Officials reviewed the play and gave Loyola 0.2 seconds. The Ramblers needed to go the length of the court and score on a tip-in — a near impossible task — and they didn’t get a shot off after an errant pass.
Smith and Javon Bennett used the second celebration to attempt a running hip bump. They jumped into each other. Smith’s bump caused Bennett to fall hard on his side. His head bounced off the court. Smith and Bennett lay there tangled for a moment before running to the handshake line — Bennett appeared fine, laughing all the way — to join their teammates.
Smith and Bennett deserve forgiveness for the near disastrous celebration. For the two guards and the rest of the team, it had been a minute since they had reason to leave the court with joy.
“Coach has just talked about weathering the storm,” Dayton guard Enoch Cheeks said. “It wouldn’t be a process without ups and downs and things like that. We stuck true to what we are, came out of practice ready to learn, ready to correct our mistakes and just ready to be really hungry to get a win.”
Dayton (12-6, 2-3) ended a three-game losing streak in Atlantic 10 Conference play and enjoyed its first victory of 2025. Its last victory came in the final game of 2024 when it beat La Salle 84-70 on New Year’s Eve at UD Arena on the opening day of A-10 play. The Flyers avoided their first four-game losing streak since January 2014.
Credit: David Jablonski
While Smith made the winning pass and L’Etang etched his name in the UD history book with one of the most unique buzzer-beaters in school history, the star of the game was Cheeks. He scored a career-high 26 points on 10-of-14 shooting, making 6 of 9 3-pointers.
“Malachi, Nate (Santos), everybody was making plays and getting into the paint, getting to the basket,” Cheeks said. “I was there for the easy catch-and-shoots. It just worked out today.”
Cheeks was Dayton’s MVP in 13 non-conference games. He led the team in scoring (13.9 points per game) and rebounding (7.4). In three games at the Maui Invitational, he averaged 15.7 points and 7.0 rebounds, making 9 of 19 3-pointers.
Cheeks scored 14 points in a 71-63 victory against Marquette on Dec. 14. He made 7 of 12 2-point shots in that game but 0 of 5 3-point attempts. That started a six-game stretch in which he made 1 of 18 3-point shots (and 7 of 23 2-pointers.
In the postgame press conference Saturday, Cheeks talked about how he broke out of his shooting slump. He made 3 of 5 3-pointers and scored 11 points one game earlier, albeit in a 67-59 loss to George Mason.
“I was just going back to basics, back to my routine, blocking out the outside noise, getting lots of rest, staying true to myself and just trying to contribute in other ways to the game,” Cheeks said. “Today my preparation took over, and I was able to showcase what I’ve been working on.”
As he has said many times over the years, Grant explained Cheeks’ cold shooting by saying, “That’s basketball.”
“Sometimes guys are going to shoot the ball well, and sometimes they’re not,” Grant said. “But Cheeks always gives effort. He’s a worker. Tonight he had five steals and (seven rebounds). His imprint on the game is far more than the points that he scores. So let’s not restrict who he is to how many points he scores.”
Cheeks made three big shots after Dayton blew a 13-point lead in the second half. He made a game-tying 3 with 5:44 to play in the second half and a go-ahead 3 with 2:39 to play. In overtime, he made a tie-breaking 3-pointer with 46 seconds to play.
Dayton needed every shot to beat Loyola. The Ramblers, who made 2 of 12 3s in the first half, rallied by making 9 of 14 3-pointers in the second half. They made 5 of 6 in the final eight minutes.
Loyola answered every big shot by Dayton with one of its own until the final shot by L’Etang.
• Sheldon Edwards Jr. made a one-handed shot over L’Etang to tie the game with 13 seconds left and send it to overtime.
• After Smith made 2 of 2 free throws to give Dayton an 80-77 lead with 21 seconds remaining in overtime, Edwards hit a turnaround, fadeaway jump shot against Cheeks and Jaiun Simon with 11 seconds to play to cut Dayton’s lead to 80-79.
• After Smith made 1 of 2 free throws, Jalen Quinn dribbled past L’Etang and made a short shot over Santos with 3.7 remaining, tying the game.
That set up the winning play by Smith and L’Etang and the latest memorable chapter in an up-and-down season that finds Dayton fighting for its life in the A-10 standings. Dayton sat alone in 14th place entering the game, ahead of only Fordham (8-10, 0-5). It’s now tied for eighth place with six teams, including Loyola (11-7, 2-3).
“Heck of a basketball game,” Grant said. “Obviously, a lot of back-and-forth swings. Like we talk about, every game is always going to be a game of runs. I thought our guys did a good job coming out with aggression and playing the game the way we need to be able to play it in the first half, and then in the second half, it flipped. They got it going from the 3-point line, and we knew coming in that was going to be something that was a key to the game. They erased the double-digit lead really quickly. But the word that we’ve used a lot this year with our group is resilient, and they were able to weather that storm and find a way.”
Credit: David Jablonski
TUESDAY’S GAME
Dayton at Duquesne, 7 p.m., ESPN+, 95.7, 1290
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