He spent a lot of time out there, but he was a small kid, and he said when he was in the first and second grades he had trouble getting the ball to the rim from beyond the arc and, if he did catapult one up there, it was off the mark.
“I think I made my first 3-pointer when I was like in third grade,” said the Dayton Flyers 5-foot-10 point guard. “After that it just went from there.”
That’s a low-key way of saying he became an offensive force at Trinity Prep Academy in Orlando where he scored 2,147 career points, many of them coming from three-point range.
Now in his fourth year of college ball — the past three with Dayton, his freshman campaign at Merrimack — he has made 166 three pointers. That’s just six fewer than the rest of the UD team combined for their careers.
“Obviously one of my strengths is my shooting,” Bennett said Saturday night.
And that’s what made last Tuesday night’s performance even more glaring. He was the poster child for the Flyers’ woeful shooting effort against the Cincinnati Bearcats at Fifth Third Arena, a misfire nightmare that led to a 74-62 loss.
Bennett went one-for-10 from 3-point range and the Flyers were two-for-26. It was their worst shooting performance from beyond the arc in 11 years.
If Bennett felt like he was back in first grade again that game, then four nights later — facing a talented Bethune-Cookman team at UD Arena Saturday night — he showed he had graduated to third grade.
He made the first 3-point shot he took. And then he hit the third one and the fourth and the fifth.
He made four of his first five long-range attempts in the first half and that set the tone for the rest of the team which made 8-of-12 threes in those first 20 minutes — 11 of 19 for the night — as UD outgunned the Wildcats, 91-82.
Bennett — who led the team in scoring for the third time in four games, this night with a game-high 25 — is the most experienced player on the UD team.
He’s the Flyer who best understands what head coach Anthony Grant wants — make that expects — out of his charges.
And in these days of ever-changing rosters thanks to the transfer portal and NIL money, rosters are cobbled together quickly, and teams must learn on the fly in the nonconference games of November.
That’s why a seasoned player like Bennett is so valuable.
After the victory — both in the postgame press conference and in private later — he was pressed on why the team had shot so much better Saturday:
- Was it because of a different opponent? While the Wildcats are a talented and savvy bunch — they took No. 20 Auburn into overtime before losing 95-90 in the season opener on the road two weeks ago — they aren’t as long, as physical or as deep as the Bearcats, who kept UD shooters off balance and rushed all night.
- Was it because of the setting? Playing in front of a partisan crowd pulling against them on the road is a lot different than the comfy confines of UD Arena, where the Flyers are backed by 13,400 die-hard fans who lift them from opening tip to the final seconds and in the process, the opposition, especially if it’s a nonconference team unaccustomed to Flyer Faithful fanaticism, often wilts.
- Was it just the basketball gods, who sometimes give you a hot hand and other times turn you into a first grader unable to draw a bead on the rim? And that’s not an exaggeration of what happened at UC where Flyers’ attempts hit the side of the backboard, hit the rim and bounced over the backboard or simply sailed errant through the air, missing the rim completely.
Bennett shook his head to all of that, though he did concede UD Arena gives him and his teammates a tremendous home advantage.
“This game we looked out for each other, we played for each other,” Bennett said. “We made extra passes and that ended up getting us better shots.”
That especially was evident on the first trey Bennett hit. The ball was handled by at least five Flyers as it was moved around the half-court and then back again so he had an extra beat to set himself and launch unimpeded.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
“Tonight, I was just able to feel it,” Bennett said.
‘Slow down’
Due to that UC outing — and a pair of 1-for-3 shooting efforts in the season’s first two games against Canisius and Maryland Baltimore County — Bennett came into Saturday’s game shooting 18.8 percent from long range.
Last season he made 39 percent of his treys, an effort highlighted by an NIT game when he made eight 3-pointers — part of a career-high 30-point night — in a win over Florida Atlantic.
His long range start this season drew on-line critics, well-meaning correctors … and his dad Corey, a Florida AAU coach of note and knows his son’s game well.
“Part of playing basketball at this level, you are going to have people who say what they want to say,” Bennett said. “I hear it, but I don’t. I try not to focus on that.
“But my dad was with me growing up. He knows my game and what I do. He knows when I look a little rushed and he’ll be like ‘Slow down. Make sure your feet are set.’”
Taking to heart his dad’s words and Grant’s mantra the past few days — about helping your teammates out on offense, moving the ball more, sharing, “playing to our strengths” — Bennett was back in old form Saturday night and made seven of his 13 shots.
His four treys in seven attempts — along with De’Shayne Montgomery’s 4-for-5 night from long range and Amaël L’Etang’s 2-for-3 accuracy — were part of the 11 for 19 team effort that translated to 57.9 percent shooting.
That’s more than 50 percentage points better than last Tuesday night ‘s 7.7 percent accuracy from afar.
No place like home
While sharing and strategy and form are all important, Bennett said the benefits of playing at UD Arena can’t be overlooked:
“There’s no place like playing at home. For sure it helps a lot. With over 13,000 people behind us here, it’s a homecourt advantage.
“And we know the place. I’m used to the rims, the spots on the floor and just the feel of shooting in here.
“I’ve been on the other side of this, too. When I was at Merrimack and we’d come in to play a big-time school, you saw the difference right away. Some teams might come in and see how big it is and think. ‘Wow, I’m not used to this! I’m not ready for it.’
“But tonight, these guys flourished in the atmosphere. It’s an environment they don’t have at home, so they took advantage of it here.”
The Wildcats — coached by former NBA stalwart Reggie Theus — have some talented players, especially junior guard Arterio Morris, who came off the bench, scored 19 points and drew the praise of Anthony Grant afterward.
With another stiff road test coming up Wednesday at Marquette, Grant stressed that his team must draw on the lessons learned so painfully at UC.
He talked about his players sharing the ball and helping each other in times of duress so they can be “the best version of themselves.”
For Bennett that means the can’t-find-the-rim first grade version stays back at Fifth Third Arena.
And the dialed in third grade shot maker is what he packs in his duffel for the trip to Fiserv Forum in downtown Milwaukee.
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