“Some of these guys are coming from bigger schools and might look down on opponents in the A-10,“ Dayton forward Jaiun Simon said earlier this season, ”but me and Javon (Bennett) and the others who have been here, we just remind them these dudes come to play every game. They see Dayton, and they’re going to have their best game."
Dayton is 43-30 in A-10 road games in coach Anthony Grant’s nine seasons and 60-12 at home. The Flyers survived their first road test on Jan. 3, winning 70-68 at Loyola Chicago, and return to the road at 7 p.m. against Duquesne (9-7, 1-2) at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse in Pittsburgh.
Dayton (12-4, 3-0) hasn’t played since beating George Washington 79-72 on Jan. 6. It doesn’t get another similar break until early February when it plays at Virginia Commonwealth on Feb. 6 and returns to action nine days with a home game against Davidson.
Here are five things to know about the game:
Credit: David Jablonski
1. Series history: Dayton leads the series 65-25. The Flyers swept two games from Duquesne last season.
In the first matchup last season, Dayton built a 30-point lead and coasted to an 82-62 victory in Pittsburgh on Jan. 21.
In the second game, Dayton escaped with a 77-76 victory. Duquesne scored five straight points in the final 13 seconds to tie the game. Then Dayton’s Malachi Smith was fouled by Cam Crawford with six seconds to play. It appeared to be an intentional foul, as if Crawford didn’t know the game was tied and wanted to stop the clock.
Smith made 1 of 2 free throws. Duquesne missed a desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Dayton has won three straight games at Duquesne since a 69-64 loss in 2021.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
2: State of the program: Duquesne finished 13-19 overall and 8-10 in the A-10 in coach Dru Joyce’s first season. He took over the program when Keith Dambrot retired after Duquesne won the A-10 tournament and reached the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1977 in 2024.
Duquesne was picked to finish ninth out of 14 teams in the A-10 preseason poll this season.
3: Scouting report: Tarence Guinyard, a 6-foot-2 senior guard, ranks second in the A-10 in scoring (16.9 points per game). He has the best scoring average (22.0) in A-10 games. He’s shooting 40.4% (36 of 89) from 3-point range. He played last season at Tennessee Martin after two seasons at the junior-college level.
• John Hugley IV, a 6-9 sixth-year forward, averaged 15.4 points in the first 10 games but has missed the last six games for undisclosed reasons. He previously played at Pittsburgh and Oklahoma before spending last season at Xavier.
• Jimmie Williams, a 6-5 junior guard, averages 15.1 points. He played at South Florida last season after two seasons at the junior-college level.
4: Season summary: Duquesne’s best non-conference victory came against Queens, which is No. 222 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool. It was 0-4 against teams in the top 200 with losses to No. 29 Villanova, No. 65 Boise State, No. 81 Nevada and No. 102 William & Mary. It suffered its worst loss against No. 230 Northeastern.
Duquesne opened A-10 play with an 89-83 overtime victory at Davidson but has since lost 93-80 at home to Virginia Commonwealth and 97-90 in overtime on the road Wednesday to Saint Joseph’s.
“It just wasn’t good enough,” Joyce said in a story on the Duquesne website Wednesday. “Sometimes we have to play with some intelligence, too. When you don’t take tendencies away from players, you’re going to struggle. When you allow guys to play to their strengths and find opportunities in their comfort zone, they usually have success. We just didn’t do a good job of taking away their strengths. We had a chance to extend our lead, and we didn’t get a stop. You have to try and keep guys out of the paint, and the last 15 minutes of the game and overtime they probably got a paint touch almost every possession or every other possession. They went downhill and created opportunities, and we didn’t guard.”
Credit: David Jablonski
5: Odds & Ends: KenPom.com gives Dayton a 64% chance of winning and predicts a 79-75 score. Dayton is No. 74 in the Ken Pomeroy ratings. Duquesne is No. 140.
• Dayton ranks 89th in the NCAA Evaluation Tool. Duquesne is No. 175.
Dayton is 0-2 in Quad 1, 1-1 in Quad 2, 4-1 in Quad 3 and 7-0 in Quad 4. Duquesne is 0-2 in Quad 1, 1-2 in Quad 2, 0-2 in Quad 3 and 6-1 in Quad 4.
• Two weeks into the season, George Mason (16-1, 4-0), which beat preseason favorite Virginia Commonwealth (11-6, 2-2) 86-80 on Saturday, leads the A-10 by a half game over Dayton (15-1, 3-0) and Saint Louis.
Only St. Bonaventure (11-5, 0-3) is winless. It lost 81-77 at home to Fordham (10-7, 1-3) on Saturday.
NEXT GAME
Who: Dayton (12-4, 3-0) at Duquesne (9-7, 1-2)
When: 7 p.m., Tuesday
TV: ESPN+
Radio: 95.7-FM, 1290-AM
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