Dayton, Houston meet for first time since 1975 in Charleston Classic championship

“Yeah, how about the Dayton Flyers?” the announcer said. “This is a home game for them. Dayton South.”

“They’ve got an awesome fan base, that’s for sure,” Sampson said.

Dayton (3-1) plays No. 6 Houston (5-0) at 8:30 p.m. Sunday at TD Arena. The thousand-plus UD fans who traveled to the Holy City should be well rested after victories Thursday and Friday against LSU and St. John’s, respectively, and an off-day Saturday.

The day of rest will help the players as well.

“It’s been a grueling 48 hours,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said Friday after the 88-81 victory against St. John’s. “We’ll figure out who we play next. We’ll see the result of that tonight. We’ll get prepared as coaches. Then we’ll use (Saturday) to get them mentally ready for Sunday.”

Dayton coaches stuck around to scout Houston in the second semifinal Friday. The Cougars beat Utah 76-66. Houston held the lead for the last 25 minutes, though Utah erased a 14-point deficit in the second half and tied the game with 7:09 to play. Houston answered with a 12-2 run over the next three minutes to regain control of the game.

“My kids found a way to win,” Sampson said. “We didn’t shoot the ball well tonight. We didn’t make free throws. Sometimes the culture of your program, your DNA, knows how to win games like this.”

Sampson, now in his 10th season, has turned Houston into a powerhouse. Prior to this arrival, the program had not won a NCAA tournament game since reaching the championship game in 1984. In the last five NCAA tournaments, the Cougars are 12-5 with a Final Four appearance in 2021.

The Cougars enter this game as the top-ranked team in the Ken Pomeroy ratings. They outscored their first five opponents 386-244. Utah, which is No. 34 in the Pomeroy ratings, was the first top-100 team on Houston’s schedule. The Cougars beat Towson 65-49 in the first round of the tournament.

Houston moved from the American Athletic Conference to the Big 12 this season with the program at a peak.

“We have an important year coming up,” Sampson told the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook before the season. “One of the things I try to do is get the kids to focus on what’s in front of us, not what’s ahead of us. We have to replace four starters. Last year, we had to replace four starters.”

Houston’s leading scorer, 6-foot-1 guard L.J. Cryer, played the last three seasons at Baylor. He’s averaging 15.4 points per game.

Emanuel Sharp, a 6-3 redshirt sophomore guard, averaged 5.9 points off the bench last season for Houston and is averaging 13.4 in his first season as a starter.

Houston’s third-leading scorer, 6-5 guard Damian Dunn (9.0 points per game), played the last four seasons at Temple.

This will be the first matchup between Dayton and Houston since Dec. 27, 1975, at UD Arena. Houston won 72-68. Otis Birdsong averaged 24.6 points per game that season for Houston but was limited to 13 by the Flyers. Erv Giddings scored 20 for Dayton. Johnny Davis and Jim Paxson each scored 16.

A season earlier, Dayton lost 86-85 at Houston. Freshman Tony Smith made the go-ahead jump shot with 14 seconds to play. Leighton Moulton missed a shot in the final seconds for Dayton. Birdsong scored 30 for the Cougars. Davis led the Flyers with 23 points.

Those were the sixth and seventh games in the series. In the first matchup, Dayton beat Houston 94-77 in the second round of the NIT at Madison Square Garden in 1962. Bill Chmielewski scored 32 points.

The teams played against at Madison Square Garden in 1966. The Flyers won 71-69 behind 27 points from Don May.

Houston beat Dayton 71-64 in the first round of the NCAA tournament in 1970 in Fort Worth, Texas. In 1971, Houston routed Dayton 107-80 at Hofheinz Pavilion, which is still Houston’s home court but is now known as the Fertitta Center.

Houston first visited UD Arena on Jan. 3, 1972. The Flyers won 73-69 with Donald Smith scoring 23 points.

The championship game Sunday is the last game of the Charleston Classic.

• North Texas (2-2) will play Towson (2-3) in the seventh-place game at 12:30 p.m.

• LSU (2-2) will play Wake Forest (2-2) in the fifth-place game at 3 p.m.

• St. John’s (2-2) will play Utah (3-1) in the third-place game at 5:30 p.m.

SUNDAY’S GAME

Dayton vs. Houston, 8 p.m., ESPN, 1290, 95.7