“Fordham’s Rams continued on their victorious way and meanwhile butted UD’s Flyers down to the .500 mark by winning 64-59 at the UD Fieldhouse last night before 5,753 spectators,” Burns wrote. “Moreover, the score was none too flattering to the New Yorkers, who clearly were the better team in racking up their ninth win in as many outings this year.”
Fordham was a consistent winner then, something it has not been since the 1980s. It hasn’t defeated the Flyers in Dayton since that game in 1953. It lost one more time at the UD Fieldhouse in 1957 and has lost 15 times at UD Arena. Fordham (9-8, 2-3) gets another chance against Dayton (12-7, 4-2) at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Dayton has dominated no A-10 program as it has Fordham. The Flyers won 16 straight games — home and away — in the series before losing 55-54 at Fordham last season.
Here’s a breakdown of Dayton’s history against current members of the A-10. The teams are ranked by Dayton’s winning percentage against them. Dayton’s record and winning percentage against the teams are in parentheses:
1. Fordham (32-6, .842): The Rams and Flyers joined the A-10 in the same season (1995-96). Dayton has lost four times at Fordham’s Rose Hill Gym since then (1996, 2000, 2006 and 2021).
2. St. Bonaventure (28-10, .737): Dayton extended its winning streak against the Bonnies to seven games with a 68-50 victory last week at UD Arena. This series began on Dec. 18, 1948 at the Olean Armory.
3. George Mason (10-4, .714): The teams first met in 2007. Dayton fell to 4-3 at EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, Va., with a 50-49 loss Saturday.
4. Duquesne (58-24, .707): Dayton played Duquesne for the first time two days after it played Fordham for the first time in 1953. The Dukes have never won more than two games in a row in the series. Dayton won 16 in a row from 1997-2004. Dayton won 72-52 on Jan. 15 in Pittsburgh, and the teams meet again Feb. 9 at UD Arena.
5. Richmond (20-9, .690): Dayton has won eight straight games in the series since losing 73-64 at the Robins Center in 2014. The Spiders are 1-13 at UD Arena since the series began in 2001. Their only victory came in 2011 (70-61).
6. La Salle (29-17, .630): The Explorers ended Dayton’s 20-game A-10 winning streak a year ago with a 67-65 victory. They also ended a 14-game losing streak at UD Arena. They had not won in Dayton since Feb. 27, 1999. Dayton and La Salle first played in the NIT in 1952.
7. Saint Louis (39-28, .582): Since losing seven times in a nine-game stretch starting in 2009, Dayton has 14 victories in 17 games against the Billikens. That includes a 68-63 victory on Jan. 11. The programs, who first met in 1952, play in St. Louis on Feb. 5.
8. Rhode Island (23-18, .561): Dayton first played Rhode Island and Saint Joseph’s in the 1939-40 season, making those two programs its oldest A-10 rivals. Dayton and Rhode Island didn’t play again until 1996. The Flyers and Rams split eight games in the regular season in Grant’s first four seasons.
9. Davidson (6-5, .545): The programs first played in 1969 and met two other times (1972 and 1973) before Davidson joined the A-10 in the 2014-15 season. Since then, Davidson is 2-6 against Dayton. It beat the Flyers 77-60 at Belk Arena in 2015 and won 73-67 in the A-10 tournament in 2017 in Pittsburgh. Dayton has won the last four games in the series. That includes an 89-78 overtime victory at Davidson last season. The teams don’t meet until the final game of the regular season this year: March 5 at UD Arena.
10. George Washington (20-17, .541): This is another series that started when Dayton joined the A-10 in 1996. The Flyers picked up their fourth straight victory against GW on Jan. 8: 83-58 in Washington, D.C.
11. Saint Joseph’s (23-20, .535): Dayton hasn’t won more than two games in a row against the Hawks since it won three straight from 2002-03. Dayton won 80-67 at Hagan Arena in Philadelphia in 2020. It was its first victory there in 20 years. It returned to Hagan last season and lost 97-84.
12. Massachusetts (16-14, .533): UMass coach Matt McCall beat his mentor, Dayton coach Anthony Grant, twice in 2017-18, their first seasons. Dayton then swept two games from UMass in each of the next seasons. They didn’t play last season because of COVID-19 reasons and don’t play this season until Feb. 23 at UD Arena. The Flyers and Minutemen first played in 1996, Dayton’s first season in the A-10.
13. Virginia Commonwealth (7-15, .318): No A-10 team owns Dayton like VCU, which has won eight of the last 10 games in the series since a 106-79 loss at UD Arena in 2018. Dayton has lost five games by five points or fewer to VCU in the last five seasons, including a 53-52 loss on Jan. 5.
TUESDAY’S GAME
Fordham at Dayton, 7 p.m., Spectrum News 1, 1290, 95.7
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