Dayton faces experienced Cedarville roster in second exhibition game

There will be an even bigger crowd of 13,407 when Dayton and Cedarville play an exhibition game at 2 p.m. Saturday at UD Arena. The game is sold out, as are the 16 regular-season games that will follow for the Flyers.

“I really appreciate Anthony (Grant) and his staff giving us this opportunity,” said Estepp, a 1997 Cedarville graduate who worked eight seasons as an assistant on Ray Slagle’s staff and is now in his 16th season as head coach. “I have a ton of respect for him just as a person and who he is and his staff and how they go about things. For us, we’re going against the team that’s more athletic and bigger than anybody we’ll face all year at our level.”

Estepp watched Dayton’s exhibition game against Ohio State on Sunday — the Flyers lost 78-70 with Enoch Cheeks scoring 17 and DaRon Holmes II 10 — and came away with this impression.

“I think they’re really deep,” he said, “and they’ve got good mobile bigs. Even when Holmes is out, they’ve still got guys that are big. Cheeks is a really good addition. I hope he misses one of his first seven shots when we play on Saturday. They’ve got good players at every spot. They’re really athletic. I think they can be pretty disruptive defensively. That’s going to be a real test for us when they press. Can we get it across half court? We haven’t typically turned it over. It’s one of the things we do pretty well, but it’ll be a real test against their length and athleticism.”

Dayton played another D-II program in 2017, Grant’s first season, and has alternated between playing Cedarville and Capital University, a D-III program coached by UD great Damon Goodwin, in recent years. The game comes nine days before Dayton’s regular-season opener against Southern Illinois University Edwardsville on Nov. 6 and one week before Cedarville opens the season Nov. 4 against Missouri-St. Louis in the Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic in Lakeland, Fla.

“(Cedarville) does a great job,” Grant said. “I’ve got a lot of respect for the program. I’ve got a lot of respect for the university. I think it helps us to see different looks in terms of the way they run offense. It helps us with the things that we’ll see during the course of the season.”

Cedarville finished 18-11 last season and tied for fifth in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference with a 11-9 record. Two years ago, it was 19-13 and earned a NCAA tournament bid for the first time since making the transition from NAIA Division II to NCAA Division II, a process that lasted from 2009-12.

Cedarville returns four of five starters and seven of its top eight scorers.

“I‘m excited about this group,” Estepp said. “They’re great to be around. They’re really fun to coach. They’ve been working really hard this offseason and this fall especially. So we have some high expectations, but our league is really tough. Quite a few teams in our league, especially near the top, probably four or five, return a lot.”

Several Cedarville players who appeared in the last game against Dayton before the 2021-22 season and experienced the NCAA tournament that same season remain on the roster.

Jayvon Maughmer led Cedarville with 17 points in the last game against Dayton and is now a senior. He’s a 6-foot-6 forward from Chillicothe. He led Cedarville with 17.8 points per game last season.

“He’ll look like he belongs on the floor out there Saturday,” Estepp said. “He’s a big guard. He’s strong, He can shoot it. He can score inside now. He’s our most talented returner.”

Jacob Drees, a 6-7 forward who’s now a graduate student, played 23 minutes against the Flyers two years ago. He averaged 13.5 points and led the Yellow Jackets in rebounding (9.3) and assists (4.0).

“He is probably one of our most important returners just because he’s such a cog to what we do offensively,” Estepp said. “There aren’t too many guys that play the five who lead your team in assists. He’s just a really good passer for his size and can handle it. We’ll have him bring the ball up the floor at times, so he’s a big part of how we play.”

Another player who saw action against the Flyers is Grant Whisman, a 6-7 senior forward from Madison High School in Middletown. He ranked second on the team in scoring last season (14.2).

Among the newcomers are: Anthony Ruffolo, a 6-0 freshman guard from Alter who ranked second in the Greater Catholic League Co-Ed Division in scoring (20.4); and Tymoteusz Pszczola, a 6-10 freshman center from Poland.

Estepp will also count on several sophomores playing bigger roles than they did as freshmen, including David Okpara, a 6-9 center. He’s the younger brother of Ohio State sophomore Felix Okpara, who scored seven points against Dayton in an exhibition game Sunday at UD Arena.

In its last game against Dayton, Cedarville made 5 of 32 3-pointers.

“I hope we don’t go 0-for-15 in the first half from 3 again,” Estepp said. “We couldn’t hit anything. We shoot it really well, but sometimes that’s due to who you’re playing and the length. They speed everything up, and it’s a bigger arena. For us, anytime we can get this game I’m taking it because the environment is just second to none. I have a tremendous amount of respect for their fan base, and even though they’ll ride me as a lowly D-II coach for two hours on Saturday, it is so much fun.”

SATURDAY’S GAME

Cedarville at Dayton, 2 p.m., 1290, 95.7