight game and for the 12th time this season, the Flyers defense was stifling and gagging in holding an opponent under 60 points. And all seven victories have been by double digits.
Fordham tried to single cover DaRon Holmes II with one man, Abdou Tsimbila. Major mistake. Holmes took him apart and tied his career-high with 32 points on 12 of 15 shots that included, of course, a couple of rim-rattling, backboard-shaking tomahawk dunks.
Those dunks brought smiles from Dr. Dunk himself, former Flyer and current New York Knick Obi Toppin, who was seated in the stands.
As do most teams, Fordham tried to muscle up on Holmes with excessive physicality. No problem. He calmly turns his back to the basket and backs down his defender until he is close enough to the basket to drop it in.
Holmes is so calm, quiet an unassuming, he can’t even kill time. Just the opposition.
Daron Holmes II tied his career-high with 32 points and two monster dunks.
Toumani Camara played only four minutes in the first half due to early foul trouble and didn’t score as the Flyers built a 33-18 lead.
Then he stormed the court for the second half. He scored seven of the first nine points and finished with 15.
“I was comfortable enough with our lead in the first half that I could keep him out so he didn’t pick up a third foul,” said UD coach Anthony Grant on his post-game radio show with Larry Hansgen. “Then he dominated the second half. He makes our team dominant when he is on the floor.”
And then there was Kobe Brea, a Bronx native playing within five minutes of his high school. He took four three-point shots and made them all. A large Brea cheering section erupted in high decibels as each shot found the nets.
Fordham’s Will Richardson came off the bench in the second half and scored 13 quick points, including a trio of threes.
Suddenly, the Rams were within 13 at 58-45 with 8 1/2 minutes left. Brea buried a three and his supporters rattled the rafters.
Two threes by Richardson closed Fordham to within 12, 63-51, but it was false hope for the Rams. The Flyers went on a 12-0 breakaway, five by Holmes and five by Mustapha Amzil that stashed it away with a 75-51 lead.
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“That was great to see from Brea with all his family, friends and fans here, probably in the hundreds, making all that noise,” said Grant.
The Flyers raced to that 22-4 lead because Fordham committed 11 turnovers in that span. They were down 12-0 in the first seven minutes because they turned it over seven times and missed the only three shots they attempted.
UD’s face-to-face defense clearly had the Rams (13-4, 1-3) bewitched, bothered, bewildered and befuddled.
“Our defense in the first half was a big difference,” said Grant.
The Flyers raced to that 22-4 lead because Fordham committed 11 turnovers in that span. They were down 12-0 in the first seven minutes because they turned it over seven times and missed the only three shots they attempted.
Toumani Camara scored all 15 of his points in the second half.
UD’s face-to-face defense clearly had the Rams (13-4, 1-3) bewitched, bothered, bewildered and befuddled.
“Our defense in the first half was a big difference,” said Grant.
The defense of R.J. Blakney was, as always, as slick as an 800 thread count sheet. Talk about shutdown. Fordham’s Darius Quisenberry, a Wayne High School product, leads the Rams with a 17.8 average.
Blakney held him to 14.8 below his average — three points on a late-game three when the Flyers already had a triple knot tied around the victory. Quisenberry got off only one shot in the first half and was 1 for 7 for the game. On this night, he was as functional as a hood ornament.
“While the scores makes it sound easy, there is no such thing as easy,,” said Grant. “Our guys battled and their guys battled. That No. 1 (Richardson) put them on a run in the second half, but we were able to weather than and put together our own run.
“We made some big plays when we needed them and our front court (Holmes, Camara) dominated,” he added. “Our guys understood where we had the advantage.”
With Holmes and Camara nose-to-nose with the rims, the Flyers made 29 of 45 shots (64.4%) and, thanks to Brea’s 4 for 4, they were 6 of 14 on threes (42.9%).
Fordham? Not so hot. Very cold. The Rams were 22 of 63 from the field (34.9) and 9 for 30 from three (30%).
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