‘A beautiful sight’ — Grant thanks Dayton fans for atmosphere at season opener

Even the injured Malachi Smith took part, twirling around on his good left foot as his teammates surrounded him before ceding the dance floor to DaRon Holmes II, Mustapha Amzil and finally Toumani Camara. The Flyers then ran out of the tunnel to start their journey to March with the first of 31 regular-season games.

There was little doubt No. 24 Dayton would lose this game — and it didn’t, playing far from its best but still dominating en route to a 73-46 victory in front of the 29th straight sellout crowd (13,407) at UD Arena.

“It never gets old walking out of that tunnel in first game and seeing the Flyer Faithful,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said in his postgame press conference. “It was beautiful sight tonight. I know we had a lot of guys out there for the first time getting that experience, and it never gets old to see that. So we’re really thankful and appreciative of that.”

Dayton has now won 18 straight season openers since a loss to Eastern Kentucky in the first game of the 2004-05 season. This goes down as the fourth most-lopsided victory in that stretch. Every top-25 team played on the opening night of the college basketball season, and Dayton had the 10th biggest blowout.

Thirteen of the 15 Atlantic 10 Conference teams played Monday. Ten won their openers. Dayton, George Washington (85-58 over Virginia State) and Massachusetts (94-67 over Central Connecticut) all won by 27.

The road gets tougher for Dayton fast. It plays Southern Methodist at 7 p.m. Friday at UD Arena. SMU beat Dayton 77-69 in Dallas last season and beat the Flyers 66-64 the previous season at UD Arena. SMU beat Texas A&M-Commerce 77-60 in its season opener Monday.

Lindenwood, which ranked 348th out of 363 Division I teams in the preseason Ken Pomeroy rankings, made its Division I debut. The Lions fell into an 8-0 hole with Dayton freshman Mike Sharavjamts making a 3-pointer on UD’s first possession and R.J. Blakney making a 3 on the second possession. Holmes followed with a dunk, off an assist from Kobe Elvis, the third time Dayton had the ball.

That was Dayton’s best stretch until the second half. The Flyers missed 13 3-pointers in a row after making their first two. The four returning starters — Holmes, Elvis, Toumani Camara and R.J. Blakney — combined to make 1 of 10.

Mustapha Amzil, who missed his last six 3-point attempts over the last four games in March, missed his first two attempts before getting one to fall with 3:59 to play. He was fouled on the shot and converted the four-point play. That’s how he ended up as Dayton’s leading scorer with 14 points.

“I’m going to still shoot that ball,” Amzil said, “so it was good to see it go in.”

Dayton shot 26.3% (5 of 19) from 3-point range. Last season, it was 6-9 when it shot below 30% and 13-0 when it topped 40%. It made 2 of 14 3s in its season opener against Illinois-Chicago a year ago and didn’t top 40% until the fourth game when it beat the Miami Hurricanes in the first round of the ESPN Events Invitational.

“Obviously, it wasn’t one of our better shooting nights,” Grant said, “but those were shots that we want our guys taking. I love the fact that we didn’t allow missed shots to impact the intensity that we played with on the defensive end.”

Dayton also missed shots in the paint it will make more often than not. Holmes scored 13 points on 4-of-10 shooting. He shot 66.2% from 2-point range last season as a freshman, ranking 35th in the country. In games in which he had at least 10 field-goal attempts, he never made fewer than six.

Lindenwood double-teamed Holmes at every opportunity. He took advantage by drawing seven fouls and getting to the line, where he made 5 of 10 of free throws.

“The score won’t show it, but we showed a really good defensive effort and commitment for a long time against a really good team,” Lindenwood coach Kyle Gerdeman said in a story posted to the school’s website. “It was pleasing to see that toughness, especially on a night where it was hard to score.”

FRIDAY’S GAME

SMU at Dayton, 7 p.m., Bally Sports Ohio, 1290, 95.7