For about four seconds, Key transformed his hands into guns and used his fingers as the barrels, shooting imaginary bullets. It’s a celebration he used during his four seasons at Ohio State, along with his raising-the-roof routine after dunks.
“The finger guns are just for And-1s,” Key said. “I did it a little too long. I got too excited.”
“You were about to get a tech,” said guard Malachi Smith, who was sitting next to Key at the postgame press conference.
“Yeah, I can’t do it for too long,” Key said.
“He’s got too many celebrations,” Smith said. “He doesn’t even know what celebrations he wants to do.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Dayton could have had the same problem after beating Northwestern 71-66 in the second game of the season. Instead, it settled for the simplest celebration, walking off the court and embracing the cheers of 13,407 fans.
This was an important victory in a number of ways.
• The Flyers (2-0) won their 18th straight home game.
• Dayton ended a three-game losing streak against Northwestern with its first victory in the series since 1997, which was also the last time a Big Ten team played Dayton on Tom Blackburn Court.
• Dayton snapped a four-game skid against Big Ten teams. Since a 2015 victory against Iowa in the Advocare Invitational, it had lost 80-78 to Nebraska in the Wooden Legacy tournament in 2016, 43-42 to Wisconsin in the Battle 4 Atlantis in 2022 and twice to Northwestern (67-64 in 2016 at the United Center in Chicago; and last year by the same score as Saturday, 71-66, in Evanston, Ill.).
Key, who received a pregame fist bump from Northwestern coach Chris Collins, was 3-3 against Northwestern during his Ohio State career.
“I can’t get away from the Big Ten,” Key said. “They’re a good team. When I was at Ohio State, they were good. We knew coming in that they were going to be a talented team. They were physical, grabbing offensive rebounds. But, in the end, we rallied and fought and came out with the W.”
Northwestern used a 12-0 run to build a 27-14 lead with four minutes left in the first half. It led by as many as 10 points twice in the second half.
Facing a 49-39 deficit with under 12 minutes to play, Dayton began a 15-1 run that changed the game. Here’s a look at how Dayton did it.
1. Pressure defense: Dayton used a full-court press throughout the game but had more success with it in the second half. The Flyers made it difficult for Northwestern to get the ball in bounds under the basket. When Northwestern did get the ball in play, two Dayton guards would wait for the right moment to trap the ball-handler.
“(The press) was impactful really in both halves,” Grant said. “I think it’s a cumulative effect over the course of 40 minutes. In order to get in the press, you’ve got to score, and we struggled in the first half. In the second half, we had more consistency in terms of being able to score the ball. So we were able to be more effective.”
Smith said the goal for the four guards who have the biggest roles in the press — himself, Enoch Cheeks, Javon Bennett and Posh Alexander — is to be pests.
“It’s just natural for us,” Smith said. “I think that’s going to be a good identity for our team and a good strength for us. The press got us easy buckets, and then that freed us up in the half court. Everybody started flowing together. Everybody’s getting shots. The energy was rising.”
2. Big plays: At the 10:27 mark, Cheeks faked a 3-point attempt, dribbled into the paint and made a one-handed jump shot over Northwestern’s 7-foot center Matthew Nicholson. That was the start of the run. The basket cut Northwestern’s lead to 51-43.
Cheeks tied Nate Santos for the team lead with 16 points. They combined to make 13 of 19 shots, including 5 of 9 3-pointers.
• Smith beat his defender at the 3-point line and used a screen by Key to score a wide-open layup at the 9:31 mark.
• At the 9:15 mark, Smith pestered Northwestern’s Nick Martinelli, who led all scorers with 32 points on 12-of-15 shooting, all the way up the court. Then Martinelli extended his arm to knock Smith off the ball. The official called him for an offensive foul.
• Bennett made a 3-pointer at the 8:57 mark, cutting the Northwestern lead to 51-48.
Dayton made 8 of 21 3-pointers (38%) after making 8 of 32 in their season-opening 87-57 victory against Saint Francis. The Flyers missed their first five 3-point attempts but made 4 of 7 the rest of the way in the first half. Then they made 4 of 9 in the second half.
• Cheeks blocked a jumper by Windham at the 8:20 mark. Smith grabbed the missed shot and went coast to coast for a layup to cut the deficit to 51-50.
• After Northwestern ended a 9-0 Dayton run with one free throw, Smith tied the game with two free throws at the 7:44 mark. Despite those two makes, Dayton did not shoot well at the line (15 of 25, 60%).
• Dayton took its first lead of the game at the 7:22 mark. Northwestern’s K.J. Windham bounced a pass to Martinelli, but before Martinelli could grab it, Cheeks stole the ball and sprinted the other way for a one-handed dunk.
• Dayton missed opportunities to add to its lead in the next two minutes. Meanwhile, Northwestern’s offensive struggles continued. The Wildcats missed three shots and committed six turnovers between the 10-minute and 4-minute marks.
“Once they got the lead, we didn’t have the poise and composure to kind of get back, control the game,” Collins said in a story posted to the Northwestern website. “I felt like the first 28, 30 minutes of the game, we had control of the game.”
• Dayton’s 15-1 run ended with a basket by Cheeks at the 4:58 mark. That was a second-chance opportunity made possible by a Jacob Conner offensive rebound.
3. Making shots: In the last 10 minutes, Dayton made 10 of 14 shots. The last field goal was an alley-oop dunk with Key catching a pass from Smith, giving Dayton its largest lead of the game, 66-56, with 1:07 to play.
“We were able to attack them differently in the second half,” Grant said. “We had some success with shots going in. That kind of opened the floor up for us, and then we were able to create penetration. I felt Malachi did a great job of running the team and getting guys shots. Guys were able to make plays on both sides of the ball. I thought the overall tempo on both sides of the ball allowed us to be in position to continue to fight and pull out the win.”
WEDNESDAY’S GAME
Ball State at Dayton, 7 p.m., 1290, 95.7
Credit: David Jablonski
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