When: 6 p.m. Saturday.
TV/Radio: ESPNU/95.7 and 1290 WHIO.
Series: Dayton leads 10-4. George Mason last won at UD Arena 67-63 on Jan. 23, 2019. In 2021, the teams played twice at UD Arena. Dayton won 74-65 on Jan. 2 and won by the same score Feb. 5. Last season, the Flyers lost 50-49 at George Mason.
Coaches: Anthony Grant is 121-61 in his sixth season at Dayton. Kim English is 30-28 in two seasons at George Mason.
Last game: On Wednesday, Dayton won 72-54 at Massachusetts. George Mason has not played since Feb. 18 when it beat La Salle 70-66 in Fairfax, Va.
KenPom.com odds: Dayton has a 83% percent chance of winning. The website predicts a 69-59 score. Dayton climbed from No. 68 to No. 60 after beating UMass. George Mason is No. 159.
NET rankings: Dayton climbed from No. 75 to No. 65. George Mason is No. 142.
Probable Dayton starters
Name, Ht., Class, Pos., Points per game
DaRon Holmes II, 6-10, So., F, 17.7
Toumani Camara, 6-8, Jr., G, 14.0
Kobe Elvis, 6-2, R-So., G, 8.7
Malachi Smith, 6-0, So., G, 7.9
Koby Brea, 6-6, R-So., G, 7.2
Probable George Mason starters
Ronald Polite, 6-2, Jr., G, 10.8
Devon Cooper, 6-4, Gr., G, 10.6
Josh Oduro, 6-9, Sr., F, 15.8
Justyn Fernandez, 6-5, Fr., G, 4.1
Davonte Gaines, 6-7, Sr., F, 6.7
About Dayton: The Flyers seek their fifth straight A-10 victory. This would be the third A-10 winning streak of at least that many games in Grant’s six seasons. The team won 18 in a row in 2020 and had one five-game winning streak last season. ... Holmes has 945 career points. He passed Bucky Bockhorn (941) and Noland Robinson (942) in the last game. He ranks 58th in school history. .... A victory would give Dayton its second straight 20-win season and its fourth in Grant’s six seasons. It would be the 16th 20-win season in the first 23 seasons of this century.
About George Mason: Oduro leads the A-10 in rebounds per game (9.7). He ranks third on the KenPom.com All-A-10 team behind Holmes and Camara and ahead of Richmond guard Tyler Burton and Saint Louis guard Yuri Collins. ... Cooper played his first three seasons at Morehead State before transferring to George Mason last season. He has 1,506 points in his career. ... Victor Bailey Jr., the team’s second-leading scorer (11.8), has missed the last four games with a hand injury. He played his first two seasons at Oregon and then played two seasons at Tennessee. ... George Mason ranks 348th in the country out of 363 teams in free-throw percentage (63.8)
Looking ahead: Dayton plays La Salle (13-15, 7-8) at 7 p.m. Tuesday at UD Arena. That game will be televised on the NBC Sports app.
Credit: David Jablonski
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