Kobe Elvis picked up his third foul in the second minute of the second half. Koby Brea took his spot. Nate Santos picked up his third foul 13 seconds later. Petras Padegimas came off the bench to replace him.
“We weren’t necessarily playing with great rhythm with those two guys off the floor that early in in the second half,” Grant said, “so we had to bring them back probably earlier than we would have liked and they were able to stay on the floor. We felt like the zone was the best way to kind of protect them.”
With Elvis and Santos on the bench, Fordham trimmed what had been an 11-point Dayton lead to 48-47. They returned to the game at the 15:39 mark. Elvis didn’t pick up another foul. Santos committed one more foul.
No. 16 Dayton (21-4, 11-2) won 78-70, handing Fordham (10-15, 4-8) its third straight loss. Fordham did shoot slightly worse in the second half (41.4% after shooting 42.3% in the second half). It still outscored Dayton 35-34 in the second half by grabbing eight offensive rebounds and turning them into eight second-chance points.
Giving up second-chance points has been a weak spot for Dayton this season. In A-10 play, it ranks 13th out of 15 teams in offensive rebounding percentage (25.7%), and Dayton’s number is worse over the entire season (27.1%, 250th in the country).
“I thought (the zone) did some good things for us,” Grant said. “It kind of got them out of rhythm a little bit. They got in a little bit of a rhythm there with some second shots that led to 3s. Our base defense is always going to be our man.”
Fun fact: Dayton made 20 of 27 two-point field goal attempts (74.1%) against Fordham. That’s its best percentage of the season. Dayton topped 70% twice last season — both times against Fordham.
Scoring milestone: Dayton honored guard Enoch Cheeks before the game Saturday for reaching the 1,000-point milestone. He scored 846 points in three seasons at Robert Morris and has 174 in his first season at Dayton. He had 12 points against Fordham and ranks sixth on the team with 7.0 points per game.
Standings update: Loyola Chicago (19-7, 11-2) moved into a first-place tie with Dayton in the Atlantic 10 Conference with a 77-67 victory at Rhode Island (11-14, 5-7) on Sunday.
Dayton and Loyola play on March 1 in Chicago. Both teams play George Mason in their next game. Dayton plays at George Mason at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Loyola plays a home game against George Mason on Saturday.
Rankings and stats update: Dayton stayed at No. 19 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool after beating Fordham.
• Dayton fell two spots to No. 24 in the Ken Pomeroy ratings.
• Koby Brea made 2 of 5 3-pointers. He remains the national leader in 3-point shooting percentage (68 of 139, 48.9%).
WEDNESDAY’S GAME
Dayton at George Mason, 7 p.m., MASN, 95.7, 1290
Credit: David Jablonski
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