Seven months after the death of Donald James Donoher, the winningest coach in program history, Dayton honored him before the game with a moment of silence and throughout the game with his initials on their jerseys.
“It means a lot,” said Dayton forward Jacob Conner, an Alter graduate. “He’s a huge figure in Dayton basketball and in basketball in general. To know that we’re representing him on the court, it’s huge for us, — and I know for the fans, too — to kind of have him out there with us.”
Donoher would have enjoyed Dayton’s performance in an 87-57 victory against Saint Francis University. The Flyers won their 20th straight season opener and their 17th straight home game, while recording their most lopsided victory on opening night since an 84-53 victory against Southeast Missouri State in 2015.
“It’s great to be back and have the season off to an official start,” said Dayton coach Anthony Grant, who improved to 8-0 in openers. “It’s an exciting time of year. I know our guys were excited to get on the court tonight and excited to play in a game. It’s live ammo tonight, right? It’s real, and so it was great to see our guys go out and play with energy and effort.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Here are three takeaways from Dayton’s first game:
1. Defense led to offense: Dayton scored 14 points off 13 Saint Francis turnovers and had a 21-14 advantage in fast-break points.
Malachi Smith, playing his first regular-season game since suffering a knee injury in the opener a year ago, had three of Dayton’s eight steals. Javon Bennett had two steals. The Flyers also benefited from three blocked shots by Zed Key.
Dayton led 40-28 at halftime and pushed its lead to 54-32 with a 14-4 run to start the second half.
“I thought tonight the story of the game was really our defense creating offense for us,” Grant said. “I thought the guys did a really good job being locked in defensively, and I thought we were able to build a convincing win over the course of 40 minutes. It’s great to see guys being able to put together sustained efforts like that on the defensive end. When we subbed, we had different combinations and guys understood what we needed to do. I thought we got really good efforts tonight from a variety of people.”
2. All the newcomers contributed: Dayton’s three new transfers and two freshmen combined for 42 points.
• Key, who played the last four seasons at Ohio State, scored 14 points on 4-of-4 shooting, while making 6 of 8 free throws.
• Posh Alexander, who played three seasons at St. John’s and then one season at Butler, earned a starting spot after coming off the bench in two preseason exhibition games and had seven points and five assists.
• Conner, who played the last two seasons at Marshall, made his first three 3-point attempts and finished with 10 points.
• Amaël L’Etang, who at 7-foot-1 became the tallest player to appear in a game in UD basketball history, had seven points and eight rebounds in 16 minutes.
• Freshman guard/ forward Hamad Mousa had four points in 12 minutes.
The Flyers performed much better than they did Oct. 26 in a 65-56 victory against Division II Ashland University or in their other exhibition game, a 98-74 loss to Xavier on Oct. 20.
“Those two exhibition games were basically tune-up games,” Key said. “We saw what we needed to work on and went back to practice and continued to work on it. We harped on the stuff that we did wrong in the scrimmages and corrected it, and we’re playing a lot better now. Tonight we showed we’re a really good team.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
3. Grant spread the minutes: Alexander played the most (26 minutes, 14 seconds) of the starters. Malachi Smith (19:34) played the most of the reserves despite not getting into the game until the 9:58 mark in the first half.
Nine players saw at least 12 minutes of action. By comparison, a year ago, seven players got at least 12 minutes in the opener in a 63-47 victory against Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
All 10 healthy scholarship players appeared in the game. Marvel Allen will miss the season with a knee injury. Brady Uhl remains sidelined by a sprained ankle. Isaac Jack was on the bench in street clothes. Grant said he has a “lower-body injury.”
Conner expects depth to be a strength for Dayton.
“When guys get tired or get in foul trouble,” Conner said, “we have multiple guys in multiple positions that can step up on any given night. We have anybody that can come in and help give a spark to the team. It’s been crucial, and I think it’s going to be throughout the season.”
Star of the game
Key scored 12 points in his first game at Ohio State as a freshman in 2020. He hit double figures with a team-high 14 points in his first game with the Flyers as well. He passed the 900-point milestone and has 909 points in five seasons.
Stat of the game
Nate Santos led Dayton in plus-minus (plus 32). That means Dayton outscored Saint Francis by 32 points when Santos was on the court. He had the highest number despite being held to four points on 1-of-9 shooting. He missed all six of his 3-point attempts after making 6 of 8 against Ashland.
Looking ahead: Dayton plays Northwestern at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at UD Arena. The game will air on WHIO-TV. Northwestern beat Lehigh 90-46 on Monday.
Dayton and Northwestern played in the second game of the season last year, too. The Flyers lost 71-66 on Nov. 10, 2023, at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Ill.
Dayton and Northwestern announced a two-game series in June 2023. Northwestern will become the first Big Ten team to play the Flyers in Dayton in 27 years.
Northwestern was also the last Big Ten team to play the Flyers on their home court. Dayton won that matchup 77-69 on Dec. 27, 1997.
SATURDAY’S GAME
Northwestern at Dayton, 7:30 p.m., WHIO-TV, 1290, 95.7
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