Dayton vs. BYU: What to know about Friday’s game

All the other past champions have their own banners, too.

UD Arena has no banners. The Maui Invitational has one banner honoring all the past champions, including the 2003 Flyers. The two banners in Florida then are unique in a way.

Now Dayton gets a chance to join Gonzaga — the champion in 2008, 2012 and 2016 — on the list of teams that have won the ESPN event three times. After an 84-79 overtime victory against Georgetown in the first round on Thursday, the Flyers (6-1) play No. 9 Brigham Young (5-1) in the championship game at 9:30 p.m. Friday. The game will air on ESPN.

“It’s going to be a good game,” Dayton guard Bryce Heard said. “It’s going to be a good matchup. We’re ready.”

Here are five things to know about the game:

1: Series history: Dayton has not beaten BYU in three tries. BYU won the first matchup 62-43 in the NIT in 1951 at Madison Square Garden. BYU won 70-62 at the UD Fieldhouse in 1959.

Dayton last played BYU in the seventh-place game at the Battle for Atlantis in 2022. The Flyers lost 79-75 in overtime after blowing a 23-point lead.

2: State of the program: BYU finished 26-10 last season. It has posted winning records 20 seasons in a row and has played in the NCAA tournament 11 times in that stretch.

BYU’s second-year head coach, Kevin Young, is 30-11 (.732) in two seasons. He was an associate head coach for the Phoenix Suns in his previous job. He replaced Mark Pope, who left for Kentucky after five seasons.

Credit: David Jablonski

Credit: David Jablonski

3: Scouting report: AJ Dybantsa, a 6-foot-9 freshman forward, leads BYU in scoring (19.2 points per game). He was the No. 1 recruit in the nation in the 2025 class.

• Richie Saunders, a 6-5 senior guard, averages 18.7 points. He’s the only player remaining from either team who played in the 2022 game in the Bahamas. He had eight points in 26 minutes as a freshman.

• Robert Wright III, a 6-1 sophomore guard, averages 16.3 points per game. He played his freshman season at Baylor.

• 8YU shoots 35.9% from 3-point range. The national average is 33.2. Dayton shoots 31.9% but has shot better than 40% three times in the last four games.

Credit: David Jablonski

Credit: David Jablonski

4: Season summary: BYU has beaten three teams in the top 50 of the Ken Pomeroy ratings: No. 41 Villanova; No. 20 Wisconsin; and No. 48 Miami. Its only loss came to No. 11 Connecticut.

In the first game Thursday, BYU beat the Hurricanes 72-62. Kennard Davis, a 6-6 junior guard who played the last two seasons at Illinois, scored a season-high 18 points. He did not play in the last three games after serving a suspension.

Miami led BYU 33-29 at halftime. BYU took control with a 10-0 run early in the second half.

“Coach (John) Linehan made the comment at halftime that our demeanor wasn’t great in the first half,” Young said in his postgame press conference. “I thought our guy’s eyes were a little glazed over. I thought our demeanor in the second half was the biggest adjustment. It was a toughness game, we knew that it was going to be.”

BYU had, by far, the largest fan support at the tournament Thursday.

“It was amazing,” Young said. “It is something unique about BYU that we have fans all over and our fans travel. To see that much blue especially on a holiday was really cool. I know for me that I never take it for granted and our guys feed off of it. It’s an extra boost.”

5: Odds & Ends: KenPom.com gives Dayton an 18% chance of winning and predicts an 80-70 score.

Dayton moved from No. 71 to No. 69 after beating No. 83 Georgetown. BYU is No. 8.

• Dayton has lost three straight games to Big 12 opponents, falling to Cincinnati this season and last season and to Iowa State in the Maui Invitational last season.

This is Dayton’s sixth game against a Big 12 team in a November tournament since 2018. It is 1-4 in the last five games.

Dayton lost to Oklahoma at the Battle 4 Atlantis in 2018, to Kansas in the Maui Invitational championship in 2019, to Houston in the Charleston Classic championship game in 2023 and to Iowa State in the Maui consolation bracket last season.

Dayton’s last victory against a Big 12 team in a November tournament came against Kansas in the ESPN Events Invitational semifinals in 2021.

• Dayton guard De’Shayne Montgomery suffered a foot or ankle injury on a dunk attempt with 3 minutes, 30 seconds to play in the second half Thursday. He did not return. After the game, he told the Dayton Daily News, “I’m going to be good for (Friday), for sure.”

• BYU lost senior guard Dawson Baker, who averages 7.5 points per game, to what appeared to be a serious lower-body injury Thursday. He had to be helped off the court by teammates.