WASHINGTON (AP) — DaRon Holmes II posted a season-high 28 points as Dayton narrowly outgunned Massachusettts 75-72 in the Quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Championship on Friday night at Capital One Arena.
With the victory, UD progresses into the A-10 Semifinals for the first time since the 2016 Championship, matching wits with the winner between cross-city rivals No. 3 VCU and sixth-seeded Richmond on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
Holmes hit a go-ahead jumper with 51 seconds remaining and the Flyers iced the game by drilling 7-of-9 free throws down the stretch. Overall, the A-10 Rookie of the Year shot an impressive 12-of-15 from the field, adding three blocks and five boards.
"We feel like [DaRon] is a heck of a player, regardless of the points," Dayton head coach Antony Grant said. "The opportunities were there tonight with the way we felt like we had an advantage. And [DaRon] was able to take advantage of the situation as it presented itself. And the guys did a really good job of putting him in position to do that.
"I think the thing for us is we have a team that has a lot of guys. And it's probably we say this just about every other game, that a different guy is capable for us every single night to lead us in scoring. And tonight, [DaRon] was able to do that at a high level."
Notably, Malachi Smith contributed a key 15 points with six assists for Dayton (23-9), including 5-of-6 at the charity stripe over the course of the final 1:26. Toumani Camara tacked on 12 points and seven rebounds while R.J. Blakney put in 10 points.
A back-and-forth contest throughout, No. 10 overall Massachusetts led by a pair at the half and as many as five points during the final 20 minutes.
Noah Fernandes composed yet-another elite outing as the Minutemen headliner, collecting 26 points UMass (15-17) behind a 10-of-20 (.500) overall shooting clip. Javohn Garcia tossed in 13 points and T.J. Weeks Jr. recorded 10 points with six rebounds.
"Like I said yesterday, we really didn't come here to waste any of our time," Fernandes said. "We were going to leave it all on the court and go and try to win this championship. That was our approach. And I think we did that, but the result doesn't always fall in your hands when you do that. But I'm proud of these guys and the coaches for not giving up at all."