By Cord Rankin
GAME NOTES
https://daytonflyers.com/documents/2024/12/5/Lehigh.pdf
DAYTON — The University of Dayton men’s basketball team is back at UD Arena on Saturday, playing Lehigh at 2 p.m. ET.
Saturday’s game is Dayton’s annual Hall of Fame Game. At halftime, the Class of 2025 for UD’s Athletic Hall of Fame — Jordan Benjamin (tennis), Ashley Campbell (soccer, Zack Cline (football), Scoochie Smith (basketball) and Nicole Waters (soccer) — will be introduced. Smith is the older brother of current Flyer guard Malachi Smith.
In Dayton’s last game on Tuesday, UD beat Western Michigan 77-69. The Flyers trailed 35-32 at halftime, but scored 45 points in the second half. Enoch Cheeks led with 23 points and eight rebounds. Nate Santos had 15 points, Javon Bennett had 12 and Posh Alexander added 12 (with four steals).
UD is 7-2 on the year, while Lehigh has won its last two games to enter Saturday 3-5.
The Lehigh game will be broadcast by WHIO Radio, televised on WHIO-TV, 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 Team. 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).
• Amaël L’Etang was named the A-10 Rookie of the Week on Nov. 25. He scored 11 points (4-6 FG) in 13 minutes against New Mexico State.
• Enoch Cheeks was named the A-10 Player of the Week on Dec. 2 after averaging 15.7 points and 7.0 rebounds against North Carolina, Iowa State and UConn in Maui.
• Cheeks is second in the A-10 in steals per game (2.1) and sixth in rebounding (7.7).
• Malachi Smith leads in 3-pt. FG% (.600, 9-15).
• Posh Alexander is fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.2).
• Zed Key is seventh in FG% (646, 31-44).
• As a team, Dayton leads the Atlantic 10 in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.75), and is second in FG% (.493, 247-501) and third in 3-pt. FG% (.362, 76-210).
• 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 65 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 wins). He was the 2017 winner of the USBWA’s Dean Smith Award.
UP NEXT
• After a week between games for semester exams, Dayton’s next game is at home against Marquette on Saturday, Dec. 14 at 7 p.m. ET.
