Trailing the play, Jones leaped and dunked Parham’s dunk attempt at the rim. The ball bounced to Dayton’s Jacob Conner.
Javon Bennett brought the ball up the court. Marquette decided to foul him, stopping the clock with 36 seconds to play. Bennett made both to give Dayton a five-point lead.
Then on Marquette’s final possession, after Bennett made 1 of 2 free throws to extend Dayton’s lead to six points, Jones blocked a 3-point attempt by Ross, a senior guard who leads Marquette in scoring (19.8 points per game).
Dayton might have won the game without either block, but Jones put his stamp on the ending after experiencing a number of highs and lows during the game.
“It wasn’t really his night,” Montgomery said, “but when overtime came, I told him, ‘Put all that behind you. You’re a dog. Let’s win this game.’ And he made game-winning plays.”
Jones scored Dayton’s only basket in the last three minutes of the second half and made a tie-breaking 3-pointer in the opening minute of overtime. He also had six of the team’s 25 turnovers.
Dayton improved to 4-1 with a 77-71 victory.
“It was a heck of a game,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “A lot of ebbs and flows. You know it’s going to be like that. I’m just proud of our guys for the fight they showed tonight.”
Dayton returns to action at 2 p.m. Saturday against North Carolina Central (2-4) at UD Arena. Here are five things to know about the game:
1: Series history: Dayton has never played North Carolina Central, which is located in Durham, N.C., four miles from the Duke University campus.
Dayton is 19-1 against Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference programs. That includes a 91-82 victory against Bethune-Cookman last weekend.
2: State of the program: North Carolina Central finished 14-19 overall and 6-8 in the MEAC last season. That ended a streak of three straight winning seasons.
The Eagles last played in the NCAA tournament in 2019 when they made their third straight appearance in the First Four at UD Arena. They lost 67-63 to UC Davis in 2017, 64-46 to Texas Southern in 2018 and 80-74 to North Dakota State in 2018.
Coach LeVelle Moton has led the program for 17 seasons. He played for the Eagles from 1992-96.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
3: Scouting report: Gage Lattimore, a 6-foot-2 sophomore guard, leads North Carolina Central in scoring (21.5 points per game). He played last season at Seton Hill University, a Division II school.
Khouri Carvey, a 6-9 senior forward, averages 14.7 points per game and a team-high 7.5 rebounds. He played at Morehead State last season.
No one else on the team averages more than 6.5 points per game.
N.C. Central lost seven players to the transfer portal after last season, including three double-digit scorers. It was the only MEAC program that opted not to share revenue with athletes.
“It’s disheartening, to say the least,” Moton told the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook. “You’re going to a gunfight with a butter knife. Our guys are fighting, and our program is fighting, but it can’t be apples and oranges anymore. I can out-coach green apples and red apples and white apples, but I can’t outcoach apples and oranges. That’s the problem right now.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
4: Early results: North Carolina Central opened the season with a 114-66 loss at North Carolina State, an 81-62 loss at Virginia and a 76-54 loss at Appalachian State. It also lost 97-53 at North Carolina.
North Carolina Central’s only victories came against lower-division teams: Bluefield State and Toccoa Falls.
5: Odds & Ends: KenPom.com gives Dayton a 98% chance of winning and predicts an 85-61 score.
Dayton ranks 64th in the Pomeroy ratings. North Carolina Central ranks 347th out of 365 Division I teams.
• Dayton guard Jordan Derkack scored eight points Wednesday to reach the 1,000-point milestone in his career. He scored 795 points in two seasons at Merrimack and 176 last season at Rutgers. He has 35 points in five games at Dayton.
NEXT GAME
Who: North Carolina Central at Dayton
When: Saturday, 2 p.m.
Streaming: ESPN+
Radio: 95.7-FM, 1290-AM
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