The Flyers came back from a 13-point deficit to defeat No. 6, once beaten Marquette 71-63 in front of a sellout crowd of 13,407.
In 2007, UD overwhelmed No. 6, unbeaten Pittsburgh, 80-55, thanks to the herculean 31-point effort by Roberts.
“This is why I came up here to witness this,” Roberts said after leaving the Flyers postgame locker room. “I’d felt good about this team and where they were at and I knew this was a huge game for them. Fortunately they pulled it out and the way they did it — it’s really a statement. It’s big.
“This team just does not quit no matter what. Up, down, they play all 40 minutes. To see it up close like this was great.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Saturday night, several Flyers played pivotal parts in the comeback, but no one stood taller than the smallest player on the court.
Javon Bennett, a 5-foot-10 junior guard, was the backbone of the team, especially early on when several of his teammates were struggling.
He finished the night with 15 points — tied with Zed Key for the team high — and did it making six of the nine shots he attempted and three of four from three-point range.
Meanwhile, the rest of his teammates clanked away from long range, making just 1 of 15 trey attempts. More impactful though was Bennett’s defensive tenacity. He had three steals and twice turned the thefts into easy layups that bolstered his team, ignited the crowd and demoralized the Golden Eagles.
“He was the spark,” Roberts said. “We needed him and what he brought to the table. He got us back into the game and kept us there. Eventually that got the crowd into it and their energy filled the Arena.”
From the opening tip, Bennett was the one player who didn’t back down, back up, hesitate or wilt against a Big East opponent who believed it could bump and bully its way against the Flyers.
“They came out, looked down at the name across their chests and felt, ‘we’re better than these guys! We’re Marquette!’” Bennett said.
“But we saw through that. At the end of the day, it’s just basketball. And in the second half, we were the ones who punched them in the mouth and they weren’t able to respond.”
Bond with Bennett
Roberts has a bond with Bennett.
Coming out of Toledo St. John, Roberts was a thin, 6-2 guard with little fanfare. He was under recruited and back then told me how that left him with “a real chip” on his shoulder.
He was part of Brian Gregory’s first recruiting class and immediately made his mark. All four of his Dayton years — from 2004 to 2008 — he received All-Atlantic 10 honors and ended his career with 1,962 points. That’s fourth all-time at UD behind Roosevelt Chapman, Donnie May and Henry Finkel.
He initially was snubbed by the NBA and played in Israel and then Germany before the New Orleans Hornets (now Pelicans) gave him a shot in 2012. He played five years in the league — with New Orleans, Charlotte and Portland — and over 324 NBA games averaged 6.6 points a contest.
Saturday night Bennett talked about “the chip” he’s had on his shoulder through much of his career.
He was always the smallest player on the court and often opponents tried to intimidate him.
His dad, Corey, told me once when Javon was a youngster, they went to an AAU tournament in Melbourne, Florida, where he was matched up against the local hotshot guard. He stole the ball from the guy several times, converted many of those pickpockets into quick points and that enraged the guy.
Finally the opposing guard lowered his shoulder and barreled into Javon’s chest, knocking him backward and breaking his wrist in the fall.
When he was a sophomore in high school at Trinity Prep Academy in Orlando, Bennett victimized an opponent who retaliated with an elbow to the face. If you look closely, you see Bennett’s nose now sways to the right and then back to the left again.
Undaunted, he scored 2,147 points in his prep career,
He too was under-recruited and ended up at Merrimack in Massachusetts. As a freshman two years ago, he led the nation in steals.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Believing he could play at a higher level, he entered the transfer portal and came to Dayton.
Saturday night Marquette guards tried to muscle him and one did catch him with an elbow.
“The dude tried to get physical with me and move me around,” Bennett said. “That doesn’t bother me. I love it. I use it as fuel. That’s when I know I’m getting under their skin and I’m getting into their head.”
In turn, the rest of the Flyers were fueled by Bennett, who they all call Von.
“He was huge,” said forward Nate Santos who had 12 points and 13 rebounds. “He had a great night. I’m really proud of him. He killed it out there.”
Head coach Anthony Grant saluted Bennett as well:
“I thought Von ... a couple of his plays stood out. Plays he made off the press. He was able to get steals that we converted real fast. The energy that that brought to our team and brought to the crowd, those were momentum type plays.
“We talked before the game about the need to male hustle plays tonight and those were huge ones. I thought we had them all over the place tonight.”
He mentioned the “rebounds, deflections and back tips” of Santos, Malachi Smith’s 11 assists and Key’s play. Grant said the team is developing an identity that’s built on “a level of grit.”
That blue collar, never-quit attitude resonates with the crowd and it’s why you can feel a love affair developing between the fans abnd the players.
Saturday night, once they went through the handshake line with the Marquette players, the Flyers went to the Red Scare section of the Arena and crawled up in the stands to get their ‘’attaboys” as they were hugged, jostled and selfied by their over-amped fellow students.
Credit: Lisa Powell
Credit: Lisa Powell
Unforgettable performance
Roberts said he’s “never forgotten” that Pitt game.
It was his greatest single performance as a Flyer. The Panthers threw four different defenders at him, and no one could stop him.
He’d mesmerize his defender with his patented cross-over dribble, then he’d juke forward and quickly rock back and fire over his suddenly off-balanced opponent.
After the game I remember Panthers’ junior forward Sam Young reaching down and hugging Roberts in the handshake line afterward and whispered: “You’re one helluva player.”
Saturday night, though, Roberts said the thing he remembered most from that game was the crowd:
“Tonight, Marquette did a good job in the first half keeping the fans out of it, but once the crowd gets involved here, it’s like a snowball effect.
“That’s what I remember from ‘07, The crowd pushed us.”
Bennett said the same thing: “They fuel us when we play a big game like this. They’re like another teammate out there. They give us the energy we need.”
As Roberts noted: “This is a tough place to play. It’s why not too many Top 10 teams want to come in here.”
UD has now won 24 games in a row at UD Arena, a streak that goes back to a five-point loss to George Mason on Feb. 25, 2023.
“We want to defend our home court, especially when really good teams come in,” Santos said. “That’s huge for us.”
No one knows better than Roberts.
After Saturday’s game he visited the Flyers’ locker room and, as Grant explained, he shared his pride in the play of the team and brought up the game against Pitt so many years ago:
“(With) guys like him, all our guys are standing on their shoulders for what they meant to the university, for the legacy they’ve left. That’s probably why some of the guys came to Dayton: They see the history, the success, the atmosphere and the fan support.
“Our guys know what (Roberts) did, what he was a part of.
“It’s beautiful to see the way our guys want to be a part of it.”
That’s why Roberts came to the game Saturday night.
It takes one to know one.
About the Author