Dayton vs. Northwestern: What to know about Flyers’ second game of season

Twenty seven years later, the last Big Ten team to play the Flyers on Tom Blackburn Court returns to UD Arena. Dayton and Northwestern, who both opened the season Monday with dominant victories against low-ranked opponents, meet at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

This is the second game of a series announced in June 2023. The Flyers lost 71-66 on Nov. 10, 2023, at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Ill.

“A really good team,” Grant said of Northwestern on Monday after Dayton’s 87-57 victory against Saint Francis University. “I haven’t had a chance to look at much in terms of who they have returning from that team. A lot of respect for coach (Chris) Collins. He does a great job. They’re a hard prep, a really talented group. We’ve got a few days here to get prepared for that, and we’re looking forward to the opportunity.”

Here are seven things to know about the game:

1. First game: Northwestern beat Lehigh 90-47 on Monday in Evanston. Dayton also plays Lehigh on Dec. 7 at UD Arena.

The Wildcats led 51-15 at halftime. Lehigh missed all 12 of its 3-point attempts in the half.

Lehigh finished 14-18 last season and ranks 280th in the Ken Pomeroy ratings. It played Georgetown close in its second game Wednesday before losing 85-77.

“That was a veteran team coming in,” Collins said in his postgame press conference. “That was a team that played in their championship game last year against Colgate, and they returned most of their guys — all their perimeter guys, really good guards. I challenged our team defensively coming into this game. To play the way we did on the defensive end, we were all over the place. We were active but not going crazy and giving up open drives and open shots. I thought that sped them up.”

2. Top returners: Nick Martinelli, a 6-foot-7 junior forward, led Northwestern with 26 points in the opener. He made 9 of 12 field goals, including 2 of 2 3-pointers.

Martinelli averaged 8.8 points last season and scored nine points in 19 minutes against Dayton.

• Luke Hunger, a 6-10 junior forward, scored a career-high 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting against Lehigh. He averaged 3.8 points last season.

• Ty Berry, a 6-2 fifth-year guard, opened the season with a 10-point performance. He ranked fourth on the team in scoring last season (11.6).

3. Top transfer: Jalen Leach, a 6-4 fifth-year guard, played the last four seasons at Fairfield, averaging 16.2 points last season. He had 12 points and six assists in the opener.

4. Top freshman: K.J. Windham, a 6-3 guard from Indianapolis, started in his college debut Monday and had 10 points and six assists. He ranked 138th in the class of 2024, according to 247Sports.com.

5. Injury news: Brooks Barnhizer, a 6-6 senior guard who averaged 14.6 points per game last season, did not play in the opener. He has a lower-body injury, according to The Daily Northwestern.

Collins said at Big Ten Media Day in early October he expected Barnhizer to be ready to go by the opener. Barnhizer’s status for Friday is unclear.

6. On the rise: Northwestern made its second straight NCAA tournament appearance last season. It posted the same overall record (22-12) and Big Ten record (12-8) in back-to-back seasons.

Collins has taken the program to the NCAA tournament three times in 12 seasons. It had never played in the tournament until 2017. It has won in the first round and lost in the second round each time.

Northwestern lost two-double digit scorers from last year — Boo Buie (19.0 points per game) and Ryan Langborg (12.7) — and was picked to finish 16th out of 18 teams in the Big Ten media preseason poll.

7. Odds and ends: KenPom.com gives Dayton a 65% chance of winning the game and predicts a 71-67 score.

• Northwestern leads the series 3-2. Prior to the game last year, the teams had not played since Dec. 17, 2016, when Northwestern won 67-64 at the United Center in Chicago.

• In the game last year at Northwestern, Dayton made 12 of 22 3-pointers (52.2%) and overcame an 11-point deficit early in the second half to take the lead at four different points. DaRon Holmes II led the Flyers with 17 points.

Dayton had its last lead with 9:12 left. Javon Bennett missed a 3-pointer with 1:45 left that would have tied the game. The Wildcats clinched the victory with nine points at the free-throw line in the last 90 seconds.

• This will be the first time Northwestern has played a true road game against a top-40 opponent — Dayton is No. 30 in the Pomeroy ratings — since it lost 77-73 in overtime at No. 35 Wake Forest in November 2021.

“We’ve got a week of preparation to go on the road and play against a really good Dayton team in one of the most hostile environments in the country,” Collins said Monday. “So we’re going to have to be even better if we want to go on the road and try to win.”

SATURDAY’S GAME

Northwestern at Dayton, 7:30 p.m., WHIO-TV, 1290, 95.7