CHICAGO – The University of Dayton men's basketball team dropped a tough 77-72 decision at Loyola Chicago Friday night.

DaRon Holmes II led Dayton with 20 points, followed by Enoch Cheeks with a season-high 16 and Nate Santos with 13.

Dayton is now 22-6 overall and in third place in the Atlantic 10 Conference with a 12-4 record.  Loyola is 21-8 and 13-3.

GAME RECAP
1st Half – Dayton 35, Loyola 32
•    Loyola opened the scoring with a three, then UD scored the next seven points 
•    DaRon Holmes II scored eight of the Flyers' first 10 points.
•    The Ramblers battled back to tie the game at 14-14 with 8:57 left in the half.
•    An Enoch Cheeks trey broke the tie, and Dayton did not trail the rest of the half.
•    UD took its biggest lead (35-29) when Nate Santos hit a triple with 11 seconds to go, but three free throws with two seconds on the clock made the scored 35-32 at the break.
2nd Half – Loyola 77, Dayton 72
•    The second half had nine lead changes and six ties.
•    Loyola scored the first five points of second half to reclaim the lead, 37-35, at the 17:40 mark. 
•    Four minutes later, a four-point play by Santos put the Flyers up five, 52-47.
•    A 12-2 Rambler spurt flipped the score to 59-54 with 7:56 left.
•    Loyola extended the lead to seven (63-56) at the 5:48 mark.
•    Dayton tied the game with seven unanswered points, but was unable to get the stop needed to have a chance to grab the lead the rest of the game.
•    The two teams traded buckets to make the score 65-65 with 3:54 to go.
•    Loyola scored the next four points before a Koby Brea three-pointer made it a one-point game (69-68)at the 2:32 mark.
•    The Ramblers were able to scored nine of the games last 12 points to make the final 77-72. 

BY THE NUMBERS
•    15 – This was the 15th 20-point game of the season for DaRon Holmes II
•    16 – Enoch Cheeks upped his season high for the second straight game.  After he had 15 against Davidson on Tuesday, he scored 16 at Loyola
•    9 – Holmes had a game-high nine rebounds.  UD outrebounded Loyola 30-27
•    10 – Holmes drew 10 fouls in the game
•    5 – Kobe Elvis led the Flyers with five assists
•    3 – Javon Bennett had a team-high three steals, all in the first half as he sat out the second half with a hand injury.
•    4 -- Holmes blocked four shots
•    22 – Dayton committed a season-high 22 turnovers, and was outscored 20-7 in points off turnovers

UP NEXT
•    UD is at Saint Louis on Tuesday, March 5.  Game time is 9 p.m. ET.
•    The Flyers close out the regular season at home on Friday, March 8 against VCU.  The VCU game tips at 7 p.m. ET.