UMass Falls To Dayton At Home, 72-54

AMHERST, Mass. – The University of Massachusetts men's basketball team fell to Dayton on Wednesday evening in the Mullins Center, 72-54. Freshman RJ Luis scored a team-leading 21 points for the Minutemen (14-14 Overall. 5-11 Atlantic 10) to go along with a team and career-high nine rebounds.

The 21-point performance for Luis marked the 11^th time in the last 12 games that the guard has eclipsed 10 or more points while he's averaging 13.9 points during the span. Luis has reached the 20-plus mark in three games this season and in three of the last seven contests.

Dayton (19-9 Overall, 11-4 Atlantic 10) opened the game on a 9-0 scoring run before Luis put home his first basket of the game just over three minutes into play. UMass went on to hold Dayton to one make in its next seven field goal attempts from the field as UMass pulled within five points at 13-8 with 13:39 to go.

The Minutemen held the Flyers without a field goal for a three-minute span near the end of the first half and trimmed the deficit to two at 25-23 on a pair of Isaac Kante free throws with 4:23 left in the half. Dayton answered with a stretch of five made field goals in their next six attempts to take its first double digit lead of the evening. The Flyers used a 12-2 run over 3:47 and shot 52-percent in the first half to help them take a 37-27 advantage into the halftime break.

Dayton's run expanded into the second half as it outscored UMass 20-6 to build its then largest lead of the night at 45-29. The Minutemen converted on four consecutive field goal attempts to trim the Dayton lead to 12 at 53-41 with 12:28 left. UMass' Keon Thompson scored back-to-back buckets during the run and finished the night with 10 points on 5-of-10 from the field with a team-high five assists.

The Flyers shot an even 50-percent from the field in the second half and finished at 51-percent from the field while UMass shot 35-percent from the field on the night. DaRon Holmes II led the game with 22 points on 9-of-14 shooting as part of four Flyers to finish in double figures.

Wildens Leveque added nine points and seven rebounds for a UMass squad that finished even with Dayton on the boards with 32 rebounds apiece. Tafara Gapare added six rebounds off the bench for the Minutemen.

The Minutemen play their final road game of the season on Wednesday, March 1 with a 7 p.m. tip-off at Duquesne before returning home on Saturday, March 4 for the regular season finale against St. Bonaventure at 2:30 p.m.

For complete coverage of the UMass men's basketball team, follow the Minutemen on Twitter at @UMassMBB, on Instagram and Facebook at @UMassBasketball and online at www.UMassAthletics.com.

Scoreboard

Next Event

Team Stats

RJ Luis

Keon Thompson

Wildens Leveque

T.J. Weeks Jr.

Players Mentioned

Tafara Gapare

Isaac Kante

Wildens Leveque

RJ Luis

Keon Thompson

Scoreboard

University of Massachusets Athletics