“We’re disappointed with the loss, of course,” Dayton guard De’Shayne Montgomery said Tuesday, “but we’ve got the next one coming up. We did some good things in the game, but, for sure, there’s some stuff we could tweak. We’ll get back at it tomorrow. We’re going to watch some film and fix what we need to fix.”
What Dayton needs to fix more than anything else is its 3-point shooting. It has not shot better than 31.6% in its first three games. The national average is 32.8%.
Dayton has shot 20.7% overall from long range. Only 11 teams in Division I have posted a worst shooting percentage.
Most of the roster shares the blame.
• Javon Bennett shot 39% last season and is shooting 18.8% (3 of 16) this season.
• Amaël L’Etang shot 33.8% last season and is shooting 27.3% (3 of 11) this season.
• Jacob Conner shot better than 30% in his first two seasons at Marshall but slipped to 28.5% last season. He’s shooting 18.2% (2 of 11) this season.
• Bryce Heard, who made 2 of 10 3s as a freshman, and Jordan Derkack, a career 25.4% shooter, have each missed all five of their 3-point attempts. Malcolm Thomas has missed his only two attempts.
• Only Keonte Jones (3 of 4), who shot 38.2% last season, and Jaiun Simon (1 of 3) are shooting above 30%.
Dayton made 2 of 26 3-pointers (7.7%) against Cincinnati. The only other time it attempted at least 20 3s and shot worse than that was 2008 when it tied a NCAA record that still stands with an 0-of-24 performance in a 60-59 overtime victory against Auburn.
Dayton missed plenty of open 3-pointers against Cincinnati but also struggled against a roster that ranks 25th in the nation in average height.
Asked if he wanted his players to keep shooting when the shots aren’t falling, Dayton coach Anthony Grant said, “I want us taking good shots. I think we have to learn how to play to our strengths better. I think we’re a better shooting team. I thought some of them were good looks. Some of them weren’t.”
Dayton shot under 30% twice in its last two games last season but finished the season at 36.1%.
The next chance to improve its shooting comes at 7:30 p.m. Saturday when Dayton (2-1) plays Bethune-Cookman (1-2) at UD Arena. Here are five things to know about Dayton’s fourth game.
1: Series history: Dayton is 2-0 against Bethune-Cookman. Both games took place at UD Arena.
The Flyers won 60-59 on Feb. 6, 1996, when Jeffrey Brookins made a tie-breaking free throw with four seconds remaining, and 78-38 on Nov. 23, 2008.
Dayton is 19-3 against Southwestern Athletic Conference teams with 16 straight victories since Dec. 15, 1990, a loss to Southern. The Flyers last played a SWAC team on Dec. 2, 2023, beating Grambling State 76-46.
2: Streaks: Dayton has won 28 straight non-conference home games since losing three in a row to UMass Lowell, Lipscomb and Austin Peay early in the 2021-22 season.
• This will be Dayton’s 80th straight sellout.
3: State of the program: Bethune-Cookman, which is located in Daytona Beach, Fla., finished 17-16 overall and 13-5 in the SWAC last season. It was picked to finish first out of 12 teams in the SWAC preseason poll this season.
Bethune-Cookman’s coach is two-time NBA All-Star Reggie Theus, who is 55-74 entering his fifth season.
Bethune-Cookman has never played in the NCAA tournament.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
4: Scouting report: Bethune-Cookman opened the season with a 95-90 overtime loss at Auburn, which was then ranked 20th in the Associated Press top-25 poll. Arterio Morris made three free throws with no time left on the clock to send the game to overtime.
Bethune-Cookman lost 101-61 on the road to the Miami Hurricanes in its second game and then beat the College of Coastal Georgia, a NAIA program, 101-60, on Tuesday.
Morris, a 6-foot-4 redshirt junior guard, leads the team with 15.0 points per game. He played his freshman season at Texas before transferring to South Plains Community College last season.
Daniel Rouzan, a 6-8 senior forward, averages 14.7 points per game. He played at Weber State and Manhattan in his first two seasons. He averaged 11.8 points last season for Bethune-Cookman. He made the SWAC preseason first team.
Jakobi Heady, a 6-6 fifth-year forward, averages 14.0 points per game. He averaged 15.0 points last season at Central Michigan.
Doctor Bradley, a 6-8 fifth-year forward, has not played in the first three games. He averaged 19.6 points last season at Arkansas Pine Bluff and made the All-SWAC preseason first team.
5: Odds & Ends: KenPom.com gives Dayton a 93% chance of winning this game. It predicts a final score of 82-65.
Dayton fell from No. 60 to No. 68 after losing at Cincinnati. Bethune-Cookman ranks 221st.
• Dayton has three double-digit scorers through three games: Bennett (16.0 points per game); L’Etang (14.0); and Montgomery (13.3).
• L’Etang leads the team in rebounding (6.7).
• Derkack is playing the most minutes off the bench (21.3).
NEXT GAME
Who: Bethune-Cookman at Dayton
When: Saturday, 7:15 p.m.
Streaming: Channel 7 WHIO-TV
Radio: 95.7-FM, 1290-AM
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