Fortunately for Mulcahey and the rest of the program, that bloody moment didn’t turn into a bloody Saturday at UD Arena. No one in the crowd of 13,407 was out for blood after Dayton escaped with a 77-71 victory against Maryland, Baltimore County, a program famous for being the first No. 16 seed to upset a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament in 2018.
Dayton trailed by six early in the second half. It didn’t secure the victory until Javon Bennett and De’Shayne Montgomery each made 2 of 2 free throws in the final 22 seconds.
A loss to a team picked to finish seventh in the nation’s 28th-ranked conference, a team that entered the game ranked 296th in the Ken Pomeroy ratings, a team that lost by 49 points in its second game of the season a year ago and a team that played without two injured starters would have put a huge dent in Dayton’s NCAA tournament aspirations.
Instead, Dayton will take a 2-0 record into its first big test Tuesday on the road against the Cincinnati Bearcats, who also beat two low-ranked teams in the first week of the season.
“I was proud of our guys,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “First time this year with this group that we faced some adversity, and the way our guys responded to that adversity speaks to their character and their work ethic. They really locked in and did a good job of battling through and finding ways to get the win.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Here are three takeaways from Dayton’s second game:
1: The defense did not play well for the first time this season: Dayton was mostly dominant in two exhibition games against Penn State and Bowling Green and then in a 88-48 victory on opening night Monday against Canisius. Its defense was the most consistent part of each victory.
On Saturday, though, against a team that ranked 11th in the country in 3-point field-goal percentage (38.4) last season and made 11 of 28 3s (39.3%) in its opener, Dayton did not get enough stops for the majority of the game.
The Terriers made 11 of 26 3-pointers (42.3%), including 6 of 12 in the second half.
“They shot the ball frequently and at a high clip from the 3-point line,” Grant said, “and we knew coming in that would be a key to the game.”
UMBC’s big man, 6-foot-10 forward Jose Roberto Tanchyn, made all four of his 3-point attempts after missing all three of his attempts in the opener against Penn State York.
“He had a really good game,” Grant said. “We had to kind of go smaller and switch some things up, which impacted our ability to rebound the ball.”
2: Dayton couldn’t build on early success: The Flyers led by as many as 12 points in the first half but saw the lead shrink to 41-37 at halftime.
The Terriers made seven of their last eight shots in the first half. They stayed hot early in the second half, making their first four shots to take a 46-44 lead.
UMBC took its biggest lead, 52-46, five minutes into the second half. Dayton answered with a 6-0 run that included baskets by Montgomery, Bennett and Jaiun Simon.
Then the teams traded more runs. A 5-0 run by UMBC preceded a 7-0 run by Dayton.
The turning point came with eight minutes to play. Dayton scored five straight points on a basket by Keonte Jones and a 3-pointer by Amaël L’Etang. The Flyers led the rest of the way.
“It was a good test for us,” Bennett said. “It was the first time we faced some real adversity, and we were able to respond.”
3: The Flyers had a balanced scoring effort: Bennett led Dayton with 16 points on 5-of-12 shooting. He had seven assists and no turnovers in 36 minutes.
Keonte Jones scored 12 points on 5-of-5 shooting.
Montgomery and Amaël L’Etang each had 11 points.
Jacob Conner scored 10 points, hitting double figures for the second time in 30 games with the Flyers.
Bennett made arguably the biggest shots of the game: two free throws with 22 seconds to play to give Dayton a four-point lead. UMBC had just cut Dayton’s lead to 73-71 at the 1:04 mark on a 3 by DJ Armstrong Jr. On the next possession, Dayton grabbed two offensive rebounds. UMBC was forced to foul Bennett to stop the clock.
“I kind of live for those moments,” Bennett said. “I feel like with the type of player I am, the team has great confidence in me to knock down those shots, and I did.”
TUESDAY’S GAME
Dayton at Cincinnati, 7 p.m., ESPN+, WHIO Radio.
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