By Malcolm Price
3 7 2025
GAME NOTES
https://daytonflyers.com/documents/2025/3/6/VCU_2.pdf
DAYTON — The University of Dayton men’s basketball team travels to Richmond, Va. on Friday to play VCU in the final game of the regular season for both teams. Game time is 7 p.m. ET.
Dayton is 21-9 overall, and 11-6 in the Atlantic 10, and is in third place in the league. VCU is 25-5 and 15-2 overall. The Rams have clinched a share of the A-10 regular season title.
UD closed out its home schedule Tuesday with a 75-67 win over Saint Louis. The Flyers scored 47 points in the second half and came back from 15 down to grab the win. Enoch Cheeks came a rebounds shy of his second straight double-double with 17 points and nine boards. Four other Flyers scored in double figures — Nate Santos had 13 points, and Amaël L’Etang, Javon Bennett and Zed key all had 10.
The VCU game will be broadcast on WHIO Radio, televised on ESPN2, 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 (1,499 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 (6.4), tied for third in steals (1.9), and 14th in FG% (.473, 131-277). 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 tied for fourth in 3-pt. FG% (.432, 63-146).
• Smith is second in the A-10 in assists (5.2) and is third in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.5).
• Bennett is tied for seventh in steals (1.6) and 20th in 3-pt. FG% (.362, 51-141).
• Zed Key 12th in blocked shots (1.1). He is tied for 29th in D-I for most dunks (45).
• As a team, Dayton is second in the Atlantic 10 in 3-pt. FG% (.356, 240-675), second in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.43), and is third in FT% (.744, 489-657) and turnover margin (1.60).
• 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 77 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
• The Atlantic 10 Men’s Basketball Championship will be held in Washington, D.C. at the Capital One Arena from Wednesday, March 12 to Sunday, March 16.
• Dayton’s first game will be on March 13 or 14, depending on its tournament seed.
• As of this writing, the Flyers could be the 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th seed.
COURTESY DAYTON MEDIA RELATIONS
