By Reggie Gatlin-Holt
GAME NOTES
https://daytonflyers.com/documents/2024/11/14/Capital_Web.pdf
DAYTON —The University of Dayton men’s basketball team will remain home on Saturday to host Ball State. Dayton is 3-0 this year. Capital is 2-0.
UD downed Ball State 77-69 in its last action on Wednesday. The Flyers never trailed in the game, leading by as much as 20 in the first half, before Ball State mounted a comeback to close to as close as five.
Dayton was buoyed by double-doubles from Enoch Cheeks (23 points, 13 rebounds) and Malachi Smith (17 points, 10 assists). Both had three steals. In the post, Zed Key had 13 points in 17 foul-plagued minutes and Isaac Jack scored 11 points in 14 minutes. Jack, who missed the first two games with an injury, was 5-for-5 from the field.
The game will count as one of UD’s 31 regular season games, while Capital has opted to designate it as an exhibition game since it is a cross-divisional game (Dayton is Division I, Capital is a Division III institution).
Flyer coach Anthony Grant and Comet coach Damon Goodwin were teammates at UD, including on back-to-back NCAA tournament teams. Goodwin won his 450th game Wednesday night, all at Capital.
Although the two teams have met several times in recent years in preseason exhibition games, this is the first regular-season contest since the 1928-29 campaign. The series stands 13-8 in favor of Dayton. The first meeting between the two schools was in the 1906-07 season.
The Capital game will be broadcast by WHIO Radio, and streamed on ESPN+. Streaming audio, video and live stats will be at DaytonFlyers.com.
#TRENDING
• Nate Santos was named First Team Preseason All-Atlantic 10 after being named to the third team after last season. The 6-7 forward from Geneva, Ill. was the Flyers’ second-leading scorer (11.7) and rebounder (6.3) last year. He was also second on the team in 3-pt. FG% (.418, 51-122). Santos was fourth in the A-10 in three-point shooting, and 10th in rebounding in 2023-24.
• Posh Alexander was named Second Team Preseason All-Atlantic 10 and to the Preseason All-Defensive Team. Alexander is a fifth-year transfer who already has 1,000 career points and 500 career assists. The fourth recruit from New York City in Anthony Grant‘s tenure at UD, he led the Big East in steals in each of the last four seasons (three at St. John’s and one at Butler). Last year at Butler, Alexander averaged 11.3 points, 4.9 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game. He was 16th in the nation in steals per game. In his three years at St. John’s, he averaged 10.9, 13.8 and 10.2 points a game.
• Enoch Cheeks was also named A-10 Preseason All-Defensive. He led the team in steals (40), was second in blocked shots (21), and was third in rebounding (4.7) in his first season at UD after transferring from Robert Morris. The Providence, R.I. native was the 2023-24 winner of UD’s Steve McElvene Award. Cheeks was consistently assigned the opponents’ top perimeter player on defense. In the 25 games (out of 33) where the Flyer foe’s top player was a guard or wing, that player was held under his average 17 times. He started in all 33 games and averaged 8.1 points per game (9.5 in A-10 play).
• The Dayton roster includes five players who have earned all-conference recognition in their past – junior forward Nate Santos (Atlantic 10), junior Enoch Cheeks (Horizon League). junior Javon Bennett (Northeast Conference), redshirt junior Malachi Smith (Atlantic 10) and fifth-year senior Posh Alexander (Big East).
• UD ranked 20th in average attendance in NCAA Division I last season, averaging a capacity crowd of 13,407 fans a game in 2023-24. Of schools in the top 25 in attendance, only Kansas, Purdue, Michigan State and UConn also sold out every game of the season.
• Dayton has already announced it has sold out every game for the upcoming 2024-25 season. That includes both exhibition games that have already been played. This will be the fourth consecutive year the Flyers have sold out every home game.
• This is also the 55th anniversary season of UD Arena. The Arena underwent a $76.2 million transformation project that was completed in time for the 2019-20 season.
• The Flyers are wearing “DJD” on their left shoulder strap in memory of Don Donoher. Coach Donoher died last April at the age of 92. He was the first man to coach his alma mater in the NCAA tournament after appearing in it as a player. A member of the NABC College Basketball Hall of Fame, he is Dayton’s all-time winningest coach (437).
UP NEXT
• Dayton remains home, taking on Western Michigan on Wednesday, Nov. 20.
• Game time is 7 p.m. ET.
• The Flyers will then travel to Hawai’i to play in their fifth Maui Invitational. UD will take on North Carolina in the first round on Monday, Nov. 25. The Flyers won Maui in 2003.
COURTESY DAYTON MEDIA RELATIONS
