Dayton forward Josh Benson received treatment from trainer Nate Seymour in the postgame locker room Saturday, getting an oversized ice bag fastened with an Ace bandage to his chronically sore left shoulder.

Banging against inside players in the rugged Atlantic 10 isn’t without its hazards, and the UD coaches would like to see the fifth-year senior start dishing out as much punishment as he’s taking.

He was pulled from the starting lineup for the first time this season after a three-point, one-rebound game against Xavier on Wednesday. He responded with one of his best outings of the year in an 81-52 defeat, finishing with a team-high 12 points, six rebounds, three blocks and two steals.

“My attitude never changes whether it’s coming off the bench or starting. It’s about who finishes the game. It’s about how you play when you get out there,” he said. “It really didn’t matter to me. I knew when I went in, I had to bring energy.”

Benson was replaced by Jalen Robinson, who was limited to two points. In three games before that, the freshman forward had 25 points and 22 rebounds in 61 minutes.

Benson was averaging 6.7 points and four rebounds in UD’s previous six games.

“I think Josh knows he hasn’t been playing well. He has to jump-start himself,” UD coach Archie Miller said. “Like I told him, there’s no life rafts going out there for people this time of year, especially from good teams. You’ve got to find out for yourself what you want to do. I thought he responded pretty well today.”

The lanky Benson had surgery just more than a year ago for a torn ACL and hasn’t looked the same as he did pre-injury. He’s also been hurt by the absence of suspended starting center Matt Kavanaugh, who drew the opponents’ brawnier players and gave Benson more favorable matchups.

The Dunbar High School knows the Flyers will be depending on him the rest of the way.

“We’ve got to come together as a team,” he said. “We’ve been in this situation plenty of times in my five years. We’ve been a lot worse than this. We’ve just got to keep fighting.”

League woes: At 2-5 in the Atlantic 10, the Flyers are off to their worst start in the conference in five years. And the 29-point defeat tied for the second-most lopsided loss for the team in seven seasons, topped only by a 34-point pounding from Cincinnati on Nov. 27, 2010.

“Our kids have to understand it’s unacceptable to come out here and play like that,” Miller said. “You can put it on me. You can put it on anyone you want. At the end of the day, our program’s better than this. And we’ve got to find a way to do it.”

There’s no time to sulk with Saint Joseph’s and Temple visiting UD Arena this week.

“Our biggest challenge is to regain our effort level, our toughness level, because we’re getting out-muscled, we’re getting pushed around. A lot of it is probably due to immaturity, a little bit to age,” Miller said. “We’re playing against older guys right now. And a lot of it is due to pride. I want to get the pride thing settled down.”

Price out: The Flyers, who have only 10 scholarship players, were down a man with freshman guard Khari Price nursing a deep thigh bruise.

He injured it against Duquesne on Jan. 26 and aggravated it against Xavier. His absence meant UD had just two guards available, Kevin Dillard and Vee Sanford.

“He’s lost a lot of range of motion,” Miller said. “His leg is deeply bruised. He’s going around the clock (with treatment). If he can’t go, there’s a lot of pain.”

Revealing stat: The Flyers tied a season-low with eight assists. Dillard had just one while committing four of the team’s 21 turnovers.