ORLANDO -- The University of Dayton men's basketball team will take on third-ranked Kansas Friday in the semifinals of the ESPN Events Invitational in Orlando. The Flyers advanced in the bracket with a 76-60 win over the Miami Hurricanes in the very first game of the tournament on Thursday. Dayton-Kansas tips off at 1 p.m. ET, and will be seen on ESPN.
In the Miami win, true freshman
DaRon Holmes II led UD with 15 points (5-6 FG), while is classmate
Malachi Smith had 14 points (6-7 FG), seven assists (with no turnovers), six rebounds and two steals.
Elijah Weaver added 14 points (all in the second half) and
Mustapha Amzil added 11 points, six rebounds and a team-best +22 off the bench.
The ESPN Events Invitational is the 14th consecutive exempt tournament in a full season schedule for UD. Dayton won this tournament (when it was known as the Old Spice Classic) in 2011.
The game will carried by WHIO Radio, televised on ESPN and streamed on ESPN+. Streaming audio, video and stats will be available at DaytonFlyers.com.
#TRENDING
• For the first time in UD Arena history, all season and single game tickets have been sold before the season even began. That announcement was made on Nov. 4. All 17 regular season home games are sold out, extending an ongoing sellout streak for the Flyers to 28.
• Two Flyers were named Preseason All-Atlantic 10. Forwards
Toumani Camara and
Mustapha Amzil were both named to the third team.
• Camara, a transfer from Georgia, is the first immediately-eligible transfer to earn preseason accolades in Atlantic 10 Conference history. He saw action in 57 games in two seasons at Georgia, and started his last 48 games as a Bulldog. Last year, Camara averaged 12.8 points and 7.7 rebounds per game in 28.4 minutes of action. Camara had 14 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals in last week's loss to Austin Peay.
• Amzil joined the team mid-year and exactly 50 days after he signed, he earned the first of his three Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week awards. In 19 games (15 starts), Amzil was third for UD in scoring (9.9 points a game), rebounds (5.6), FG% (.496, 68-137) and 3-pt. FG% (.382, 26-68).
• Dayton came to the tournament shooting just .228 (18-79) from three-point, but took a bite out of that by making 11 of 19 treys (.579) against Miami.
• The Covid year has complicated "the clock" for college student-athletes. With that in mind, the Flyers' 12 players who are listed as freshmen or redshirt freshmen are the second -most in NCAA Division I men's basketball. Only Arizona (13) has more. Next is Air Force (11) with Marquette and Vanderbilt (10 each) right behind.
• Dayton's incoming freshman class is ranked 21st-best in the nation.
DaRon Holmes II, a consensus Top 50 recruit, is the highest-rated prospect to ever come to UD.
UP NEXT
• The ESPN Events Invitational will conclude on Sunday with a game with Belmont, or Iona.
