Dayton continues to win despite cold outside shooting

Those two shots in an 84-70 victory against La Salle raise Dayton’s 3-point percentage (7 of 25, 28%) to a more respectable but still below-average level and continued a trend. It has shot below 30% in four straight games. That happened only twice in the first eight games.

Dayton’s season percentage has fallen to 35.3. That ranks 101st in the country. The national average is 33.4. Santos made 1 of 5 3-pointers against La Salle and has made 4 of 17 in the last four games since making 6 of 6 in an 86-62 victory against Lehigh on Dec. 7.

“You definitely want to be more consistent,” Dayton guard Enoch Cheeks said. “This is basketball. At the end of the day, some days we shoot great and some days we don’t. Some days we’re going to slump. I think it’s going to come along when the time’s right. So we’re not too worried about it.”

Dayton’s ability to win despite its 3-point struggles was one storyline on the opening day of Atlantic 10 Conference play. Here are four others:

1. St. Bonaventure stamped itself as contender: Melvin Council Jr. scored on a layup with three seconds remaining to give the Bonnies a 77-75 victory. The team picked to finish 10th in the preseason poll beat the preseason favorite at the Reilly Center in St. Bonaventure. There were 10 ties and 16 lead changes in the game.

Council, a 6-foot-4 senior guard, is averaging 13.4 points per game in his first season at St. Bonaventure. He played last season at Wagner after starting his career at the junior college level with Monroe College.

“When you talk about guys who have ‘it,’ he has it,” St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt said at his postgame press conference. “He’s a gamer. There was no doubt he was going to have the ball in his hands. He made a great read, he beat the five man and he finished.”

St. Bonaventure (13-1) has won four straight games against VCU (10-4) and six of the last seven games in the series. The teams play again Jan. 24 in Richmond, Va.

2. It’s tough to win on the road: The home team won six of the seven games Tuesday. Two 11-win teams lost on the road to teams with losing records.

• Rhode Island (11-2, 0-1), the highest-scoring team in the league (83.3 points per game), delivered its worst offensive performance and lost 67-55 at Duquesne (6-8, 1-0).

Duquesne has won four games in a row since a 2-8 start.

“It’s just good to win,” Duquesne coach Dru Joyce III said after the game. “It’s good to protect our home court. You have an opportunity, for your conference opener, at home. The main objective is to make sure you come out of here with a win. Now it’s a standings game. The non-conference was this conglomerate of teams you play from the East, from the West, from the North. Now there’s a certain format and standings that go with conference play. Every win that you can get is a big one.”

• George Washington (11-3) was outscored 9-0 in the last 90 seconds and lost 66-61 at Richmond (6-8). Dayton (11-3) plays George Washington at noon Saturday in Washington, D.C.»

3. One of the league’s most disappointing teams enjoyed the most dominant performance: Saint Louis finished 5-6 against Division I teams in non-conference play in coach Josh Schertz’s first season but started A-10 play with an 88-63 victory at Fordham (8-6).

The Billikens (8-6, with two victories against lower-division teams) won big thanks to sixth-year guard Gibson Jimerson’s career-high 33 points and because it shot a season-best 73% (27 of 37) from 2-point range.

4. George Mason is one of the hottest teams in the league: The Patriots (10-4) have won eight of nine games since a 2-3 start. The only loss in the stretch was at No. 4 Duke, 68-47 on Dec. 17.

George Mason beat Davidson 68-57 on Tuesday in Fairfax, Va. Brayden O’Conner, a 6-4 junior guard who played the last two seasons at UMass Lowell, scored 19 for the Patriots.

The Wildcats (10-4) have lost three straight games in the series after beating George Mason five times in a row from 2018-22.

“If you want a chance to win a conference title, you have to protect the nest and take it one game at a time,” George Mason coach Tony Skinn said. “I thought we did a very good job of being physical and being tough. I’m proud of these guys because they locked in, and we did what we needed to do.”

SATURDAY’S GAME

Dayton at George Washington, Noon, USA Network, 1290, 95.7