By Stretch Jenkinson
GAME NOTES
https://daytonflyers.com/documents/2023/12/7/Troy_Game.pdf
DAYTON –– The University of Dayton men’s basketball team hosts Troy at UD Arena on Saturday. This will be UD’s first game in a week, due to the Flyers’ game with UNLV not being played on Wednesday due to a shooting on the UNLV campus. Saturday’s game time is 12:30 p.m. ET.
Saturday’s game will be carried by WHIO Radio, televised on USA Network and streamed at NBCSports.com. Streaming audio, video and live stats is available at DaytonFlyers.com.
Dayton, 6-2, cruised to a 76-46 win over Grambling State on Saturday. Nate Santos scored a career-high 26 points, backed by Koby Brea’s 15 points and Kobe Elvis’ 10.
#TRENDING
• Dayton is the preseason favorite in the Atlantic 10 in the annual vote of the league’s coaches and selected media. The Flyers received 20 of the 25 first-place votes cast.
• DaRon Holmes II was named Preseason First Team All-Atlantic 10 and to the Preseason All-Defensive Team. He was the only player on the first team and the defensive team.
• Last season, he was also First Team All-A-10 and on the All-Defensive Team as well the Most Outstanding Player of the 2023 Men’s Basketball Championship (21.7 ppg., 10.1 rpg., 4.0 bpg.).
• Holmes is on three prestigious preseason watch lists — Atlanta Tip-Off Club’s Naismith Award, the Los Angeles Athletic Club’s John R. Wooden Award and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame’s Karl Malone Award.
• Holmes led UD in scoring (18.4), and was second in rebounding (8.1) in 2022-23 He was the only player in the A-10 to be in the top five in both. He also led the A-10 in blocked shots (1.94).
• Holmes had the most dunks in D-I in the regular season (89) in 2022-23. He led all freshmen and was sixth overall with 81 in 2021-22. UD’s first bucket of the year was a Holmes dunk.
• Holmes is now the Dayton record holder for career blocked shots (163). He broke Chris Wright’s old record of 162 in the Grambling game (just 77 games into his career).
• He needs five dunks to tie Obi Toppin’s UD career record for dunks. Toppin had 190.
• Nate Santos was named to the Charleston Classic All-Tournament Team. UD finished second in Charleston. He was also named Atlantic 10 Co-Player of the Week on Nov. 20.
• He leads the A-10 in 3-pt. FG% (.667, 16-24).
• Santos needs eight points to match what he scored in two seasons (54 games) at Pitt.
• Malachi Smith was injured seven minutes into the opener, and after successful surgery on a torn lateral meniscus in his right knee on Nov. 8, he will miss the rest of the 2023-24 season.
• The Flyers are currently second in the A-10 in scoring defense (64.1 points a game).
• Dayton’s second-place finish at the Shriners Children’s Hospitals Charleston Classic was the third time in the last four MTEs that Dayton has played in that the Flyers reached the championship game (and 25th in school history). UD was second in the 2019 Maui Jim Maui Invitational, and won the 2021 ESPN Events Invitational in Orlando.
UP NEXT
• After a week-long break for semester exams, UD will travel down I-75 to play Cincinnati in the Hoops Classic presented by altafiber and CareSource.
• Game time at the Heritage Bank Center on the banks of the Ohio River is 7 p.m. ET.
COURTESY DAYTON MEDIA RELATIONS
