DAYTON, Ohio _ Anthony Grant hugged every assistant coach and every player at the end of the handshake line. These were no normal hugs. A coach who just won his first Atlantic 10 Conference championship had a little extra emotion in each embrace.
The No. 4 Dayton Flyers dominated Davidson from start to finish, earning the second outright A-10 championship in school history with an 82-67 victory on Friday at UD Arena. This was a coronation. Dayton looked like one of the great A-10 teams of all time and also one of the best teams in the country this season. Dayton (27-2, 16-0) won its 18th straight game.
Obi Toppin may have put a stamp on his national player of the year chances with one of his best performances. He scored 23 points on 10-of-11 shooting and grabbed 12 rebounds.
Rodney Chatman scored 14 points. Ibi Watson scored 13. Trey Landers had 11, and Jalen Crutcher scored 10 for Dayton.
Dayton shot 72.3%, its best shooting performance since March 1, 1986, against Southern. The Flyers made 14 of 14 2-point field goals in the second half.
Crutcher threw an alley-oop pass to Toppin in the final seconds of the first half to put an exclamation point on a dominant effort.
Toppin scored 14 points in the first half to lead Dayton to a 42-24 lead, leaving the Flyers 20 minutes away from clinching the outright Atlantic 10 Conference championship for the second time in school history. He dunked twice to tie Chris Wright's school record for dunks in a career (177).
Chatman added 10 points in the half, and Watson scored eight.
Dayton shot 69.2% before halftime and held Davidson to 37% shooting.
