Dayton (9-5) and Davidson (8-5) meet again at 2 p.m. Saturday at Belk Arena in Davidson, N.C. Both teams seek a 2-0 start in A-10 play.
It will be Dayton’s first game against Davidson’s new coach Matt McKillop, whose dad Bob coached the program the last 34 years. Matt had been on his dad’s staff since 2008.
“I haven’t seen them play this year,” said Dayton coach Anthony Grant on Wednesday after a 69-57 victory against Duquesne. “But I think I’ve said before how much respect I had for his father. I don’t really know enough about them right now to talk about how they’re playing or what they’re doing, but I’m sure there will be a lot of similarities.”
Dayton will seek its fourth straight victory at Belk Arena. The Flyers last lost there eight years ago: 77-60 on Jan. 20, 2015.
The last three victories have been memorable. Scoochie Smith made three 3-pointers in overtime in an 89-82 victory in 2017. Dayton won 74-73 in 2019 when Josh Cunningham made 1 of 2 free throws with 2.2 seconds remaining. In 2021, Dayton won 89-78 in overtime after Davidson star Kellan Grady’s game-tying shot with 3.3 seconds left in regulation.
Davidson won the A-10 regular-season championship last season with a 15-3 mark, finishing one game ahead of Dayton and Virginia Commonwealth. It lost three starters and was picked to finish sixth in the preseason poll this season.
Davidson got off to a good start with a 6-1 record, including a 102-97 double-overtime victory at Wright State and victories against Old Dominion, South Carolina and San Francisco. It then lost four of five games. One of those defeats was to No. 1 Purdue. In a 69-61 defeat, Davidson kept it close until the final minutes. Davidson’s season hit a low point with a 73-70 loss at home to Northeastern (5-7), which ranks 269th in the NCAA Evaluation Tool.
Davidson bounced back with a 57-43 victory at Fordham (12-2) on Wednesday.
“You come off a loss like last Wednesday, and your back’s against the wall,” McKillop said in his postgame radio interview. “You’ve got to go on the road and play a team that’s 12-1 with 11 home wins. You had to respond with toughness and energy. We brought it.”
Davidson held Fordham to a season-worst 9.7% shooting from 3-point range (3 of 31). The Wildcats have been strong that area all season. It ranks 32nd in the country in 3-point shooting defense (28.6). Only Northeastern (9 of 19, 47.4) has topped 40% against Davidson.
On the other end of the court, Davidson has struggled from 3-point range in its last two games, making 2 of 12 against Northeastern and 3 of 12 at Fordham. Davidson’s top 3-point shooter, Foster Loyer, an A-10 preseason first-team selection, has made 5 of 29 3-pointers (17.2%) in the last five games after making 29 of 63 (46.0%) in the first eight games.
Loyer made 5 of 7 3-pointers and led Davidson with 25 points in an 82-76 loss at UD Arena on March 3 last season. Davidson had already clinched the A-10 championship entering that game. Koby Brea made a go-ahead 3-pointer with 43 seconds to play for the Flyers.
Brea and Mustapha Amzil are the only current Flyers who played in the last game at Belk Arena in 2021.
SATURDAY’S GAME
Dayton at Davidson, 2 p.m., ESPN+, 1290, 95.7
Credit: David Jablonski
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