Dayton owned a 25-point lead at that point. The game had devolved into a pickup game of sorts with both teams playing loose — Dayton because it knew it had won and Duquesne for the opposite reason. That’s one reason the Flyers had dunks, including L’Etang’s, on four straight possessions.
The Flyers rolled to an 82-62 victory at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse in Pittsburgh, improving to 2-0 in Atlantic 10 Conference play when L’Etang starts. Grant talked about the lineup change after the 83-81 overtime victory against Loyola Chicago at UD Arena on Saturday.
“Certainly, I thought he’s earned it with his consistency,” Grant said. “We’re just switching things up. Obviously, when you drop three in a row, you’re looking for something to kind of give you a spark. Whether we win or lose, I’m always trying to figure it out.”
L’Etang, a 7-foot-1 freshman, moved into the starting lineup after Dayton’s third straight loss, taking the place of Zed Key, who had started all season — except when Dayton rested him, Enoch Cheeks and Posh Alexander against Division III Capital University in November.
Time will tell how much of an impact the change will have. Dayton beat Loyola when L’Etang sprinted past his defender, caught an alley-oop pass from Malachi Smith and scored on a layup with 0.2 seconds to play. Against Duquesne, with Key sidelined by a back injury, L’Etang scored a career-high 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting in 27 minutes.
L’Etang has averaged 13.0 points in 26.7 minutes per game in Dayton’s three A-10 victories. In the three losses to George Washington, Massachusetts and George Mason, he scored a total of four points and played 11, 14 and 16 minutes, respectively.
L’Etang is the tallest player in UD history. If his entrance into the starting lineup results in the kind of winning streak Dayton needs to get back into contention in the A-10, the lineup change will go down as one of the most significant in recent memory. Even a modest two-game winning streak has boosted optimism around the team.
“We just had to weather the storm,” guard Javon Bennett said. “We’re going to have parts of the year where we have slumps. Coach just said, ‘Stay positive. Let’s get over this hump.’ I feel like the win at home the other day helped. Now we want to keep stacking wins.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Dayton (13-6, 3-3) returns to action at 7:30 p.m. Friday against Saint Joseph’s (12-7, 3-3). Here are 10 things to know about Dayton’s 20th game:
1. Series history: Dayton leads the series 27-20. It has won the last four games.
2. Recent meetings: Dayton scored 60 points in the second half and beat Saint Joseph’s 94-79 last season at Hagan Arena in Philadelphia. Two years ago, when the Hawks last visited Dayton, the Flyers won 76-56. That was the fifth straight loss for Saint Joseph’s at UD Arena since a 60-57 victory on a last-second 3-pointer by Langston Galloway in 2014.
2. State of the program: The Hawks have improved their record every season under coach Billy Lange, who’s in his sixth season: 6-26 to 5-15 to 11-19 to 16-17 to 21-14. The program last reached the NCAA tournament in 2016. It has not won the A-10 regular-season championship since the league did away with divisions starting in the 2005-06 season.
Saint Joseph’s was picked to finish third in the preseason poll.
4. Non-conference summary: Saint Joseph’s finished 9-4 in November and December. It beat Texas Tech, which is No. 10 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool, for its best victory. Its worst loss came against No. 190 Central Connecticut State.
5. A-10 play: Saint Joseph’s has victories at home against Massachusetts and Loyola Chicago and a 78-61 road victory in its most recent game Tuesday against Davidson. It lost at Saint Louis and Duquesne and fell at home to Virginia Commonwealth.
6. Standings update: George Mason (15-5, 6-1), Virginia Commonwealth (15-4, 5-1) and Saint Louis (11-7, 4-1) top the standings as the only one-loss teams. Duquesne (9-10, 4-2) sits alone in fourth place.
UMass (9-11, 4-3) is in fifth place after beating George Washington 74-61 on Wednesday. Dayton and Saint Joseph’s are tied for sixth.
7. Top returners: Xzayvier Brown, a 6-foot-2 sophomore guard, ranked second in scoring last season and leads the team in scoring this season (16.1). He scored 20 points Tuesday against Davidson and has scored 20 or more points three games in a row.
• Rasheer Fleming, a 6-foot-9 junior forward, ranked fourth in scoring last season and second this season (15.9).
• Erik Reynolds, a 6-2 senior guard, led the team in scoring last season (17.3) and ranks second this season (15.3). He passed the 1,900-point mark Tuesday.
8. Top newcomer: Derek Simpson, a 6-3 junior guard, ranks fourth in scoring (10.4). He played the last two seasons at Rutgers.
9. Strengths and weaknesses: Saint Joseph’s leads the A-10 in 3-pointers made per game (10.2) in conference play. Dayton ranks eighth (7.8).
• Saint Joseph’s ranks 12th in the A-10 in turnover margin (minus 1.83) in conference play. Dayton is second(plus 2.83).
10. Odds & Ends: KenPom.com gives Dayton an 70% chance of winning and predicts a 76-70 score. Dayton climbed from No. 67 to No. 61 in the Pomeroy ratings after beating Duquesne. Saint Joseph’s is No. 86.
• Dayton ranks 68th in the NCAA Evaluation Tool. It is the second highest-ranked A-10 team behind No. 47 VCU. No. 86 Saint Joseph’s is the fourth highest-ranked A-10 team.
This is a Quad 3 game for Dayton and a Quad 1 game for Saint Joseph’s.
Dayton is 2-3 in Quad 1 games, 1-2 in Quad 2, 4-1 in Quad 3 and 5-0 in Quad 4. Saint Joseph’s is 1-1 in Quad 1, 2-2 in Quad 2, 3-3 in Quad 3 and 6-1 in Quad 4.
FRIDAY’S GAME
Saint Joseph’s at Dayton, 7:30 p.m., ESPN2, 1290, 95.7
Credit: David Jablonski
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