Neither Blakney, Holmes or Dayton Flyers coach Anthony Grant knew UD needed to win to go a full calendar year without a loss at UD Arena.
Dayton’s players and coaches are focused only on the final score and the next game on the schedule. Learning fun facts is something that can happen in the postgame press conference as it did Wednesday following a 76-56 victory against Saint Joseph’s.
Dayton (11-5, 3-0) won its sixth straight game by double digits to stay alone atop the Atlantic 10 Conference one-sixth of the way through the schedule. Everyone else, other than St. Bonaventure (2-0), has at least one league loss.
“I thought tonight guys did a really good job of understanding the assignment in terms of what we need to do,” Grant said. “St. Joe’s, we knew offensively they were an explosive team with a lot of really talented players and a system that allows them to play with great spacing. You saw early they were capable of attacking the rim and were very, very proficient from 3. But like we always talk about, the game is going to be 40 minutes, and our guys understood what we needed to do defensively and we felt like if we could do that, the offense would flow from there. Over the course of the entire game, it kind of played out that way for us. We were able to get stops and get out in transition.”
Dayton has its longest winning streak since a 20-game run to end the 2019-20 season. Here are three takeaways from its 16th game:
1. The Flyers weathered rare adversity: Dayton did not trail in its first two A-10 games: a 69-57 victory against Duquesne on Dec. 28 and a 69-55 victory against Davidson on Saturday. It opened the first game with a 10-0 run and the second game with a 10-3 lead.
In this game, Saint Joseph’s not only scored first but it built leads of 12-9, 20-15 and then 25-19. The success didn’t last. Dayton scored seven points in 57 seconds on back-to-back fast-break baskets by Holmes and then a 3-pointer by Mike Sharavjamts to take the lead for good at the 7:48 mark.
“M personally, I wasn’t really too worried,” Holmes said. “I knew we were going to be fine. We just had to stop the bleeding, and we did.”
Credit: David Jablonski
2. Dayton’s defense continues to hold opponents down: Dayton has not allowed more than 57 points in its six-game winning streak. Opponents average 58.4 points per game against Dayton. The Flyers entered the game ranked 11th in the country in scoring defense.
Saint Joseph’s shot 20.8% from 3-point range (5 of 24), their second-worst percentage of the season. Dayton blocked eight shots.
“I feel like we did a good job slowing them down,” Holmes said. “That team’s a very good offensive team. They made their run early in the game, but it’s a long game, and I feel we did a good job throughout the whole game holding them down.”
3. Dayton remains perfect at home: The Flyers won their last eight home games last season after losing Jan. 5, 2022, at home to VCU, and they have won their first nine home games this season.
The 17-game home winning streak is tied for the sixth longest in school history. If Dayton wins its last seven home games this season, it would have the third-longest home winning streak in school history.
“We’ve got one of the best home courts in all of college basketball here,” Grant said. “It’s great that our guys are able to protect the home court. I think they take a lot of pride in doing that. I didn’t realize it was a full calendar year. But I think that’s a tribute to what we have here. Outstanding fan base. Great environment. A a group that takes pride in that.”
STARS OF THE GAME
DaRon Holmes II scored 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting. He has scored at least 20 points in six straight games. He raised his season scoring average to 19.0 points per game. He also grabbed 12 rebounds. It was his third straight double-double and seventh of the season.
R.J. Blakney scored 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting. He tied the career high he scored last season against Virginia Tech. He made 5 of 5 3-pointers in that game and 4 of 6 3-pointers in this game.
STAT OF THE GAME
Dayton shot a season-best 50% (10 of 20) from 3-point range. In addition to Blakney’s 4-of-6 performance, Mike Sharavjamts made 2 of 3 and Koby Brea made 2 of 5. Toumani Camara and Mustapha Amzil each made one.
LOOKING AHEAD
Dayton (11-5, 3-0) plays Fordham (12-3, 0-2) at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Rose Hill Gym in Bronx, N.Y. Fordham lost 82-79 at Rhode Island (5-9, 1-1) on Wednesday after losing 57-43 at home to Davidson in its A-10 opener.
TUESDAY’S GAME
Dayton at Fordham, 7 p.m., 1290, 95.7
About the Author
