Haughn appeared in 105 games over four seasons but will always be remembered most for one performance during his freshman season on Feb. 13, 1994. Clune remembers the day well — and not only for what happened at UD Arena. One of their roommates had family in town, and everyone planned to go to lunch and watch the game.
Haughn left for a team breakfast that morning and told them, “I feel good today. You guys should change your lunch plans and go to the game.”
Haughn remembers saying that as well and has even clearer memories of the game that day. He made a school-record 8 of 8 3-pointers in an 82-77 overtime victory against No. 17 Saint Louis.
Haughn, now the superintendent of the Bloom-Carroll Local School District, just south of Columbus and not far from his hometown of Canal Winchester, looked back on that game in an interview earlier this month.
“It’s something I don’t reflect on too much,” Haughn said, “but I do run into Dayton fans, and they link my name to the university and they often bring up that one moment. That was something very positive in kind of a dark season. It’s neat. I enjoy talking to people about it.”
Dayton finished 6-21 that season and ended an 11-game losing streak by upsetting the Billikens. It would turn out to be the second-to-last victory for coach Jim O’Brien, who lost his job after the season.
Haughn played a significant role throughout his four seasons and ranks 89th in school history with 709 points. He never topped his 30-point performance as a freshman. Few have. He set a UD freshman scoring record that still stands and tied Thomas Thompson, of San Francicsco, for the the NCAA single-game 3-point accuracy record. Thompson made 8 of 8 in a game against Loyola of California in 1992.
Josh Parker tied Haughn’s school record by making eight 3-pointers against Fordham on Jan. 22, 2011, but he missed six 3s in that game, so Haughn still has the single-game accuracy record. Darrell Davis, who made 5 of 5 on Dec. 20, 2014, and R.J. Blakney, who made 5 of 5 against Virginia Tech in December, are tied for second.
Haughn no longer sits atop the NCAA record book. George Mason’s Andre Smith made 10 of 10 3-pointers in a game in 2008. Five players have made 9 of 9. Haughn and eight others have made 8 of 8.
“I had moments in high school where I got hot like that,” Haughn said, “and in practice, there are moments where you rattle off quite a few consecutive shots, but that was a night things were just clicking. We were getting beat badly, and coach O’Brien put me in late in the first half. I remember I hit a couple 3s on the right wing pretty quickly and had another one right before half on the left wing. We cut the lead to like 10 or 12, and then we came out in the second half and stayed hot.”
Dayton trailed 33-13 with 6:03 remaining in the first half. Haughn, who had not scored more than 14 points in a game up to that point in his freshman season, didn’t score in the first 17:32. He then scored the Flyers’ last 11 points in the half to cut the deficit to 40-28 and then made another 3 to start the scoring in the second half.
Alex Robertson, a senior co-captain that season, was the other star. Scoreless in the first half, he scored 12 points in the second half and six of Dayton’s 10 points in overtime.
In all, Haughn made 9 of 13 shots and 4 of 5 free throws in 36 minutes.
“When I was out there I had no idea the NCAA record was 8 in a row,” Haughn said after the game. “I fact I didn’t even know I’d made 8 in a row. I’m proud to set the record. I’ve always felt I could shoot the ball that way. I’ve never done it before. I never did it in high school. I’ve been in a little slump lately. Today was a good indication I’ve broken out of it.”
Of course, making 3-pointers is an easy job compared to running a school district. Haughn has been the superintendent at Bloom-Carroll since 2017. He joined the district in 2013 as a middle school principal and became the high school principal in 2014.
Playing college basketball prepared him for a career in leadership positions.
“There are a lot of things that you can transfer from what you learned in NCAA Division I athletics to life in general,” Haughn said, “and the biggest thing is just having a work ethic. You’ve got to be willing to put in a lot of time. You’ve got to pay attention to detail. You’ve got to be able to communicate with your teammates and the staff that you’re leading. Those are some of the big things you learn as a kid growing up playing basketball that you can apply to real life in school administration.”
Haughn and his wife Sara, a 1999 UD graduate who’s a chemistry teacher at Bloom-Carroll, have three daughters who attend Bloom-Carroll schools: Sophia, 17, a junior in high school; Sylvia, 14, an eighth grader; and Stella, 11, a sixth grader.
“They play basketball, and they play soccer and run track,” Haughn said. “My wife and I are crazy busy just following them around and getting them told them to different events and all that stuff.”
Haughn doesn’t talk too often about his glory days with his daughters, but they’re aware of his success and have seen games at UD Arena. Haughn didn’t get to play in the NCAA tournament and enjoyed only one winning season in his four seasons, but he was there for the start of the turnaround under coach Oliver Purnell and wouldn’t change a thing about his career or his decision to attend Dayton.
“The first couple of years I averaged more points than I did my last two years,” Haughn said, “but looking back I started quite a few games as a sophomore and as a senior, and it was one of those things where I had to do different things as a senior than I was doing for the team as a freshman. I realized my career probably wasn’t going to move beyond Division I college level, and I was going to make the most out of the opportunities I had under the circumstances. I don’t regret one moment being a Dayton Flyer. I think it was just a wonderful opportunity. I just wouldn’t have everything I have without the University of Dayton.”
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