Elvis did not get to the line Wednesday but delivered another standout performance on an ankle that didn’t slow him during the game but bothered him enough afterward that he needed treatment.
“Definitely a little sore,” Elvis said, “but I’m going to be fine.”
That wasn’t the case a year ago during an injury-plagued season that Elvis described as “annoying” when he talked about it before this season. Elvis missed 15 games in all last season because of two separate knee injuries: 12 from November through January and three in the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament in March. Even in the games between the two injuries, he wasn’t 100%.
“I feel like last year I didn’t have the opportunity to be aggressive and show people what I am capable of,” Elvis said.
Credit: David Jablonski
Last season, his second at Dayton and third in college basketball, Elvis averaged 8.5 points and 2.9 assists and shot 32.5% (26 of 80) from 3-point range. He started 17 games. A season earlier, he averaged 8.9 points and 2.4 assists, while shooting 36.2% (42 of 116) from 3-point range. He started 30 games.
This season, Elvis has started all 13 games for a team that has won eight games in a row and 11 of its first 13 games entering its Atlantic 10 Conference home opener against Massachusetts (10-3, 1-0) at 1 p.m. Sunday. Dayton is off to its best start since the 29-2 season of 2019-20 in a large part because of Elvis, who’s averaging 11.7 points and 3.8 assists while shooting 36.1% from 3-point range (22 of 61).
Elvis has been at his best during this winning streak. He’s 17.7 averaging over the last six games. He averaged 6.9 in the first seven games.
“It’s just his confidence,” fellow starting guard Javon Bennett said of Elvis. “He always brings that swag. It was only a matter of time. Now he’s just rolling.”
Against Davidson, Elvis scored 14 points in the first half as Dayton built a 36-21 halftime lead. He finished with 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting. He made 3 of 6 3-pointers.
Elvis scored inside and out in a variety of ways in the first half:
• His first basket came on a wide-open 3-pointer from the corner with 17:23 left in the half. Enoch Cheeks swung the ball to Elvis as Nate Santos screened the closest defender.
• Elvis then hit a long jumper in transition with his toe on the 3-point line at the 14:09 mark.
• Elvis followed with a layup at the 6:55 mark during a fast break on a pass from Javon Bennett, who started the play with a steal.
• Elvis dribbled into the paint and beat his defender for a left-handed layup for his next basket at the 5:36 mark.
• With 4:36 to play in the half, Elvis took the ball to the hoop on the fast break and cradled the ball with his left hand before switching it to his right for a layup with a defender all over him.
• On his final basket of the half at the 4:05 mark, Elvis made a 3-pointer after DaRon Holmes II passed the ball out of a double team.
Elvis has done more than score, too. According to the CBBAnalytics account on X (Twitter), he ranks seventh in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio among players with a usage percentage of at least 20% and an assists average of 3.0 per game.
“We’ve got a lot of different weapons on offense,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “Tonight Elvis got it going in the first half. He led well. He was aggressive.”
SUNDAY’S GAME
Dayton vs. Massachusetts, 1 p.m., ESPN2, 1290, 95.7
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
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