On Friday against No. 19 Cincinnati, the No. 22 Flyers finally found a hole that was too deep. They trailed by 18-points with under eight minutes to play and cut the deficit to four points on a 3-pointer by Malachi Smith with 2 minutes, 1 second remaining. They then nearly made it a one possession game, but a reverse layup attempt by Nate Santos rolled off the rim with 1:22 left.
That’s where the comeback stalled in a 66-59 loss in the second annual Hoops Classic at the Heritage Bank Center, where a crowd of 15,107 watched UC avenge an 82-68 loss to Dayton in 2023. The Flyers looked to be on their way to their most lopsided loss of the last two seasons but salvaged some pride with the late rally.
“I’m so proud of our guys,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “This has been a heck of a week.”
Dayton (10-3) played three games in seven days, beating No. 6 Marquette 71-63 on Saturday and UNLV 66-65 on Tuesday, before playing Cincinnati (9-1).
“I thought our guys really competed at a high level,” Grant said. “You look up, and with two minutes to go in the game, it’s a four-point game. We had an opportunity to make it interesting. But credit to (Cincinnati). They made plays. They made free throws. They did what they needed to do to win the game.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Here are three takeaways from Dayton’s final non-conference game:
1. Dayton couldn’t overcome a cold start: The Flyers missed their first 11 shots and committed six turnovers in the first 11 minutes. They trailed 16-4 halfway through the first half despite Cincinnati’s own offensive struggles. The Bearcats missed their first nine 3-point attempts.
Cincinnati built its lead in part by taking advantage of second chances. Three of its first five baskets came after offensive rebounds. It finished the game with 17 offensive rebounds to Dayton’s 10 and outscored Dayton 18-11 in second-chance points.
“I thought their physicality really on both sides was the difference in the game tonight,” Grant said. “Their ability to create second shots and their physicality on the glass overwhelmed us to start the game. Then, on the defensive end, they were really physical. They have great individual size, speed and quickness. We had a tough time figuring out some things offensively there in the first half. I thought our guys did a good job in the second half of being able to figure it out a little bit offensively. We could really never solve the rebounding issue. They’re a really good team. Wes (Miller) has done a great job just assembling talent, putting those guys together and putting them in a great position.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
2. Turnovers hurt Dayton all night: The Flyers committed a season-high 17 turnovers after averaging 8.9 in the first 12 games. Malachi Smith led Dayton with six turnovers. He had a total of five turnovers in the previous four games.
“We defended our tails off tonight,” UC coach Wes Miller said. “Especially in the first half, I thought we set a tone defensively.”
Dayton scored its first four points at the free-throw line and finally broke through with its first field goal, a layup by Santos, with 8 minutes, 45 seconds left in the half. Dayton’s offense performed better the rest of the half. The Flyers faced a 25-17 halftime deficit.
“They played great defense,” Santos said. “They were really physical. They were just on us. It took us a while to figure it out, but it’s just a credit to how hard they played on defense.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
3. Grant is happy with the overall performance in non-conference play: The only three teams to beat Dayton rank in the top 50 of the NCAA Evaluation Tool: No. 46 North Carolina; No. 5 Iowa State; and No. 30 Cincinnati. The Flyers beat three top-70 teams: No. 63 Northwestern; No. 13 Connecticut; and No. 10 Marquette.
In some ways, Dayton has a stronger NCAA tournament resume this season than it did last season at the same point, and it earned a No. 7 seed in the tournament last March.
“We always look at the big picture,” Grant said. “We always talk about where we want to be. I think we put ourselves in a position where we can control our destiny moving forward. This was a great opportunity — a Quad 1 game for both teams. Those are the games that you want to play. Unfortunately, we didn’t win today. But I like where we stand as we head into the conference. We’ll take a few days here. This week has been a really challenging week just in terms of what we’ve had to do on and off the floor. Hopefully, they feel good about what they’ve been able to do in the non-conference and will be able to get away, clear their heads and be recharged and excited as we head to conference play.”
STAR OF THE GAME
Cincinnati guard Dan Skillings Jr. led all scorers with 17 points. He made 6 of 13 field-goal attempts, though he missed all four of his 3-point attempts. He made 4 of 4 free throws. He also had four steals and six rebounds.
STAT OF THE GAME
Dayton shot under 30% from 3-point range (5 of 18, 27.8%) for the third straight game. That followed a six-game stretch where it shot better than 35% in every game.
LOOKING AHEAD
After a break for Christmas, Dayton returns to action at 2 p.m. Dec. 31 against La Salle (7-5) at UD. It will be the first of 18 Atlantic 10 Conference games.
La Salle beat Fairleigh Dickinson 77-72 on Wednesday to end a three-game losing streak and plays Immaculata University, a Division III program in its final non-conference game Saturday.
About the Author
