St. Joseph’s finds three scorers finish with 20 points in win over Dayton

Leading by eight points in the second half, St. Joseph’s guard Jaiden Glover-Toscano got the crowd on their feet with a slam dunk against Dayton on Saturday.

St. Joseph’s (12-8, 4-3 Atlantic 10) held onto to that lead, as the Hawks secured a 81-74 victory at Hagan Arena. Glover-Toscano, Derek Simpson, and Dasear Haskins each finished with 20 points. Simpson added nine assists, while guard De’Shayne Montgomery scored a team-high 19 points for Dayton (14-6, 5-2).

“That was a fun atmosphere. That’s what college basketball should be,” said Hawks coach Steve Donahue. “Students going crazy, our guys being motivated, inspired by the fans. ... The guys I thought played 40 minutes of really good basketball.”

After falling to La Salle on Wednesday, Dayton hoped to rebound and opened the game against the Hawks with an 8-0 run.

Despite St. Joe’s repeatedly mounting a comeback, Dayton did enough to keep themselves in the game.

That is until Haskins gave the Hawks the boost they needed.

Haskins, who was scoreless in the first 14 minutes, drilled a three-pointer, which cut the deficit to two. He then grabbed a rebound and ran the length of the court before getting a layup, which got Hagan Arena jumping.

Prior to halftime, he knocked down two additional three-pointers, one coming in the final seconds, which gave St. Joe’s a 38-36 lead.

“It was a real big three,” Haskins said. “We were working hard that whole play, offensive rebounds and kicking out. We emphasize something called ‘boulder’ [in] every practice. So I know when [Simpson] got the ball. I know he was looking for me.”

Dayton was shut down in the second half.

Montgomery was held to three points. On top of that, the Hawks forced 15 turnovers, and only coughed the ball up 12 times against the conference’s top team in takeaways.

Dayton’s stagnant offense allowed the hosts to add to their lead, which was led by Glover-Toscano, who scored 15 points after the break.

The Flyers eventually climbed out of a double-digit deficit, as the Hawks didn’t score a field goal in the final four minutes, but it wasn’t enough, as Dayton fell to a second city team and A-10 foe.

The Hawks will travel to Loyola Chicago (5-15, 1-6) at Gentile Arena on Tuesday(9 p.m.).