Santos leads No. 18 Dayton against VCU after 21-point outing

Dayton Flyers (19-3, 9-1 A-10) at VCU Rams (15-8, 7-3 A-10)

Richmond, Virginia; Friday, 7 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: No. 18 Dayton faces the VCU Rams after Nate Santos scored 21 points in Dayton’s 94-79 win against the Saint Joseph’s (PA) Hawks.

The Rams are 10-5 in home games. VCU scores 72.4 points and has outscored opponents by 6.5 points per game.

The Flyers have gone 9-1 against A-10 opponents. Dayton is fourth in the A-10 with 15.0 assists per game led by Javon Bennett averaging 3.7.

VCU makes 44.8% of its shots from the field this season, which is 4.2 percentage points higher than Dayton has allowed to its opponents (40.6%). Dayton averages 9.5 made 3-pointers per game this season, 3.7 more made shots on average than the 5.8 per game VCU allows.

The Rams and Flyers match up Friday for the first time in conference play this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Max Shulga is scoring 15.1 points per game with 4.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists for the Rams. Joe Bamisile is averaging 12.1 points and 3.5 rebounds while shooting 42.2% over the past 10 games for VCU.

Koby Brea averages 2.8 made 3-pointers per game for the Flyers, scoring 10.7 points while shooting 48.4% from beyond the arc. Daron Holmes is shooting 55.2% and averaging 22.2 points over the past 10 games for Dayton.

LAST 10 GAMES: Rams: 7-3, averaging 70.7 points, 34.3 rebounds, 13.8 assists, 5.5 steals and 4.0 blocks per game while shooting 43.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 65.3 points per game.

Flyers: 9-1, averaging 75.7 points, 36.7 rebounds, 14.2 assists, 5.5 steals and 3.8 blocks per game while shooting 47.0% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 64.2 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.