“It’s something I’ve been trying to do for a couple of years now,” Brea said, “and I just feel like this is the right time, the right opportunity. I’m super excited to see a whole bunch of kids that aspire to to be in my position. I hope this helps them out a little bit and puts smiles on people’s faces.”
Javon Bennett will travel home to Orlando, Fla., to eat and enjoy the weather. He and the rest of the players will return to campus Tuesday.
“I need to get some sun,” Bennett said. “I’m a little pale right now. I’m going to be a little darker when I come back.”
Brea and Bennett each made 5 of 8 3-pointers against Oakland at UD Arena as the Flyers set a program record for 3-pointers made (18 of 34). Bennett had 19 points as well as nine assists and no turnovers. Brea scored 17.
Dayton won its sixth straight game and 15th straight non-conference home game. Fans who were cautiously optimistic when the season began in November now find themselves dreaming big.
“This team is hungry,” one fan wrote on X after the game. “Playing as good as anyone in the nation right now.”
“The Dayton Flyers are A Well Balanced Machine,” another fan, Felix Alvarez wrote. “This team has so many defensive and offensive options making it difficult for opponents to make adjustments. The Flyers may have the best offensive versatility we have seen in years.”
Oakland (6-7) played Ohio State and Illinois tough into the second half and won at Xavier but ran into a Dayton team playing its best basketball. The list of achievements keeps growing. Here’s a rundown of what Dayton has accomplished a third of the way into the regular-season.
Credit: David Jablonski
Rankings
• Dayton climbed from No. 44 to No. 30 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool after beating Cincinnati 82-68 on Saturday in its previous game and from No. 30 to No. 23 after beating Oakland. Lopsided victories can fuel a team’s rise in the NET.
“Our coaches been doing a pretty good job of just keeping us in the loop about how important that is,” Brea said. “It’s not just about winning games at this point. For what we want in the future, we’re going to have to dominate games like this.”
“We didn’t make it the way it is,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said, “but we have to play by those rules.”
The Flyers return to action Dec. 30 against Longwood (12-2) in their final non-conference game. With a victory, they would move to Atlantic 10 Conference play with only two losses on their resume. The last five UD teams to lose three or fewer non-conference games had NCAA tournament resumes with the exception of the 2020-21 team, which played only five non-conference games.
• Among players who have attempted at least 2.5 3s per game, Brea leads the nation in percentage (36 of 68, 52.9).
“I don’t really pay too much attention to that,” Brea said. “I just go out there and do what I do. My teammates have the ultimate confidence in me and trust me. I always say when I have that kind of energy around me I can’t go wrong.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Records
• By making 18 3s against Oakland, Dayton broke a record that had stood since Jan. 12, 2018. The Flyers made 17 of 32 3s in a 106-79 victory against Virginia Commonwealth. That Dayton team finished 14-17 and shot 33.7% from 3-point range.
The current Flyers have shot 50% or better in four of their last five games. They climbed to No. 2 in the country in accuracy from long range (41.8%) with another can’t-miss performance. They trail only Baylor (44.6).
“I’m just really proud of our group,” Grant said. “I think we showed great maturity tonight. This was a tough prep in terms of (Oakland being) very different than any team we’ve played this year with the way that they defend. Their zone is unique, and our guys did a great job of understanding where we can take advantage of some of the opportunities that it presented.”
• Kobe Elvis ranks third in the country in free-throw accuracy (32 of 33, 97.0). He made 3 of 3 free throws Wednesday after making 14 of 14 against Cincinnati. He missed his first free throw of the season Nov. 6 and has since made 32 in a row. That’s the third-longest streak in school history.
Damon Goodwin set the UD record of 36 consecutive made free throws over an eight-game stretch in the 1983-84 season. Bobby Joe Hooper made 34 straight in the 1965-66 season, and Brian Roberts equalled Hooper in the 2006-07 season.
• Dayton committed two turnovers against Oakland. Its turnover percentage (3.2) was its lowest since at least the 1998-99 season, acccording to KenPom.com.
“Their zone is different in that it can create turnovers,” Grant said, “and that’s something we emphasized to the guys. We had to be to make sure with our passes and with our spacing that we did a good job taking care of the ball. I thought they did a great job of understanding that the entire night.”
• DaRon Holmes II has set two Dayton career records this season: blocks (173) and dunks (193).
After scoring 28 points Saturday, Holmes finished with 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting and eight rebounds Wednesday.
Asked by Hal McCoy in the postgame press conference if Holmes was feeling under the weather, Grant said, “I don’t know if I’m allowed to share it, but he had ended up Sunday with some type of a stomach virus and actually was in the hospital. Thankfully, he was able to get taken care of. He spent the night and got hydrated, got some medicine and was able to get out there and play, but he was far from 100%.”
Dayton saw three players sidelined by illness and miss games earlier in the season: Marvel Allen; Jaiun Simon; and Zimi Nwokeji.
NEXT GAME
Saturday, Dec. 30
Longwood at Dayton, 2 p.m., Spectrum News 1, 1290, 95.7
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