Dayton Flyers notes: Surgery goes well for Matos

Grant says it’ll be a four-month process for junior to get back on the court
Dayton’s Jhery Matos sits behind the bench on Saturday, Dec. 29, 2018, during a game against Georgia Southern at UD Arena. David Jablonski/Staff

Dayton’s Jhery Matos sits behind the bench on Saturday, Dec. 29, 2018, during a game against Georgia Southern at UD Arena. David Jablonski/Staff

Jhery Matos sat behind the Dayton Flyers bench on Saturday during a game against Georgia Southern at UD Arena. He didn’t take his normal spot on the bench because he needed to protect his surgically-repaired left foot and didn’t want to be in an area where a player might land on him.

Matos, a junior guard from the Dominican Republic, had surgery Thursday to repair torn ligaments in the foot and reported on Instagram everything went well.

“Thanks everyone for the prayers,” he wrote.

» TWENTY PHOTOS: Best shots from Georgia Southern game

Dayton coach Anthony Grant provided a more extensive update on Matos, who suffered the season-ending injury Nov. 23 during a game against Oklahoma, after a 94-90 victory Saturday.

“He’s good,” Grant said. “I think the surgery went well. He was in good spirits today. He’s two days out, so it’ll be about a four-month process before he can actually get back and rehab and get on the floor. It’s a long process for him, but I think he’s happy to have it behind him. It’s good to see him in good spirits. Now it’s just a process of letting his body heal and letting nature take its course, but we feel everything went well.”

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

Viral video: A Dayton Daily News video of Obi Toppin's between-the-legs dunk against Georgia Southern had 335,000 views as of Sunday morning.

ESPN requested to use the video — along with the Twitter accounts of Sports Illustrated and Bleacher Report — not long after it was posted to Twitter and ranked it No. 3 in the top-10 plays of the day.

» GAME COVERAGE: Flyers survive late rally by Georgia Southern

Toppin said it was “for sure” his greatest dunk, but he might not attempt such a dunk again in a close game after Grant talked to him. Dayton led by 11 after the dunk, but Georgia Southern trimmed the deficit to one point twice in the final three minutes.

“He said make sure the next time you look at the clock and see the situation we were in,” Toppin said. “I didn’t even know it was a close game. He just said be mindful of the score and the time.”

Around the A-10: Davidson (9-4) suffered its third loss in the last four games, falling 82-60 at North Carolina on Saturday. Davidson played without its top scorer, Kellan Grady, in each of the four games. He remains sidelined with a knee injury.

Looking ahead: Dayton (8-5) starts conference play at noon Jan. 6 against Richmond (6-7) at UD Arena. The Flyers have won six straight games in the series and four straight against the Spiders at UD Arena. Richmond beat South Alabama 91-82 in its final non-conference game Saturday.

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

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