The one thing that may be the same is the color scheme. A sea of purple seats greeted Dayton on Friday in the second game of the season. It was easy to spot the hundreds of red-clad Dayton fans in the stands — at least when they weren’t in the slow line for beer.
Those fans drowned out the Northwestern fans at time but not in the final minutes as the Wildcats (2-0) sealed a 71-66 victory against the Flyers (1-1).
“That was a very winnable game for us,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said.
For Grant, the game came down to Northwestern’s 11-0 run at the end of the first half. Dayton took a 25-24 lead late in the half only to face a 35-25 halftime deficit.
Another deciding factor for Grant was Northwestern’s success on the offensive boards in the second half. The Flyers quickly erased an 11-point deficit and had the lead at several points but were outscored 16-4 in second-chance points. Northwestern had 12 offensive rebounds to Dayton’s three.
The final deciding stat for Grant were Dayton’s turnovers. The Flyers had 15. Northwestern had seven.
“We shot the ball well,” Grant said. “We scored at a pretty high rate. We turned the ball over too much. Those are all things that we can control for the most part, and I think we will get better. We’re two games in, and I think we’re still learning about ourselves. Hopefully, this game will be a game that we’ll look back on and say, ‘It made us better.’ But we don’t have a whole lot of these opportunities to get these these types of wins. So we have to make the most out of it. We understand at Dayton we have to be at our best in early November.”
Here are three takeaways from the victory:
1. Dayton can shoot the 3-pointer after all: Dayton made 12 of 23 3-pointers (52.2%) after making 5 of 23 in its opener Monday in a 63-47 victory against Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
Koby Brea made 4 of 6 and scored 15 points. DaRon Holmes II made 2 of 3. Javon Bennett made 3 of 6. Nate Santos made 2 of 4. Enoch Cheeks made his only attempt.
“This team is capable of so much,” Brea said, “and it’s about time that we went out there and showed it. We played pretty good today, but I feel like we still have another level that we can tap into.”
2. Bennett is the new starting point guard: Bennett stepped into the starting lineup four days after Malachi Smith suffered a season-ending knee injury. He had 12 points, five assists and three turnovers in 35 minutes.
“When Mali went down, Coach told me, ‘Next man up,’” Bennett said. “He told me, ‘You’re going to have to lead this team now. You’re going to have to step up.’ I embraced that and tried to lead the guys.”
3. Holmes played like one of the nation’s top players: The junior forward had 17 points, seven rebounds and six assists. He scored eight straight points early in the second half as Dayton quickly erased an 11-point deficit.
“Every team is going to scheme differently in terms of how they guard him,” Grant said, “and they did some things differently tonight on the defensive end. I think it was designed to try to limit him, but he was able to figure it out and make some plays.”
STAR OF THE GAME
Northwestern senior Ryan Langborg, who played the last three seasons at Princeton, led all scorers with 19 points. He made 6 of 9 shots from the field.
STAT OF THE GAME
Dayton is now 0-8 in true non-conference road games over the past seven seasons. It has not won such a game since the second game of the 2016-17 season.
LOOKING AHEAD
Dayton plays LSU (1-1) at 4 p.m. Thursday in the first round of the Charleston Classic. LSU lost 68-66 to Nicholls State on Friday.
THURSDAY’S GAME
Dayton vs. LSU, 4 p.m., ESPN2, 1290, 95.7
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