High above the court, hanging from the ceiling, more banners honor past champions. The logo of two of those champions, Dayton and Connecticut, sit right next to each other.
Dayton won the Maui Invitational in 2003 in its second appearance. Connecticut won the tournament in 2005 and 2010.
No. 2 UConn, the two-time defending champion, traveled to Maui this year expecting to win its third title. Dayton expected to contend, too, because it always has in Maui, winning at least two games in every appearance.
Instead, Dayton and UConn will play the final game of the tournament Wednesday, the seventh-place game. It starts at midnight in Ohio and 7 p.m. in Maui. It will air on ESPN2.
This will be the first seventh-place game featuring two former Maui champions, mostly because Division II Chaminade University, the host of the tournament, often played and lost in the game over the years. Chaminade plays in the tournament every two years these days.
Either Dayton or UConn will be only the second former champion to lose the seventh-place game. Illinois won the championship in 2012 and lost in the seventh-place game in 2013.
Dayton played a higher-ranked team in each round of the 2024 Maui Invitational: No. 12 North Carolina; No. 5 Iowa State; and now No. 2 Connecticut. The Flyers lost 92-90 to North Carolina on Monday and 89-84 to Iowa State on Tuesday. Both games were decided in the final minute.
“I think we proved that we’re a top-25 team in this country and we can hang with anybody,” Dayton guard Malachi Smith said Tuesday. “We played two great teams ... and it came down to two possessions both games. I think we were in control of both games, but I think we learned about ourselves. Took some Ls but going to turn them into lessons.”
Dayton hasn’t lost three games in a row since it finished last in the Battle 4 Atlantis in 2022. UConn, which took a 17-game winning streak into this tournament, lost three games all of last season and hasn’t lost three non-conference games in a row since the 2017-18 season.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Here are five things to know about the game:
1. Series history: Dayton has won two of three games against UConn. All three games have taken place in tournaments.
• On March 10, 1982, Dayton beat UConn 76-75 in overtime in the first round of the NIT at UD Arena. Sean McNally made a go-ahead layup with 44 seconds left in overtime. Roosevelt Chapman scored 21 points for Dayton.
• On Nov. 20, 2000, Dayton beat No. 12 UConn 80-66 in the first round of the Maui Invitational. Yuanta Holland scored 24 points for Dayton.
• On Nov. 21, 2014, UConn beat Dayton 75-64 in the semifinals of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. Ryan Boatright scored 20 points for the Huskies.
2. Upset opportunity: Dayton has not beaten a top-two team since it upset No. 2 Notre Dame 97-82 at UD Arena in 1974. It has lost its last nine games against teams ranked first or second. The most recent opportunity came in the 2014 NCAA tournament when it lost 62-52 to No. 1 Florida in the Elite Eight.
Dayton is 3-18 against top-two teams. It beat No. 1 Duquesne in 1954 and No. 1 Seton Hall in 1953.
3. Surprising losses: UConn lost 99-97 to Memphis in overtime Monday. Memphis blew a 13-point lead in the second half. Solo Ball, of UConn, made a game-tying 3-pointer with 1 second left in the second half to send the game to overtime.
In overtime, Memphis overcame a 90-86 deficit. Then with the game tied at 92, a foul on UConn and a technical foul on the UConn bench resulted in a four-point possession, all free throws by Memphis, with 40 seconds left.
On Tuesday, Colorado rallied from an eight-point halftime deficit to beat UConn 73-72. Andrej Jakimovski made the game-winning shot with 8 seconds remaining.
“Obviously we didn’t expect to find ourselves in this position out here based on where we’ve been,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said, “But this is where we are. Defensively in the second half, just really, really bad. We’ve been bad out here defensively. Then obviously I think the foul trouble has taken its toll, too.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
4. Top players: Alex Karaban, a 6-foot-8 junior forward, leads UConn in scoring (15.0 points per game). He had 19 points against Memphis but only six against Colorado.
• Liam McNeeley, a 6-7 freshman forward, averages 14 points. He scored 10 and 20 points in the first two games.
5. Odds and ends: KenPom. com gives Dayton a 36% chance of winning and predicts a 76-72 score.
• This is the first time Dayton has played top-five opponents in back-to-back games since 1984 when it upset No. 3 DePaul 72-71 at UD and then lost to the same DePaul team, now ranked fifth, 79-59 four days later.
• In other Maui games Wednesday.
In the fifth-place game, Colorado will play Iowa State at 2:30 p.m. (9:30 a.m.).
• In the championship game, Memphis will play Auburn at 5 p.m. (noon in Maui). Neither team has won the tournament in previous appearances.
• In the third-place game, Michigan State will play North Carolina at 9:30 p.m. (4:30 p.m.).
Credit: David Jablonski
About the Author
