Cheeks, Smith lead Dayton past Duquesne 77-76

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — Enoch Cheeks led Dayton with 19 points and Malachi Smith sealed the victory with a free throw with six seconds left as the Flyers knocked off Duquesne 77-76 on Saturday.

Cheeks had five rebounds and three steals for the Flyers (18-8, 8-5 Atlantic 10 Conference). Zed Key scored 18 points while going 6 of 7 and 6 of 6 from the free-throw line and added six rebounds. Smith had 12 points and shot 4 of 6 from the field and 3 of 4 from the free-throw line.

Tre Dinkins finished with 21 points and two steals for the Dukes (10-15, 5-7). Matus Hronsky added 16 points for Duquesne. Jahsean Corbett also recorded 11 points and two steals.

Key made two free throws to five Dayton a five-point lead with 20 seconds remaining but Tre Dinkins hit a 3-pointer seven before Cam Crawford stole the ball from Smith and made a layup to make it 76-all with seven seconds remaining. Smith was fouled by Crawford and made the second of two free throws to cap the scoring.

Dinkins missed a potential winning 3-point shot at the buzzer.

Cheeks scored 12 points in the first half and Dayton went into halftime trailing 44-40. Key scored 12 points in the second half. Dayton outscored Duquesne by five points over the final half.

NEXT UP

Dayton next plays Friday against Loyola Chicago on the road, and Duquesne will host Fordham on Wednesday.

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