No A-10 team came close to matching Dayton in the last five seasons. The best record of an A-10 champion was 15-3 from 2021-25.
This season, Saint Louis won its first 12 games before losing 81-76 on Tuesday at Rhode Island (15-11, 6-7), which lost its previous game on the same court to Fordham (15-12, 6-8).
“We’ve been playing with fire the last three or four games in terms of our execution and physicality and competitiveness,” Saint Louis coach Josh Schertz told Billikens beat writer Stu Durando. “Our superpowers have been our effort, our toughness, our execution and connectedness. I didn’t think we had enough in any of those areas today.”
Fans comparing 2020 Dayton to 2026 Saint Louis stopped that debate with this result.
The loss by Saint Louis (24-2, 12-1) gives Virginia Commonwealth (21-6, 12-2) a chance to defend its regular-season championship. The Billikens won the first matchup 71-62 on Jan. 6 in Richmond, Va. The teams meet again at 7 p.m. Friday in St. Louis.
While Saint Louis and VCU have separated themselves from the rest of the A-10, there are four teams with five losses competing for the next two spots in the standings and another team also still contending for a top-four seed in the A-10 tournament and a double bye to the quarterfinals.
Entering the weekend, George Mason (21-6, 9-5) has a half-game lead over Dayton (17-9, 8-5), Duquesne (16-10, 8-5) and Saint Joseph’s (16-10, 8-5). Seventh-place Davidson (16-10, 7-6) trails that group by a game.
Dayton and Duquesne play at 2 p.m. Saturday at UD Arena. It’s the third game in seven days for the Flyers, who earned a 70-59 victory against Davidson on Sunday at UD Arena and an 82-67 victory at George Mason on Wednesday.
Here are five things to know about Dayton’s 27th game:
Credit: David Jablonski
1. Series history: Dayton leads the series 66-25. The Flyers have won eight straight regular-season games against Duquesne. The Dukes beat Dayton in the A-10 tournament quarterfinals in 2024.
In the first matchup this season on Jan. 13 in Pittsburgh, Dayton won 71-65 despite having three players sidelined by injuries: Malcolm Thomas; Amaël L’Etang; and Jordan Derkack. Keonte Jones led Dayton with 15 points on 4-of-6 shooting.
Duquesne has lost 12 straight games at UD Arena since an 83-73 victory in 2012.
Dayton beat Duquesne 77-76 at UD Arena last season when Malachi Smith made 1 of 2 free throws with six seconds to play. Duquesne’s Cam Crawford tied the game on the previous possession but thought the Dukes still trailed and made the mistake of fouling Smith to stop the clock.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
2: State of the team: Duquesne has won five games in a row since a 3-5 start in A-10 play. In this stretch, it has road victories at St. Bonaventure (14-12, 3-10) and George Mason and victories at home against Rhode Island, George Washington (15-12, 6-8) and La Salle (7-19, 3-10)
On Wednesday against La Salle, Duquesne rallied from a 60-54 deficit in the final two minutes to win 62-61. It won the game when guard Tarence Guinyard, who leads the team with 16.4 points per game, dribbled the length of the floor after a missed free throw by La Salle with six seconds to play and scored a go-ahead layup with 0.3 seconds remaining.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
3: Scouting report: A different player has led Duquesne in scoring in four straight games.
• Alex Williams, a 6-foot-5 forward averaging 7.8 points, scored 25 points in a 71-65 victory against George Mason. His hometown is listed on the Duquesne website as Dayton, but he graduated from Moeller High School in Cincinnati. He played three seasons at Furman and missed last season with an injury.
• Guinyard, a Tennessee-Martin transfer, scored 27 points in an 88-86 victory against George Washington. He scored 16 straight points in the last six minutes.
• Jimmie Williams, a 6-5 junior guard averaging 15.8 points, scored 19 points in a 78-73 victory against St. Bonaventure.
• David Dixon, a 6-foot-9 senior forward averaging 7.7 points per game, scored 13 points against La Salle.
4: Improved play: Dayton committed eight turnovers Wednesday, ending a streak of 10 games in which it had double-digit turnovers. In A-10 play, Dayton has averaged 12.5 turnovers per game, the second-worst mark in the league.
Dayton had a 32-26 rebounding edge against George Mason after beating Davidson 39-18 on the boards. This is the first time since November it has won the rebounding battle two games in a row. Dayton ranks 11th in A-10 play in rebounding margin (minus 1.9).
Dayton’s effective field-goal percentage (66.3) against George Mason was its best of the season. It shot 58.1% (18 of 31) from 2-point range and 52.4% (11 of 21) from 3-point range.
Dayton also recorded a season-high 20 assists against George Mason. The Flyers rank seventh in A-10 play in assists per game (13.8).
“We took care of the ball tonight,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “They’re a physical team. They make it hard for you. So it was good to see the ball moving. It was good to see guys being able to finish plays.”
5: Odds & Ends: KenPom.com gives Dayton a 72% chance of winning and predicts a 78-71 score. Dayton moved from No. 98 to No. 88 in the Ken Pomeroy ratings with two straight victories. Duquesne is No. 115.
• Dayton ranks 85th in the NCAA Evaluation Tool. Duquesne is No. 127.
This is a Quadrant 3 game for Dayton and a Quad 2 game for Duquesne.
Dayton is 0-5 in Quad 1, 4-0 in Quad 2, 5-4 in Quad 3 and 8-0 in Quad 4.
Duquesne is 0-4 in Quad 1, 2-1 in Quad 2, 4-4 in Quad 3 and 8-1 in Quad 4.
NEXT GAME
Who: Duquesne at Dayton
When: 2 p.m., Saturday
TV: WHIO-TV
Radio: 95.7-FM, 1290-AM
About the Author
