Key, a fifth-year forward in his first season at Dayton, turned toward the fans in the front row under the basket and shook his head.
“He can’t guard me,” Key said. “He can’t guard me.”
Tshimanga picked up five fouls in seven minutes. His brother Emmanuel, who started, had three fouls in 15 minutes. That told only a small part of the story of how Dayton beat New Mexico State 74-53.
New Mexico State guarded few of the Flyers well in the second half as Dayton broke open a close game with a dominant performance. The Flyers outscored the Aggies 32-8 in a 12-minute stretch that included a 14-0 run, stretching the lead to as many as 29 points.
“When you look at the numbers, I thought our guys did a really good job of controlling some of the things that (New Mexico State) had success with in their first three games,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “In the second half, I thought it was the combination of what we were able to do defensively and then offensively, the shots were falling, and that opened the game up to where we had a substantial lead. I thought our guys did a good job of playing all the way through. That may have been one of our more complete games overall.”
With the victory:
• Dayton improved to 5-0 for the first time since the 2019-20 season when it won its first five games before losing to Kansas in the Maui Invitational championship game. This is Dayton’s eighth 5-0 start in this century.
• Dayton won its 21st straight home game. That’s tied for the third-longest streak in school history. The Flyers won 30 home games in a row from March 2008 to January 2010, 27 in a row from February 2014 to December 2016 and 21 in a row from December 1959 to January 1961.
• Dayton improved to 3-0 against New Mexico State (3-1). This was the first meeting between the schools since the 1960s.
• Dayton guaranteed it will be one of at least five undefeated teams playing in the Maui Invitational next week along with No. 2 Connecticut (4-0), No. 4 Auburn (4-0), No. 5 Iowa State (3-0) and Colorado (4-0). North Carolina (2-1) and Michigan State (4-1) have lost only to No. 1 Kansas. Memphis (3-1) puts its perfect record on the line Thursday against San Francisco.
Credit: David Jablonski
This was just the type of performance Dayton needed to build momentum for what may be the most challenging November tournament it has ever experienced.
“Coach said in the locker room it was just a great performance overall, a great collective performance,” Dayton forward Nate Santos said. “It’s great heading into next week that we had this type of performance.”
The final score did not reflect how close the game was in the first half.
Dayton led 27-18 after two free throws by Amaël L’Etang with 4:10 to play. New Mexico State then outscored Dayton 10-0 in the next three minutes to take a 28-27 lead entering the final minute. Key’s free throws with 51 seconds to play put Dayton back on top.
Dayton started to take control five minutes into the second half. Seconds after Key sent a message to the fans in front row, he caught an alley-oop pass from Posh Alexander for a dunk and ran the other way doing one of his customary celebrations, “raising the roof” by thrusting both hands in the air.
That basket gave Dayton a 10-point lead. Then Santos made 3-pointers on the next possessions. The Flyers led 51-35 with 12 minutes, 35 seconds remaining.
Santos scored a season-high 23 points, making 6 of 10 3-pointers. He made 5 of 6 3s in the second half. His final 3 of the game gave Dayton its biggest lead, 72-43 with 3:33 to play.
Santos has made 12 of 18 3s in victories against New Mexico State, Capital and Northwestern. He missed all nine of his attempts in the games against Ball State and Saint Francis.
“I think Nate’s played really well all the way through,” Grant said. “Tonight shots went in for him. That’s the game of basketball, right? You play the game the right way. You work hard. And Nate does all the right things. So it was great for him tonight to see shots go in. He got some really good looks. I’m just happy for him. He was 6 of 10. Those are great numbers. But I thought overall he played a really solid game on both sides. I think he really has all year.”
L’Etang added 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting in 13 minutes. Key finished with 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting.
Dayton had 20 assists on 27 made field goals and turned the ball over only seven times.
Just as Dayton did against Northwestern when it rallied from a 10-point deficit in the second half to win 71-66, it used a full-court pressure defense to harass New Mexico State in the second half.
The Flyers had 14 points off turnovers and 18 fast-break points.
“Their guards are explosive,” Grant said. “They are really good when they get in open-floor situations. I can’t put a finger on it right now, but I thought we wore them down, and the press certainly was part of that. At the end, that allowed us to open the lead up.”
The Flyers could have had a bigger edge at halftime but made 4 of 11 free throws (36.4%) in the first half. They made 6 of 7 in the second half to finish at 55.6% (10 of 18). Through five games, Dayton is shooting 64.9%, well below the national average of 70.6.
Key missed his first three attempts before making his final two. L’Etang made 3 of 5 free throws. Hamad Mousa missed both of his attempts.
“I think it’s uncharacteristic for our group,” Grant said. “We’ve really struggled at the free-throw line. But I’ve got all the confidence in the world that we have guys that are more than capable from the free-throw line.”
MONDAY’S GAME
Dayton vs. North Carolina in Maui Invitational, 11:30 p.m., ESPN2, 1290, 95.7
Credit: David Jablonski
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