Jordan Derkack, Malcolm Thomas and Amaël L’Etang — all nursing different lower-body injuries and listed as “Out” on the Atlantic 10 Conference’s availability report — had to have been as impressed as everyone else watching the short-handed Flyers survive and thrive for the fourth straight game without their full lineup.
Dayton beat Fordham, Loyola Chicago and George Washington without Thomas and L’Etang. A week break didn’t help them return to the court, and Dayton played Duquesne without them and without Derkack, who suffered an injury in the second half of the previous game against George Washington.
In the end, the injuries didn’t matter. Dayton (13-4, 4-0) beat Duquesne 71-65 to keep pace with two other teams that haven’t suffered an A-10 loss: George Mason (17-1, 5-0) and Saint Louis (15-1, 3-0).
“We’ve just got the mentality of next guy up,” Dayton senior guard Javon Bennett said, “We knew coming into tonight guys were going to be out, and tonight the bench stepped up big. It gives us a little chip on the shoulder to know that what we’ve got is enough. Even though we’re missing two fives (Thomas and L’Etang), we’ve got enough, and we play hard enough to win.”
Sixth-year guard Keonte Jones summed up Dayton’s attitude simply, saying the team has a “tough nature.”
Dayton had eight available scholarship players. All eight scored at least three points.
“Our guys showed great fight tonight,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “(Duquesne was) a wounded team, having lost two tough games (in a row), so we knew we would get their best shot. I thought defensively we kind of set the tone in the first half. We were able to be disruptive. They came in averaging 86 points a game. We knew they were going to make a run. They made the run in the second half. It was back and forth. I thought the last five minutes really set the tone for the victory. The guys stepped up and showed a level of resiliency to be able to pull out the win.”
Here are three takeaways from Dayton’s 17th game:
1: Everyone contributed: Jones led Dayton with 15 points. Bennett added 14. De’Shayne Montgomery had 11 points. Those are Dayton’s proven scorers. Their contributions weren’t unexpected.
The rest of the rotation made up for the absence of Derkack, Thomas and L’Etang, who average 25.9 points between them.
• Freshman forward Damon Friery made a 3 in the first half.
• Jaiun Simon earned his first college start and scored 10 points, hitting double figures for the third time in four games. He made two 3s in just over a minute span in the last five minutes of the second half, pushing Dayton’s lead to eight points each time.
• Bryce Heard, who also made his first start, scored seven points and had a team-high six rebounds. He made 5 of 7 free throws.
• Sean Pouedet, the 22-year-old guard from Belgium who joined the roster in December, scored four straight points in the second half. He played a season-high 12 minutes. He entered the game with a total of two points in 22 minutes.
• Jacob Conner had seven points, six rebounds and a team-high five assists in 27 minutes.
“We practice every day, and you never know when your opportunity is coming,” Bennett said. “I think they took advantage today. I’m proud of them for stepping up and making big plays.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
2: The defense got stops: Dayton took a 33-24 lead into halftime thanks to a 3-pointer at the buzzer by Montgomery. Then Duquesne opened the second half with a 13-3 run, erasing a nine-point halftime deficit and taking a 37-36 lead with 16 minutes, 32 seconds to play.
Duquesne made 1 of 14 3-pointers in the first half and then 3 of 5 in the first four minutes of the second half. The hot streak did not continue, however, and Duquesne finished at 28% (8 of 25), while Dayton shot 40% (8 of 20).
“We were 1 for 14 from the 3 in the first half,” second-year Duquesne coach Dru Joyce said. “That’s probably too many 3s based on the style of game that we needed to be playing. I thought we settled for some. I thought we rushed a few.”
Dayton’s defense ranks 30th in the country in adjusted defensive efficiency after this victory, according to KenPom.com. If it holds up, that would be Dayton’s highest ranking since it was 15th in the 2015-16 season.
“We’re hanging our hats on defense,” Bennett said. “That’s our bread and butter. We knew that they had some scorers on their side, and we kind of took away what they wanted to do.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
3: The Flyers made clutch shots and free throws: Duquesne cut Dayton’s lead to 51-50 with seven minutes to play. Bennett, who missed his first five 3s, then made back-to-back 3s in transition to push the lead back to seven points.
Later in the second half, Simon scored six straight points for Dayton on 3s.
Bennett made another big shot, a jumper with 1:33 to play, after Duquesne had cut the deficit to two points.
“We count on Javon to make those shots,” Jones said, “and he has been coming up clutch.”
Dayton made 6 of 6 free throws in the final 30 seconds to clinch the victory. The Flyers shot 82% (23 of 28) at the line, improving their season percentage to 75.4, which would be the program’s best mark since the 2011-12 season (77.7%) if it holds up.
It was another strong finish for a team hoping to get whole at some point this season.
“Nobody’s gonna feel sorry for us,” Grant said. “We expect to win. We prepare to win. Otherwise, what are we doing?”
NEXT GAME
Who: Loyola Chicago (5-13, 1-4) at Dayton (13-4, 4-0)
When: 8:30 p.m., Friday
TV: ESPN2
Radio: 95.7-FM, 1290-AM
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