That result showed the potential of a team that would finish 29-2.
No one’s ready to compare the 2025-26 Flyers to that famous Dayton team, but their performance Friday in the ESPN Events Invitational championship, albeit in an 83-79 loss to No. 9 Brigham Young, showed their potential.
“There are no good losses,” Dayton guard Keonte Jones said. “We’re not happy about this one, but we’re definitely going to bounce back and get right back to work and feed off this.”
Dayton led by as many as 11 points in the first half and took a 39-30 lead in the opening minute of the second. BYU took control with a 15-0 run and stretched its lead to as many as 13 points before Dayton started to chip away at the deficit.
Dayton tied the game twice on baskets by Bryce Heard, but BYU’s Richie Saunders made too many big shots in the final minutes, including a 4-point play with 2 minutes, 57 seconds remaining that put the Cougars in front for good. He scored 29 points.
“We competed,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “We gave ourselves a chance. Give BYU credit. They made the plays they had to make."
Here are three takeaways from Dayton’s eighth game:
1: Dayton’s offense got stagnant at a key moment: After De’Shayne Montgomery’s 3-pointer on the first possession of the second half gave Dayton a 39-30 lead, it scored two points in the next six minutes.
The Flyers missed five straight shots and committed three turnovers in the stretch.
“We came out flat," Jones said. “We should have came out and punched them in the mouth first, but they hit us first, and we had to fight back.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
2: Two players took turns taking over the offense: After making 2 of 10 3s in an 84-79 overtime victory against Georgetown in the first round Thursday, Orlando native Javon Bennett made 6 of 10 shots, including 5 of 8 3-pointers, in the first half. He had 17 points and finished with 22.
“I was back home, and I saw my shot falling for the first time,” Bennett said. “I kept shooting, and it kept going in. Guys kept finding me.”
Bryce Heard delivered his third straight strong performance off the bench. He had eight points against North Carolina Central, 12 against Georgetown and a career-high 16 against BYU.
“It’s going to give me a lot of confidence,” Heard said.
Heard made 4 of 5 3s on Friday after making 3 of 4 on Thursday.
Heard also had a game-tying fast-break layup with four minutes to play and — after a go-ahead 3 by BYU — a game-tying 3 on the next possession.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
3: Dayton has built a decent resume in the first month of the season: The Flyers still have work to do in building a case for making the NCAA tournament as an at-large team, but there are more opportunities ahead to do that.
The victories against Marquette and Georgetown — both top-90 teams in the Ken Pomeroy ratings — at least keep Dayton in the conversation for March Madness early this season, though both victories might not look as great in March as they did this month.
Marquette is 4-4, and Georgetown lost both games in the ESPN Events Invitational after a 5-0 start. Dayton’s loss at Cincinnati could look worse as well in March. The Bearcats lost at home to Eastern Michigan this week.
Games against Virginia, Florida State and Liberty loom in December, and Dayton can’t overlook its next opponent, East Tennessee State, which took a 5-1 record into the weekend.
Dayton (6-2) earned a minor bump in the Pomeroy ratings, climbing five spots to No. 64, by playing BYU (6-1) closer than all of its opponents except Connecticut, the lone team to beat the Cougars.
“We’re going to see a lot of big teams this year,” Heard said, “and have a lot of big games. This is a hard loss. You want to win the game always, but think it’s a learning lesson.”
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