Coaches normally like to give walk-ons some token playing time in blow-outs as a reward for hard work, but Dayton’s Brian Vonderhaar is getting into games of late because the Flyers can’t get by without him.

With major depth issues at guard, Dayton coach Archie Miller has called on the non-scholarship senior from Cincinnati Moeller in the first half of the last two outings. He played three minutes in a 75-72 loss at Rhode Island and just under a minute in a 70-59 win over Xavier last week.

The 6-foot Vonderhaar has had all zeroes on the stat sheet, but with back-up Khari Price out indefinitely with a thigh bruise, he helped Miller manage some foul trouble and not overwork starters Kevin Dillard and Vee Sanford.

“Brian Vonderhaar did an excellent job in the one minute he played (against Xavier). And he did an excellent job in the minutes he got at Rhode Island. As the season progresses, I think we have to work him in even more,” Miller said.

Sanford moves to point guard when Dillard exits, and Vonderhaar gives the Flyers an extra ball-handler.

“Vee is logging a lot of minutes as it is in general, and he’s uncomfortable playing the 1. We get out of kilter badly when he’s at the 1 — not because of him, but he just hasn’t played a lot of it all season,” Miller said. “Without Khari, I think Brian will be able to give us an extra two minutes or three minutes to spell a couple guys. He just needs to be a solid player on both ends of the floor. That’s what we’re looking for.”

Price took a blow to his left quad against Duquesne on Jan. 26 and then aggravated it while gamely playing at Xavier after that. He’s missed the last five games and is expected to sit out another at UMass on Saturday.

“I hope we can get him back,” Miller said. “He’s so important to our depth and what we do. Defensively, he’s so solid for us. We need his minutes. And he gives us another ball-handler, which is important on the road. … He’s going to have to eventually make some progress or he won’t be available (the rest of the season).”

The Flyers did get some welcome news against Xavier with the return of back-up center Alex Gavrilovic, who battled mononucleosis in the preseason and then suffered a knee injury that hurt his progress.

“Alex has had a rough year. I talked to him at the beginning of the week, tried to put his attention on the finish,” Miller said. “He’s working himself back into conditioning after the games. He really cares. He’s a good kid. He gave us good minutes in there with a big body.”