By Quincy Burns
GAME NOTES
https://daytonflyers.com/documents/2024/12/1/Western_Michigan.pdf
DAYTON – The University of Dayton men’s basketball team returns to UD Arena on Tuesday to begin a four-game homestand. Tuesday’s foe will be Western Michigan. Game time is 7 p.m. ET.
The Flyers are back from a loaded Maui Invitational where they played three consecutive Top 12 for the first time in 74 years, but it was the first time in three consecutive days.
UD lost by a total of seven points to 12th-ranked North Carolina (92-90) on Monday, and fifth-ranked Iowa State (89-84) on Tuesday, and then smoked No. 2 UConn down the stretch to win 85-67 on Wednesday in the tournament’s seventh-place game.
Enoch Cheeks led Dayton with 20 points, including 10 of them in a three-minute period late when UD turned a single-digit lead into a 20-point lead. Nate Santos scored 16 points, Posh Alexander 16 (with six assists) and Zed Key 15 (with nine rebounds) in the win.
A different player led the Flyers in scoring in each game (Santos, Malachi Smith and Cheeks). Five averaged in double digits in Maui (Cheeks, Santos, Key, Smith and Alexander), plus freshman Amaël L’Etang scored 13 points in 12 minutes against North Carolina.
UD is 6-2 on the year, while Western Michigan is 3-4.
The WMU game will be broadcast by WHIO Radio, televised in the Dayton area 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. 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.
• Enoch Cheeks is second in the A-10 in steals per game (2.3) and fifth in rebounding (7.7).
• Malachi Smith leads in 3-pt. FG% (.643, 9-14).
• Posh Alexander is fifth in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.4).
• As a team, Dayton is second in the Atlantic 10 in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.77).
• 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 64 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
• Dayton’s next game is at home against Lehigh on Saturday, Dec. 7.
• Game time is 2 p.m. ET.
COURTESY DAYTON MEDIA RELATIONS
