An intense evening, which felt in many ways like all three games Dayton played in the Maui Invitational, ended with little drama. As Key celebrated with fans, Dayton took out the ball under the Marquette basket. Marquette knew a foul wouldn’t help and let Malachi Smith dribble out the clock with a big smile on his face.
Dayton players, led by Enoch Cheeks and encouraged by Athletic Director Neil Sullivan, who was standing by the Red Scare student section, jumped into the stands to create a lasting image of triumph after a 71-63 victory.
“With all that emotion, to celebrate with them, it was great,” Dayton guard Javon Bennett said.
“A lot of the credit goes to the players,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said, “and their heart, their resiliency, their willingness to stick together through adversity and believe in each other. And then I can’t say enough about our crowd. This environment here tonight was as good as anywhere. Man, this was big time. I’m so happy and grateful we’ve got the best fans in the country, and so I’m glad we were able to come through with the win tonight.”
Credit: David Jablonski
The victory stands out for a number of reasons:
• Dayton (9-2) recorded its biggest upset on Tom Blackburn Court since a victory against No. 6 Pittsburgh in the 2007-08 season. For the first time since 1984 when Dayton beat No. 3 DePaul and No. 7 Oklahoma, it has beaten two top-10 teams in the same season.
• Dayton extended its home winning streak to 24 games, the third-longest in school history. It has won 25 straight non-conference home games since losing three in a row to UMass Lowell, Lipscomb and Austin Peay early in the 2021-22 season
• Dayton improved to 2-0 against Big East teams this season. It beat No. 2 Connecticut 85-67 in November at the Maui Invitational. Those are the top Big East teams in the NCAA Evaluation Tool. Marquette is No. 7. UConn, which beat No. 4 Gonzaga on Saturday, is No. 11.
• Dayton beat Marquette (9-2), which has lost only to Iowa State and Dayton, in the first meeting between the teams since the 2008-09 season. Dayton has now won three straight games in the series and six of seven since losing seven straight games in the 1990s.
• Dayton climbed from No. 38 to No. 23 in the NET. That’s its highest ranking this season and the same spot it finished last season.
Chase Ross, who led Marquette with 19 points, credited the crowd of 13,407 for playing a part in the outcome.
“Crowd got into it,” he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “We didn’t really let the crowd affect us, but they had a pivotal part in it. We just crumbled at the end.”
How did Dayton win after trailing by 13 points in the first half and again by 13 points in the first minute of the second half?
• The Flyers tied their worst 3-point shooting performance of the season (4 of 19, 21.1%) but made 29 of 45 2-point shots (59.5%). In the second half, they made 17 of 26 shots (65.4%) inside the arc.
• Javon Bennett and Zed Key each scored 15 points. Bennett made 3 of 4 3-pointers. Key made 6 of 8 shots.
• Dayton scored at least one point on 12 of their last 15 possessions. Nate Santos scored two straight baskets in the last four minutes by tipping in missed layups by Smith, pushing Dayton’s lead to five points each time.
• Malachi Smith recorded 10 of his 11 assists in the second half. He committed only one turnover. He leads the nation in assist rate (46.8).
• Dayton committed only seven turnovers against an opponent that had not forced fewer than 12 in a game all season.
• Dayton limited Marquette, which averages 81.5 points, to a season-low 63 points. Marquette did not score after cutting Dayton’s lead to 66-63 with 1 minute, 41 seconds remaining.
Credit: David Jablonski
“We knew we would have to do a great job taking care of the ball and have some continuity and success offensively to keep them out of transition,” Grant said. “They’ve got a lot of weapons offensively. We tried to keep them in front of us. On the defensive end, our coaching staff did a great job of having a game plan ready to try to limit some of the things that they’ve had success with. We had to make some adjustments. Credit to our staff, to the players, for being able to make those adjustments from a defensive standpoint, and then offensively, we were able to figure some things out in the second half to get some success offensively and to be able to set our defense.”
Dayton celebrated the victory by dousing Grant with water in the locker room, though the video shared by the official UD social media accounts showed Grant spraying the players first as he entered the room.
The Flyers had reasons to rejoice because the victory likely will land them in the Associated Press top 25 for the first time this season. It also puts them on the right side of the conversation in regards to a NCAA tournament at-large berth with two more important games in the last week of non-conference play: Tuesday at home against UNLV (5-4); and Saturday against No. 22 Cincinnati (8-1) at the Heritage Bank Center in Cincinnati.
This was Dayton’s second Quadrant 1 victory. Marquette is No. 7 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool. As long as it stays in the top 30, this will remain a Quad 1 victory. Dayton also has a victory against No. 20 Connecticut on a neutral court in Maui. If UConn stays in the top 50, that will be a Quad 1 victory for Dayton.
“These kind of wins help us for March Madness,” Bennett said. “We set a goal to be one of those teams in March Madness. When we have a team come into our building that highly ranked, we want to take advantage of those opportunities.”
TUESDAY’S GAME
UNLV at Dayton, 7 p.m., Peacock, 1290, 95.7
Credit: David Jablonski
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