Dayton will need help from the Spiders to hoist the regular-season championship trophy after a 69-64 loss at Richmond on Saturday, but the Flyers followed that defeat with an 83-51 victory against George Washington on Tuesday at UD Arena and gets another home game this week.
No. 21 Dayton (17-3, 7-1) plays St. Bonaventure (13-7, 4-4) at 7 p.m. Friday. Dayton is 10-0 at home and hopes to stay on the path to its first perfect season at home since 2020 when it was 17-0 on Tom Blackburn Court.
“It’s critical,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said Tuesday. “I think St. Bonaventure ended up coming back for a big win tonight at home, so this will be a great test for our team.”
This will be the 55th straight sellout at UD Arena. That streak doesn’t include games played at home in the 2020-21 season when attendance was limited during the pandemic. Dayton is 48-6 in front of the last 54 crowds of 13,407.
The sellout streak will reach 59 games by the end of the season. It would have been 60 games, but a home game against UNLV was cancelled in December.
“Coach emphasizes defending our home court,” forward Nate Santos said. “With our fans, we have a lot of support. We want to keep defending our own court and doing a good job that, and I think we’re very much capable of doing that.”
Here are seven things to know about the St. Bonaventure game:
1. Standings update: With 10 games remaining on the 18-game Atlantic 10 Conference schedule, Dayton trails Richmond (16-5, 8-0) by one game. Richmond won its 11th straight game Wednesday, beating Fordham 83-69 on the road.
The other teams in position to earn a top-four seed and a double bye to the quarterfinals of the A-10 tournament are: Loyola-Chicago (14-7, 6-2); and Virginia Commonwealth (13-8, 5-3). Five teams are tied for fifth with 4-4 league marks: St. Bonaventure; Massachusetts; George Mason; Saint Joseph’s; and Rhode Island.
“I think that’s how it always is,” St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt said Thursday in a Zoom interview with reporters. “Everybody hasn’t played everybody yet. Some people have more difficult schedule schedules than others. I’m just worried about ourselves. It’s too early to look where’s everybody standing.”
2. Inconsistent opponent: St. Bonaventure was picked to finish third in the preseason poll because it returned its top six scorers. It got off to a good start with an 89-78 victory at VCU to open A-10 play but then lost four of its next five games to Richmond, Fordham, George Mason and Duquesne. The 80-74 loss to Fordham (9-12, 3-5) was especially surprising became it came at St. Bonaventure.
St. Bonaventure rebounded in its last two games by beating Saint Joseph’s 91-72 and then VCU 67-62 on Tuesday. It rallied from a 20-point first-half deficit and a 39-26 halftime deficit to beat VCU.
“The key to the game was the last two minutes of the first half where we got some stops and that gave us a fighting chance,” Schmidt said after the game. “We persevered; we fought. When you’re knocked down, you’ve got to fight – and that’s what we did today.”
3. Players to watch: Chad Venning, a 6-foot-10 fourth-year forward, ranked second in scoring (12.7) for St. Bonaventure last season and leads the team this season (14.2).
• Darryl Banks led the team with 15.4 points per game last season. He’s averaging 8.9 points this season but had a season-high 29 points against Saint Joseph’s after scoring a total of 10 points in the team’s last four losses.
• Cincinnati transfer Mika Adams-Woods, a 6-3 fifth-year guard, averages 13.4 points and is the team’s top 3-point shooter (31 of 69, 44.9%).
• Bryant transfer Charles Pride, a 6-4 fifth-year guard, averages 11.3 points and also shoots better than 40% from 3-point range (31 of 70, 44.3%).
4. Strengths and weaknesses: St. Bonaventure ranks eighth in the country in free-throw percentage (78.7) and 64th in 3-point shooting percentage (36.2). It is the most experienced team in the country, according to KenPom.com, with an average of 3.58 years per player.
St. Bonaventure is 1-3 on the road in A-10 play, and it was 2-7 on the road in the league last season.
5. Odds and rankings: KenPom.com gives Dayton a 78% chance of winning. Dayton ranks 18th in the NCAA Evaluation Tool. No. 69 St. Bonaventure is the third-highest ranked A-10 team. It’s one spot behind Richmond.
This is a Quad 2 game for Dayton because St. Bonaventure ranks between 31 and 75. Dayton is 3-3 in Quad 1, 3-0 in Quad 2, 5-0 in Quad 3 and 6-0 in Quad 4.
This is a Quad 1 game for St. Bonaventure. It is 0-3 in Quad 1 with losses to Auburn, Florida Atlantic and Richmond.
Credit: David Jablonski
6. Series history: Dayton lost 68-59 at St. Bonaventure last season. The Bonnies ended a seven-game losing streak in the series.
Since a 79-72 victory at Dayton in February 2016, St. Bonaventure has lost four straight games against Dayton at UD Arena. Schmidt looks forward to playing in front of a sell-out crowd, though.
“This is fun,” Schmidt said. “This is why you play college basketball — to play in environments like this. If you’re very competitive, this is what you love. You’re not shying away from it. It’s going to be a great, a great atmosphere.”
7. Hot shooter: Dayton guard Koby Brea made 5 of 9 3-pointers against George Washington. He leads the country in 3-point accuracy (58 of 119, 48.7%) among players who attempt at least 2.5 3s per game.
“He’s impressive,” George Washington coach Chris Caputo said. “His shot is very, very clean. It looks the same every single time. He shoots it from deep. He’s shooting it off the dribble some now. The guy is as good of a shooter as there is.”
Brea has made five or more 3-pointers five times in a game this season. Only three players in Dayton history have shot better than 48% in a season: Coby Turner, (61 of 118, 51.7% in 1997-98); Dan Christie (46 of 92, 1986-87); and Negele Knight (71 of 144, 49.3).
“He’s one of the elite shooters in the country,” Grant said.
FRIDAY’S GAME
Dayton vs. St. Bonaventure, 7 p.m., ESPN2, 95.7, 1290
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