Loss to Dayton leaves Marquette with worst start in 11 years

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Ben Steele, the Marquette beat writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, wrote what many Dayton and Marquette fans were thinking Wednesday night.

“Another killer loss by (Marquette) early in season,” he wrote on X after Dayton’s 77-71 overtime victory at Fiserv Forum Arena. “Don’t think MU is going to schedule a home-and-home with Dayton any time soon.”

With the win Wednesday and a 71-63 victory against Marquette at UD Arena last season, Dayton swept the two-game series.

The last time Dayton swept a two-game series against a team from a higher-ranked conference, it beat Alabama in 2015 and 2016.

Dayton also swept two games from Mississippi in the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons. The Flyers and Rebels played another two-game series in 2020 and 2021 and split those games.

In other notable recent home-and-home series:

• Dayton split two games with UNLV (2022 and 2024).

• Dayton split four games with Southern Methodist (2020-23).

• Dayton split two games with Virginia Tech (2021 and 2022)

• Auburn swept Dayton (2017 and 2018).

• Dayton and Arkansas split two games (2014 and 2015).

• Dayton swept Georgia Tech (2013 and 2014).

With the loss to Dayton, Marquette (3-3) is off to its worst start since the 2014-15 season when it started 3-3 in coach Steve Wojciechowski‘s first season.

Dayton beat Marquette despite committing 25 turnovers. According to StatHead.com, Marquette had not lost a game while forcing that many turnovers since Dec. 2, 2006, when North Dakota State turned the ball over 25 times in a 64-60 victory against Marquette.

After the game, fifth-year Marquette coach Shaka Smart said his team was at its best when it was getting its hands on the ball.

“This was one of the higher deflection games that we’ve had that we did not win,” Smart said. “I think we had like 46 or 47 deflections. Usually when you have that many, it shows you’ve got great activity. I would say overall, defensively, there were a lot of mistakes, but we stopped them enough to win the game.”

Marquette committed 20 turnovers of its own. It also shot under 30% from 3-point range (9 of 31, 29.0) for the fourth time in six games.

Dayton shot 41.2% (7 of 17) from 3-point range, while outscoring Marquette 18-12 at the free-throw line.

Marquette’s offense came alive late in the second half as it erased a 12-point lead, but its struggles returned in the final seconds of the second half. After a turnover by Dayton’s Keonte Jones and a timeout with 17 seconds to play, Marquette played for the final shot.

Chase Ross dribbled the first 14 seconds away before making a pass from the paint into the corner with under 3 seconds to play. Nigel James caught the pass as Dayton’s De’Shayne Montgomery ran at him. James passed the ball to Ben Gold, who passed the ball back to Ross even though time had already expired.

“We ran an action for Chase to get him into the paint,” Smart said. “He got deep in there. We wanted to get the last shot. You don’t want to shoot at 15, obviously, with the score tied. Because the worst-case scenario is you shoot early, and then the other team goes down and gets a shot. But Dayton deserves a lot of credit. We threw the ball out to NJ. He didn’t feel like he had a shot. Then he swung the ball and didn’t shoot it. They covered it well.

“Obviously, if we could go back, we’d do something different. But the game’s not won or lost on that one possession. There were so many possessions prior to that and even some after that where we can be way better.”

Dayton climbed from No. 74 to No. 67 in the Ken Pomeroy ratings after beating Marquette, which fell to No. 67 after its third loss in the last four games.

Marquette finished in the top 30 the last three seasons. Now Smart is facing criticism for not embracing the transfer portal as most coaches have. The program has not added a transfer in the last two seasons.

“We’ve had a lot of success around here,” Smart said. “The way we’ve gone about things, it’s not new.”

What is new, Smart said, is Marquette having to replace so many players who were not only great players but great teammates, leaders and culture builders.

“We’re responding to that,” Smart said. “We’re having to react and grow from that. Absolutely we could have gone and recruited someone that was older and may have had more experience. ... But, honestly, when the ball is up in the air and we’re playing basketball, that’s really not what’s winning or losing anyone games. It’s about how connected you are as a team. I have to help our guys play with more flow.”