By Malcolm Price
3 4 2025
GAME NOTES
https://daytonflyers.com/documents/2025/3/3/Saint_Louis_2.pdf
Game Time Is 7 P.M. ET
DAYTON — The University of Dayton men’s basketball team closes the home portion of the schedule Tuesday night when the Flyers host Saint Louis. Game time is 7 p.m. ET.
Dayton is 20-9 overall, and 10-6 in the Atlantic 10, and in a four-way tie for third place in the league. Saint Louis is one of those teams, along with Loyola and Saint Joseph’s . SLU is 17-12 overall.
UD is coming off a 74-64 double overtime win over Richmond on Senior Day. The Flyers scored the last points of regulation and the first overtime before putting the Spiders away in the final 10 minutes. Zed Key tied the Dayton single-game with six blocked shots. Nate Santos and Enoch Cheeks each had a game-high 18 points, and 17 points. Malachi Smith added14 points. Cheeks had a double-double with the 18 points and 11 rebounds.
The Saint Louis game will be broadcast on WHIO Radio, televised on Spectrum News 1, 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.
• Santos’ 6-for-6 shooting performance from deep against Lehigh is the second-best in D-I. It is also the second-best ever at UD, behind Shawn Haugh’s 8-for-8 in 1993-94.
• 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 (1,496 and 608 respectively). 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).
• 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, Jan. 25 and Feb. 10. He averaged 8.5 ppg and 8.0 rpg in the latest, with a 13/13 double-double vs. Davidson.
• 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 11th in the A-10 in rebounding (6.3), third in steals (1.9), and 15th in FG% (.471, 124-263). Of the top 15 A-10 rebounders, Cheeks at 6-foot-3 is the shortest.
• Santos is 16th in the A-10 in scoring (14.3) and fourth in 3-pt. FG% (.434, 62-143).
• Smith is second in the A-10 in assists (5.4) and is third in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.5).
• Bennett is tied for seventh in steals (1.7) and 20th in 3-pt. FG% (.362, 51-141).
• Zed Key 12th in blocked shots (1.4). He is 34th in D-I for most dunks (43).
• As a team, Dayton is second in the Atlantic 10 in 3-pt. FG% (.354, 230-650) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.44), and is third in FT% (.743, 478-643) and turnover margin (1.89).
• This is the Flyers’ 30th season in the Atlantic 10, and UD won its 300th A-10 game on Jan. 21 at Duquesne.
• 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 72 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
• UD finishes the regular season at league-leading VCU on Friday, March 7.
• Game time is 7 p.m. ET.
COURTESY DAYTON MEDIA RELATIONS
