DAYTON – The University of Dayton men's basketball team improved to 14-4 on the year and 5-1 in A-10 play after defeating the Richmond Spiders Thursday night at UD Arena by a score of 75-59. The win marked the 1,600^th all-time program victory for Dayton and lifted the Flyers into a tie with Richmond and La Salle for first place in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Richmond dropped to 11-7 on the year and 5-1 within the A-10. Dayton has now won eight straight games at UD Arena and 12 of its last 14 contests overall.

Richmond came into the game leading the A-10 in field goal percentage, shooting almost 52 percent on the year. Dayton's defense held them to just 10 percent from behind the arc (2-20) and only 42 percent from the field (23-55) while also forcing 14 turnovers. Six of those turnovers came within the last six minutes of the game.  The 59 points were a season low for the Spiders.

Senior Charles Cooke led Dayton with 17 points on 5-10 shooting while senior Scoochie Smith dropped in 15. Junior Darrell Davis also scored 11, while sophomores Ryan Mikesell and Xeyrius Williams each scored 11 points and pulled down seven and six rebounds respectively. Richmond's T.J. Cline led all scorers with 21 points.
1H

• Dayton started the game 0-5 from three point land but finally, at the 11:42 mark, Charles Cooke knocked one down and the floodgates opened. 
• Shortly after Cooke's basket, Xeyrius Williams hit the next trey for Dayton giving them their first lead of the game at 19-18. UD wouldn't trail for the remainder of the game.
• Darrell Davis knocked down triples on the next two Flyer's possessions and then after a Ryan Mikesell basket, Scoochie Smith got in on the action from long range.
• Dayton led 40-29 at the half after a shooting barrage where the Flyers connected on seven-of-nine shots from behind the arc after their 0-for-5 start. They shot 57 percent from the field and 50 percent from three in the period.
• Meanwhile, Richmond was 1-12 from three and was led by T.J Cline who led all scorers with 11 points.

2H

• To start the half Dayton stretched it's lead to 14 at 45-31.
• From there though, Richmond made things interesting, going on a 16-2 run over the next 7:30. At the under 12 media timeout the score was tied at 47.
• Dayton turned up their conference-leading defense and controlled the rest of the half, ending the game on a 28-12 scoring run while forcing six Richmond turnovers.
• After their red-hot shooting from long range in the first half, the Flyers caught a case of the chills, shooting only 14.3 percent from three in the second period—connecting on one of seven attempts.
• Dayton got hot at the line, though, making 13 of its last 14 free throws to win the game 75-69.

Key Numbers
1600 – The number of wins the University of Dayton men's basketball program has earned in 111 seasons of men's basketball.
5 – Flyers who scored in double figures. (Cooke, Smith, D. Davis, Mikesell, Williams)
13 – Games Dayton has won this year when shooting better than 40 percent from the floor. The Flyers shot 48.9 percent in the contest (23-47).
9 – Number of steals the Flyers recorded on defense.
1 – Number points Richmond's second-leading scorer ShawnDre' Jones scored in the game. Jones was averaging almost 17 points per game.
200 -- This was Dayton's 200th win in the Atlantic 10 Conference.  The Flyers joined the A-10 in 1996.
17 -- UD has outscored its opponent in the second half 17 times this year.

Up Next
Dayton will return to action this Sunday, January 22 when the Flyers host the Saint Louis Billikens at UD Arena. Tip-off is slated for 2:00 p.m. ET.