Fouls handcuff Landers, making it tough on Flyers

DAYTON — Trey Landers opened the scoring Saturday for the Dayton Flyers with a highlight-reel dunk. It might have set the tone for a big game, but he picked up his second foul less than six minutes into the first half.

Landers finished with 11 points in Dayton’s 88-74 loss to Rhode Island at UD Arena but was limited to 18 minutes.

“A couple of the fouls were from not boxing out, just small stuff that can be fixed,” Landers said. “It’s very frustrating because I’m the energy guy for the team, and I get the energy going. It’s tough.”

Landers stayed in the game for a while with two fouls and picked up his third late in the first half. He committed his fourth foul at the 16:57 mark of the second half. He played eight minutes in the second half.

“We talk about it a lot,” Landers said. “We only play eight guys. It’s really important for us to be smart and not foul. Once you get to fouling, you get to subbing and everything’s out of whack. It’s tough for our team.”

Third sellout: A crowd of 13,350 attended the game Saturday. It was the third sellout of the season, following the Ball State and Penn games, and the 119th in UD Arena history.

Dayton has averaged 12,932 fans in the first 11 home games. That’s down from 13,018 last season while setting the UD Arena single-season attendance record.

Dayton’s record in front of sellouts is 73-46. It has lost two of three such games this season but has won 16 of its last 20.

Rhode Island also beat Dayton in front of a full house in 2016.

Next game: The Flyers play Davidson (10-6, 5-1) at 7 p.m. Tuesday at UD Arena. The Wildcats beat St. Bonaventure 83-73 on Friday at Davidson.

They have won five straight games in conference play since losing their opener 69-58 at Richmond.

The Davidson game marks the return of former Dayton assistant coach Kevin Kuwik to UD Arena. Davidson hired Kuwik on Aug. 7 as the director of basketball operations.

Around the A-10: St. Joseph’s (9-9, 4-3) followed its 81-65 victory over Dayton on Wednesday with a 68-46 victory at home against Fordham on Saturday.

Virginia Commonwealth (12-8, 4-3) ended a two-game losing streak with an 87-63 victory at home against George Washington (9-11, 2-5).

Richmond (6-13, 4-3) has won three in a row since losing 87-81 to Dayton. The Spiders beat La Salle 81-74 on Saturday in Virginia. La Salle fell to 8-12 and 2-5 in the A-10.

Saint Louis (10-10, 3-4) moved into a three-way tie for eighth place with Dayton and Massachusetts (1010, 3-4) with a 66-47 victory at UMass.