By Michelle Richardson
GAME NOTES
https://daytonflyers.com/documents/2024/11/19/New_Mexico_State_Web.pdf
Game Time Is 7 P.M. ET
DAYTON — The University of Dayton men’s basketball team will remain home on Wednesday to host New Mexico State. Dayton is 4-0 this year, while the Aggies are 3-0.
UD downed Capital 76-55 in its last action on Saturday. The Flyers led wire-to-wire for the second straight game.
Dayton was led by Javon Bennett (16 points, five rebounds and five assists), Amaël L’Etang (13 points, 10 rebounds) and Jacob Conner (10 points).
This meeting between UD and New Mexico State is the first in 58 years. The previous two meetings were in the old UD Fieldhouse (now known as the Frericks Center). The Flyers took both — 76-60 on Dec. 16, 1961 and 74-48 on Dec. 30, 1966, All three Dayton-New Mexico State games will be in front of capacity crowds. The combined attendance of those two games (11,890) is 1,517 less than this year’s sellout crowd (13,407).
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.
The New Mexico State game will be broadcast by WHIO Radio, televised by Spectrum News 1 in Ohio, 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, including both exhibition games that have already been played. This will be the fourth consecutive year UD has sold out every home game. That streak is now 63 games.
• 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
• The Flyers will travel to Hawai’i to play in their fifth Maui Invitational. UD will take on 10th-ranked North Carolina in the first round on Monday, Nov. 25.
• Game time is 11:30 p.m. ET.
• Dayton’s second game in Lahaina will be against No. 4 Auburn or No. 5 Iowa State.
• UD’s record on the Valley Isle is 9-3. The Flyers won Maui in 2003.
• The tournament is returning to the Lahaina Civic Center after playing the 2023 tournament in Honolulu following the tragic wildfires that devastated the area in August, 2023.
• Dayton’s next home game is against Western Michigan on Tuesday, Dec. 3.
COURTESY DAYTON MEDIA RELATIONS
