Here’s a quick recap of the game:
What it means: Dayton (11-6, 1-3) failed to rebound from back-to-back losses on the road to George Washington and Massachusetts and couldn’t take advantage of a one-week break. It suffered its third straight loss.
Dayton’s 26-game home winning streak ended. This is its first three-game losing streak in Atlantic 10 Conference play since January 2014 when it lost four straight.
George Mason (13-5, 4-1), the last team to win at UD Arena in 2023, has now won four straight games in series.
Star of the game: Darius Maddox led George Mason with 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting. He made 4 of 5 3-pointers.
Nate Santos scored 20 points for Dayton on 6-of-15 shooting.
Key stat: George Mason shot a season-best 55% (11 of 20) from 3-point range. Dayton made 9 of 17 3s (52.9%), ending a six-game stretch in which it shot under 30% each time.
Looking ahead: Dayton plays Loyola Chicago at 4 p.m. Saturday at UD Arena.
Credit: David Jablonski
FIRST-HALF RECAP
The struggles continued for the Dayton Flyers in their first game in a week as they fell into a 41-27 halftime hole against George Mason on Wednesday at UD Arena.
Here’s a quick recap of the first half:
Key players: Darius Maddox led George Mason with 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting. He made 3 of 3 3-pointers.
Santos scored 14 points for Dayton. He made 3 of 5 3-pointers.
Key stat: George Mason shot 57.1% (16 of 28) from the field, while Dayton shot 37.5% (9 of 24). George Mason made 7 of 13 3-pointers. Dayton made 4 of 8.
Big run: Dayton trailed 19-11 after a free throw by Amaël L’Etang with 10 minutes, 5 seconds left in the half. George Mason then outscored Dayton 9-0 in the next four minutes to build a 28-11 lead.
Poor start: Dayton fell into a 6-0 hole as George Mason made 2 of its first three 3-point attempts. Dayton forward Zed Key had two turnover and a missed dunk on the team’s first three possessions.
Lineup change: Jacob Conner replaced Javon Bennett in the starting lineup for Dayton. Bennett started the first games. Conner had two turnovers and one steal in 11 minutes in the first half.
injury news: Dayton guard Posh Alexander sat on the bench with a protective boot on his left foot. He suffered an injury in the second half of Dayton’s previous game at Massachusetts seven days earlier.
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