Dayton (11-5, 1-2) suffered its second road loss in five days after not playing on an opponent’s court in the first 15 games. UMass (6-10, 1-2) ended an eight-game losing streak in the series and Dayton’s second longest active winning streak against an A-10 team. The Flyers have won nine straight games against Davidson.
After the game Wednesday, Dayton forward Nate Santos said coach Anthony Grant didn’t have a long pregame speech to the team. He told the players they would regroup in the days ahead back on campus. The Flyers get a week break before playing George Mason (11-5, 2-1) at 7 p.m. Wednesday at UD Arena.
“I think it’s going to be hard just to wait a whole week because we’re going to be itching to play,” Santos said, “but I think it’ll be good to reset and refocus on what we can do better.”
Credit: David Jablonski
What has gone wrong? Here’s a short list:
1. Slumping offense: Dayton has played three of its least efficient offensive games, according to the KenPom.com metrics, in the last four games. It posted its three worst effective field-goal percentages against Cincinnati (44.1), UMass (44.0) and George Washington (38.3). That number ranged between 50% and 72% in every other game.
Several players are not shooting at the levels they reached earlier in the season:
• Enoch Cheeks scored in double figures in nine of his first 10 appearances. He averaged 15 points through the Marquette game on Dec. 14. In the last five games, he has averaged 5.8 points, while shooting 22.2% (8 of 36) from the field.
Cheeks missed all five of his 3-point attempts against George Washington and UMass. He has made 1 of 18 shots from long range in the last six games. His scoring average dropped to 12.5 points per game. He’s shooting 35.8% from 3-point range (24 of 67). That’s the same percentage he shot when he last played such a big role in an offense two years ago as a junior at Robert Morris.
• Santos made 4 of 13 3-pointers in the first two A-10 road games. That was an improvement after a four-game stretch in which he made 4 of 19. He’s still leading the team in scoring (14.5 points per game) and 3-point shooting (34 of 84, 40.5%).
• Malachi Smith missed all five of his 3-point attempts against George Washington and UMass. He ranks fourth on the team in scoring (10.9) and is shooting 41% (16 of 39) from 3-point range.
Dayton coach Anthony Grant, while not singling anyone out, thinks the offensive problems of players have led to issues in other areas.
“Tonight the energy wasn’t there with some individuals that were struggling in other areas,” Grant said Wednesday, “whether it be offensively or just handling the matchup on the defensive side.”
2. Poor decisions: Smith averaged 1.7 turnovers in the first 11 games. He has averaged 3.4 in the last five games.
On Dayton’s second possession Tuesday, he threw a one-handed pass to Nate Santos along the sideline. The pass did not have enough energy behind it. Daniel Rivera, of UMass, intercepted it — stepping out of bounds in the process, though that was not called — and turned it into a fast-break layup and a 4-2 UMass lead.
Smith committed another crucial turnover in the second half. He threw what should have been a simple pass to Posh Alexander in front of the Dayton bench. Again Rivera picked it off and turned it into a fast-break dunk and a five-point lead with six minutes to play.
Dayton has averaged 12.5 turnovers in the last five games after a four-game stretch in which it averaged 7.0.
3. Weak defense: Dayton lost to George Washington because it didn’t defend the 3-point shot. The Revolutionaries made a season-best 15 of 31 (48.4%).
The Minutemen beat Dayton despite struggling from 3-point range (3 of 20, 15%). Instead, they scored inside the paint, shooting 60% (24 of 40) from 2-point range. It was their third best performance inside the arc this season and the fourth-highest shooting percentage allowed by Dayton.
If there’s a quick cure for Dayton’s ills, it could be the home-court advantage of UD Arena, where it has won 26 straight games. After playing George Mason on Wednesday, it plays Loyola Chicago (10-5, 1-1) at 4 p.m. on Jan. 18.
“Obviously, it’s disappointing to be where we are right now, but that’s our reality,” Grant said. “We’ve got a bye week coming up, and as a coach, I’ve got to figure out some things that we need to do differently to try to help the team work ourselves out of this.”
WEDNESDAY’S GAME
George Mason at Dayton, 7 p.m., CBS Sports Network, 1290, 95.7
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