UD famously hasn’t won a game on Xavier’s home court since 1979 and hasn’t beaten Xavier in Cincinnati since 1981. The streak climbed to 28 games when Dayton last visited the Cintas Center in 2013 in Archie’s second season as UD coach.
Dayton, which climbed to No. 16 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll on Monday, has a tortured history at Xavier and also at La Salle’s Tom Gola Arena, where it has lost seven times in its last 10 chances. Dayton (15-2, 5-0) plays La Salle (10-8, 1-4) at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday with a 12-game winning streak on the line.
“It’s a quick turnaround,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said Saturday after a 96-62 victory against Rhode Island. “We have to continue to show the maturity and understand every night we’ve got to come ready to go. Our players have done a good job understanding that, and I trust our staff will have them mentally and physically ready to go.”
With just two days between games, the rest Dayton’s starters got Saturday should help. With the Flyers leading by 30, DaRon Holmes exited the game with 14 minutes, 53 seconds left in the second half. Holmes, who averages 31.1 minutes, played a season-low 24 minutes.
“It’s very important,” said Holmes, who was named Atlantic 10 Player of the Week Monday for the second straight week. “It’s not like it was at the beginning of season. These games are coming a lot faster.”
Holmes knows every team in the A-10 is dangerous, even if he might not know just how many good Dayton teams have lost at La Salle.
• In 2015, a Dayton team that would win 27 games lost 55-53 in the final game of the regular season at La Salle. The loss kept Dayton from sharing the A-10 regular-season championship with Davidson. La Salle was a .500 team (15-15) entering that game.
• A year later, Dayton’s only A-10 loss in its first 12 league games came at La Salle. The 61-57 victory by the Explorers was their only A-10 victory in its first 12 A-10 games. It came against No. 25 Dayton, which had just earned a ranking in the Associated Press top-25 poll. La Salle finished 9-22 that season.
• In 2022, the last time Dayton played at La Salle, talk about the Flyers entering the NCAA tournament at-large discussion ended with a 62-60 loss in the third-to-last game of the regular season. Dayton was 20-8 entering that game, and La Salle was 7-18.
On the other hand, the greatest Dayton team in recent memory won big at La Salle. Obi Toppin scored 20 points in an 84-58 victory at La Salle on Jan. 2, 2020, as Dayton began a march to an 18-0 A-10 record. The Flyers ended a four-game losing streak at Tom Gola Arena with that victory.
The 2023-24 Flyers hope to follow a similar path and know winning at La Salle is the next step. Dayton ranks 15th in the NCAA Evaluation Tool. La Salle is No. 217. KenPom.com gives UD an 85% chance of winning. Dayton beat La Salle 77-53 at UD Arena last season. On paper, it’s a mismatch, but that often hasn’t mattered over the years.
“It’s a lot different when you’re playing conference teams because they are familiar with how each team in the conference plays,” Holmes said. “Some people might say, ‘Hey, this team’s KenPom is this,’ but in reality, they know how we play so it’s a lot more challenging than it seems.”
La Salle was picked to finish last in the A-10 preseason poll. It has suffered eight straight non-winning seasons and has played in the NCAA tournament one time this century.
The Explorers returned two of their top three scorers from last season: guards Khalil Brantley and Jhamir Brickus, who average 29.3 points between them. Their third-leading scorer, guard Anwar Gill (10.9), has missed the last four games with a sprained ankle but could be back Tuesday, second-year coach Fran Dunphy told reporters last week.
La Salle finished 9-4 in non-conference play with losses to Duke, Temple, the Miami Hurricanes and Howard. In A-10 play, it has lost at home to George Mason (14-5, 3-3) and Virginia Commonwealth (11-7, 3-2) and on the road to Massachusetts (12-6, 3-3) and Saint Joseph’s (12-6, 2-3). It won 81-76 at Fordham (8-10, 2-3) on Jan. 6 for its only victory.
In A-10 play, La Salle is shooting 29% from 3-point range. That’s the second-worst mark in the league. Opponents are shooting 41.9%, the worst mark. La Salle leads the A-10 in turnover margin (plus 3.2).
While Dayton has won five A-10 games by an average of 13.2 points per game, an A-10 best number boosted by a blowout Saturday, La Salle ranks last in the A-10 in scoring margin (minus 10.4).
This will be La Salle’s first game in eight days. It has not played since an 82-62 loss at Saint Joseph’s on Jan. 15.
“We’ve got time to reevaluate, watch a lot of film and work as hard as we can to be better,” Dunphy said after that game.
TUESDAY’S GAME
Dayton at La Salle, 6:30 p.m., ESPN+, 1290, 95.7
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