The Dayton Flyers, for example, will fly from Dayton to Buffalo, N.Y., on Monday and then ride a bus 70 miles south through western New York. The only comparable trips are: to Davidson, which is about a 21-mile ride from Charlotte; to Rhode Island, which is 30 miles from Providence, or 17 miles from Newport, where Dayton stays the night before games; or Massachusetts, where the Flyers have about a 24-mile drive to UMass in Amherst.
Dayton (14-6, 4-3) plays St. Bonaventure (15-6, 3-5) at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Reilly Center with a chance to earn its fourth straight victory and second straight road win since a 0-2 start in A-10 road games.
The game against the Bonnies starts a long week for Dayton. The team will fly from Buffalo to St. Louis on Wednesday. It will spend two nights there before playing the Billikens at Chaifetz Arena on Friday. The Flyers more often travel home to Dayton between games if they have two road games in the same week. The late start of the game Tuesday, combined with the drive to the airport in Buffalo, led to UD’s decision to head straight to its next game rather than flying home for one day.
The Flyers felt good about the direction of their season after an 82-62 victory at Duquesne on Tuesday and then a 77-72 victory against Saint Joseph’s on Friday. They needed the road win, in particular, after losses at George Washington and Massachusetts earlier in the month.
“It was just a good way to bounce back,” said Dayton forward Nate Santos, who scored 24 points Friday. “We’ve got to continue to stay focused. We know that we’re heading into some great environments. We’ve got to continue to stay together and just keep this thing rolling.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Here are 10 things to know about Dayton’s 21st game:
1. Series history: Dayton leads the series 29-11. It has won eight of the last nine matchups.
Dayton beat St. Bonaventure 76-71 at UD Arena last season. DaRon Holmes II tied a career high with 34 points.
The last time Dayton played at St. Bonaventure in 2023, the Bonnies ended a seven-game losing streak in the series with a 68-59 victory. That was also Dayton’s first loss at the Reilly Center, where it had won six straight games, since 2012. Dayton is 10-2 at the arena since losing its first three games there from 1997-2001.
2. State of the program: This is the 18th season of Mark Schmidt’s tenure at St. Bonaventure. He has led the program to three NCAA tournament appearances and six 20-win seasons.
The Bonnies finished 20-13 last season and 9-9 in the A-10. They lost their top six scorers from last season and were picked to finish 10th out of 15 teams in the A-10 preseason poll.
3. Season summary: St. Bonaventure finished 12-1 in non-conference play with a schedule ranked 300th in the country in difficulty. It beat Providence, which ranks 88th in the NCAA Evaluation Tool, for its best victory and lost only to No. 36 Utah State.
St. Bonaventure opened A-10 play with a 77-75 victory against Virginia Commonwealth. Melvin Council Jr. made the game-winning layup with 3 seconds to play. St. Bonaventure then beat Fordham to start 2-0.
Since that perfect start, the Bonnies have lost five of their last six games. At VCU on Friday, St. Bonaventure built a 33-25 halftime lead but was outscored 50-28 in the second half and lost 75-61.
4. Standings update: Virginia Commonwealth (16-4, 6-1) and George Mason (15-5, 6-1) share first place one third of the way through the A-10 schedule. Both have won five games in a row.
Saint Louis (12-8, 5-2) sits alone in third place after losing 67-61 at George Washington (14-6, 3-4) on Saturday.
Duquesne (9-11, 4-3) lost 65-63 at Fordham (9-11, 1-6) on Sunday to fall into a tie for fifth place with Dayton and Massachusetts (9-11, 4-3).
5. New staff member: St. Bonaventure hired famous NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski as the program’s general manager in September.
6. Transfer portal loss: Chad Venning, a 6-foot-10 fifth-year forward, led St. Bonaventure with 13.4 points per game last season. He’s now the second-leading scorer (12.8) at Boston College.
7. Top returner: Noel Brown, a 6-11 fifth-year center, ranked seventh in scoring last season (6.1) last season and ranks third (12.5) in scoring this season.
8. Top newcomers: Chance Moore, a 6-5 senior guard, leads the team in scoring (14.5) and rebounding (5.4). He scored 21 points against VCU on Friday after missing the previous game against George Mason with a toe injury. Moore started his career at Arkansas and played the last two seasons at Missouri State.
• Council, a 6-4 senior guard, ranks second in scoring (14.3). He played at Wagner last season.
• Dasonte Bowen, a 6-2 junior guard, ranks fourth in scoring (11.1) and first in assists (4.2). He spent the last two seasons at Iowa.
• Lajae Jones, a 6-7 junior guard, ranks fifth in scoring (10.4). He played at Barton Community College in Kansas last season. He and Council both played all 40 minutes against VCU.
The five starters played all but six minutes in the last game. St. Bonaventure ranks 360th out of 364 Division I teams in the percentage of minutes played by reserves (18.1%).
9. Strengths and weaknesses: St. Bonaventure ranks 46th in the country in average height. The five starters measure between 6-3 and 6-11.
• Teams have shot 38.3% against St. Bonaventure in A-10 play. That’s the highest mark in the conference. Dayton ranks 12th (37.4%).
10. Odds & Ends: KenPom.com gives Dayton an 49% chance of winning and predicts a 70-69 score. Dayton climbed from No. 62 to No. 61 in the Pomeroy ratings after beating Saint Joseph’s. St. Bonaventure is No. 92.
• Dayton ranks 66th in the NCAA Evaluation Tool. It is the second highest-ranked A-10 team behind No. 45 VCU. No. 90 St. Bonaventure is the fifth highest-ranked A-10 team.
This is a Quadrant 2 game for both teams. Dayton is 2-3 in Quad 1 games, 1-1 in Quad 2, 5-2 in Quad 3 and 5-0 in Quad 4. St. Bonaventure is 0-2 in Quad 1, 2-2 in Quad 2, 5-1 in Quad 3 and 7-1 in Quad 4.
TUESDAY’S GAME
Dayton at St. Bonaventure, 8 p.m., YES Network, ESPN+, 1290, 95.7
Credit: David Jablonski
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