One more person was waiting for Grant in the near-empty gym at that point, Adrian Wojnarowski, the famed NBA reporter turned men’s basketball general manager at his alma mater, St. Bonaventure. Wojnarowski introduced himself to Grant before the UD coach headed to the bus.
Wojnarowski was well known for dropping “Woj bombs” during his reporting career at ESPN. He broke the news of Archie Miller’s departure from Dayton for Indiana in 2017, for example, though that wouldn’t rank anywhere close to his top scoops.
Wojnarowski may be out of the news business, but his new team dropped a bomb of sorts on Dayton. The Bonnies, whose previous most lopsided victory in the series was a 66-51 decision at the Reilly Center in 2001, won 75-53.
Dayton has now suffered two losses by 20 or more points in Atlantic 10 Conference play. This is the first time since 2017-18, when Dayton finished 14-17, it has lost two A-10 games by 20 or more points in the same season.
“We just didn’t play well,” Grant said. “I know I’ve said that before. We didn’t have the defensive intensity. Offensively, we just couldn’t get any continuity and couldn’t finish plays. They did a good job of taking away some things from us with their physicality, their aggressiveness. Overall, we didn’t play well and didn’t coach well enough tonight.”
Here are three takeaways from Dayton’s 21st game:
1. The loss puts Dayton in a big hole in regards to its goals: Dayton (14-7, 4-4) may have to win its last 10 A-10 games to have a chance in the regular-season race and to secure a NCAA tournament at-large berth. No one would bet on 10 straight victories from a team that has played so inconsistently.
The Flyers answered a three-game losing streak with three straight victories only to revert to the form they showed in early January in losses to George Washington, UMass and George Mason.
“I think it’s a mindset,” Grant said. “I really do. I think it’s hard to win on the road. I think you’ve got to have a certain maturity and toughness. Full disclosure, we’re probably not as healthy as we need to be. We’re a little banged up. It’s that time of year. We’ve had guys with different viruses and different illnesses and stuff like that. We just have to be better, mentally and physically. We have to be better in order to win against a team like them. Tonight they played really well. They’re a good team, and there are a lot of them in this league.”
Dayton stands alone in sixth place. St. Bonaventure (16-6, 4-5), which ended a three-game losing streak, is in eighth place.
2. Dayton couldn’t stop the St. Bonaventure offense: St. Bonaventure made 8 of 15 3-pointers in the first half and 4 of 10 in the second half, shooting 48% (12 of 25). It was their third-best performance of the season. They did not shoot over 35% in their last three games.
Lajae Jones led the Bonnies with 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting. He made 6 of 10 3s. He made 4 of 18 in the previous four games.
St. Bonaventure lost 75-61 at Virginia Commonwealth in its previous game Friday after beating VCU 77-75 at the Reilly Center on the opening day of A-10 play.
“I thought the effort was tremendous tonight,” St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt said. “Against VCU, we played for 22 minutes. We played really well and really hard. The effort was there for 22 minutes. But then when they made a run, we couldn’t answer it. But today the effort was there for 40 minutes. That’s how we have to play. We’ve got to play hard. We didn’t play perfect. We didn’t make all the plays. But I thought the effort really overcame any deficiencies.”
3. Dayton’s offense fell apart in the second half: Dayton trailed by as many as 13 points in the first half but cut the deficit to 39-32 at halftime with a 4-0 run in the final minute. Then Dayton cut St. Bonaventure’s lead to 39-35 on a 3-pointer by Javon Bennett on the first possession of the second half.
St. Bonaventure answered with a 16-1 run in the next seven minutes and led by double digits the rest of the way. The Flyers scored 18 points in the final 19 minutes of the game.
Dayton shot 33.3% (8 of 24) from 3-point range. It shot 46.4% (13 of 28) from 2-point range. It fell to 0-6 when it shoots below 51% from 2-point range.
Nate Santos led Dayton with 12 points. Enoch Cheeks had 10.
“Defensively, we had a tough time in both halves,” Grant said. “And then obviously that takes away part of what we’ve been really good at, which is transition. When you’re taking it out of the net, that makes it difficult to get out in transition. It was hard for us to manufacture enough offense against their set defense tonight.”
STAR OF THE GAME
Lajae Jones, a 6-foot-7 junior forward, fell one point short of his season high with 23 points for St. Bonaventure.
STAT OF THE GAME
St. Bonaventure outscored Dayton 12-0 in fast-break points.
LOOKING AHEAD
Dayton (14-7, 4-4) plays Saint Louis (13-8, 6-2) at 7 p.m. Friday at Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis. Saint Louis beat VCU 78-69 in St. Louis on Tuesday. VCU (16-5, 6-2) saw a six-game winning streak end, and it fell out of a first-place tie with George Mason (15-5, 6-1).
FRIDAY’S GAME
Dayton at Saint Louis, 7 p.m., ESPN2, 1290, 95.7
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