By Charles Hollister
Flyers Closes Their Non-Conference Schedule
GAME NOTES
https://daytonflyers.com/documents/2024/12/19/UC.pdf
DAYTON — The University of Dayton men’s basketball team will close its tough non-conference schedule with UD’s third game in seven days. The Flyers will play 19th-ranked UC in the Simple Truth Hoops Classic presented by CareSource. Game time at Heritage Bank Center in downtown Cincinnati is 8:30 p.m. ET.
Dayton, ranked 22nd, is 10-2 on the year. UC is 8-1 after Saturday’s 68-65 Xavier win.
The Flyers had to score eight of the game’s final 11 points in the last 75 seconds of Tuesday’s 66-65 win at home over UNLV. Malachi Smith assisted on Nate Santos’ trey, and scored a breakaway layup, and then on an “and-one” with eight seconds left to pull out the win. Santos’ led four Flyers in double digits with 14 points.
The UC game will be broadcast by WHIO Radio, televised on ESPNU 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.
• Santos’ 6-for-6 shooting performance from deep against Lehigh is tied for the best in the nation. 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. 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.
• 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 fifth in the A-10 in rebounding (7.5).
• Smith is second in the A-10 in assists (5.9) and fourth in 3-pt. FG% (.480, 12-25).
• Posh Alexander is first in assist-to-turnover ratio (4.2).
• Zed Key is fifth in FG% (.657 46-70). He is also tied for the most dunks in D-I (28).
• As a team, Dayton leads the Atlantic 10 in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.96) and FG% (.495, 328-662) and is second in 3-pt. FG% (.364, 99-272). UD is sixth nationally in A/T ratio.
• 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 67 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.
• Dayton’s 25-game homecourt win streak is tied for the fourth-longest in Division I, behind Houston (27), Drake and UConn (26), and tied with Samford.
• 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’s next game is the A-10 opener against La Salle at home on Tuesday, Dec. 31.
• The basketball will drop on New Year’s Eve at 2 p.m. ET.
COURTESY DAYTON MEDIA RELATIONS
