Dayton jumps out early, cruises past Saint Louis 85-63

Feb 15, 2017, 02:50 pm

ST. LOUIS -- Charles Cooke scored 18 points and Dayton cruised to an 85-63 victory over Saint Louis on Tuesday night for its fifth straight win.

The Flyers (20-5, 11-2 Atlantic 10) have won eight of their last nine games, and remain tied with VCU atop the conference standings. Saint Louis (9-17, 4-9) has lost two of its last three.

Cooke was 7 of 9 from the floor and made four 3-pointers. Josh Cunningham had 12 points and Scoochie Smith added 10 points and five assists for Dayton, which shot 57 percent from the field (28 of 49) and 50 percent from long range.

Davell Roby scored 18 points to lead Saint Louis.

Dayton opened on an 18-4 run and led 41-17 at halftime. The Flyers shot 61 percent (14 of 23) in the first half while the Billikens shot just 7 of 28 from the field (25 percent) and committed eight turnovers. Dayton stretched its lead to 36 points with 11:47 remaining.