Grant after second straight stunning loss: ‘I want to take the blame on this’

Goodhue was the only winner wearing red at UD Arena on a brutal night for the Dayton Flyers and the Flyer Faithful. The true winners, from Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn., wore purple and gold. The Bisons beat the Flyers in every phase of the game. Not since the Buffalo Bulls beat Dayton 84-55 on Nov. 30, 2011, had an opponent dominated UD like this at UD Arena.

Lipscomb left Dayton with a 78-59 victory, and coach Lennie Acuff provided grief counseling of sorts for the Dayton fans when interviewed outside his team bus after the game.

“I know this was a tough night for them,” Acuff said, “but there’s nobody who respects Anthony Grant more than me. Anthony Grant is a great basketball coach and a better person, and they’ll get it right. They’re really talented. ... I’ve done this for a long time. This is my 32nd year as a coach, and when that ball goes in, everything looks good and when it doesn’t go in, it’s a miserable game. He will get it right. They just need to keep encouraging those kids because they’re young and they’re talented. I just have so much respect for him.”

Grant’s program reached a new low in his fifth season. Here are the sad facts:

• This was Dayton’s most lopsided loss at home since an 84-55 loss to Buffalo in 2011.

• This is the first time since Ken Pomeroy ratings began in the 2001-02 season Dayton has lost back-to-back games to teams ranked below 200. Lowell, which beat Dayton 59-59 on Saturday, ranks 249th in the Ken Pomeroy ratings. Lipscomb ranked 230th entering the game. Dayton ranked 93rd.

• Dayton is 1-2 for the first time since the 2004-05 season when it opened the season with a loss to Eastern Kentucky before beating Coppin State and losing to DePaul. That team finished 18-11. In the 16 seasons prior to this one, Dayton won two of its first three games 10 times and started 3-0 six times.

Dayton fans resisted booing the team in the final minutes but did make early exits as it became clear no serious comeback would occur. Lipscomb led by as many as 23 points. It shot 59.2 percent from the field — the highest percentage any opponent has recorded against Dayton since Rhode Island shot 62.5 percent (30 of 48) in an 88-76 victory on Jan. 25, 2014, in Kingston, R.I.

“I feel we need more effort on defense,” said Dayton freshman guard Malachi Smith, who scored a career high 11 points to match Toumani Camara and Elijah Weaver for the team lead. “We have to pay attention to the scouting report. It’s mainly defense, in my opinion. We just have to play harder, play tougher. You all got to be dogs.”

While the defense struggled in this game, the offense hasn’t gotten on track in any of the three games, with the exception of a 19-0 run in the opener against Illinois-Chicago. Dayton’s field-goal percentage has declined in each game: 47.1 to 39.1 to 38.5.

“We feel down ourselves,” Smith said. “It’s not a good feeling. I don’t think any team wants to go through this. The only thing to do is push through because there’s no positives to dwell on tonight’s game.”

Dayton had trouble from the opening moments, and it started with Lipscomb’s 6-foot-9, 275-pound senior center Ahsan Asadullah. Dayton freshman DaRon Holmes II was overmatched trying to guard the big man, and no one else had any luck either. Asadullah scored eight of his 21 points in the first seven minutes as Lipscomb built a 14-4 lead.

“He’s a really good passer,” Grant said. “He’s really good low post scorer. He moves really well, handles really well. We had a difficult time finding a good matchup on him.”

Asadullah got help from second-year guard Tommy Murr, who scored 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting. He did not miss a 3-pointer in five attempts. Greg Jones added 15 points.

Lipscomb led by as many as 12 points in the first half before Dayton made its only serious run of the game, a 7-0 spurt to cut the deficit to 31-28 with 3:07 to play. The Flyers couldn’t get any close. The following possessions included an airball on a 3-point (Elijah Weaver), a turnover (Kobe Elvis), a rushed shot at the shot clock buzzer (Mustapha Amzil) and a turnover (Elvis) in the last three minutes.

Lipscomb led 38-28 at halftime. Dayton has trailed at the half in all three games by a total of 24 points.

“We were fortunate,” Acuff said. “We made shots. I thought it was important for us to get off to a good start. We played the College of Charleston on Friday night and got off to a great start but didn’t finish the half right. We’re just so young. We have five or six freshmen playing a lot. But I thought obviously Ahsan (Asadullah) was great, and Tommy Murr off the bench played great.”

As he often does after a disappointing loss, Grant blamed himself. Two years after his team lost two games all season — both in overtime — his team has two losses in three games.

“Obviously, the stat sheet shows we got outplayed tonight pretty much in every facet,” he said. “Defensively, we really struggled in both halves to take away what we needed to take away from a team that we knew coming in was a really good offensive team. We knew we’d have to have a great defensive effort. We fell short there. Offensively, for the third game in a row, we continue to struggle to find any level of continuity and consistency. So right now as a coach, I want to take the blame on this. I’ve got to do a better job of making sure that my teams are prepared to go out and and understand what they need to do to try to put themselves in a better position.”

SATURDAY’S GAME

Austin Peay at Dayton, 2 p.m., Bally Sports Ohio, 1290, 95.7