UMBC at Dayton: What to know about Saturday’s game

Dayton did just that in an 88-48 victory against Canisius. There’s a good chance the second game follows a similar script.

Dayton (1-0) plays the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (1-0) at 2 p.m. Saturday at UD Arena. The game will air on the FanDuel Sports Network and ESPN+.

Canisius ranks 352nd out of 365 Division I teams in the Ken Pomeroy ratings, and UMBC is No. 296.

There was little chance Dayton would lose to Canisius, and there’s little chance it will lose to UMBC. These games give it a chance to get ready for the first big test of November on Tuesday against the Cincinnati Bearcats on their home court, Fifth Third Arena. UC is No. 32 in the Pomeroy ratings after beating Western Carolina 94-63 on Monday.

Here are five things to know about Dayton’s second game:

1: Series history: This will be the second meeting. Dayton won the first matchup 83-60 on Dec. 1, 1999, at UD Arena.

Mark Ashman led Dayton with 19 points in that 1999 game, and freshman Brooks Hall scored 17 points in what was then his career high.

This is Dayton’s first game against an America East Conference opponent since it lost 59-58 to UMass Lowell on Nov. 13, 2021.

2: Streaks: Dayton has won 27 straight non-conference home games since losing three in a row to UMass Lowell, Lipscomb and Austin Peay early in the 2021-22 season.

• This will be Dayton’s 79th straight sellout.

Credit: David Jablonski/Staff

Credit: David Jablonski/Staff

3: State of the program: UMBC finished 13-19 last season and 5-11 in the AEC. It was picked to finish seventh out of nine teams in the conference this season.

This is the fifth season for coach Jim Ferry, who is 61-68. Ferry spent five seasons in the A-10 (2012-17) at Duquesne. He was 1-7 against Dayton during that time.

UMBC last played in the NCAA tournament in 2018 when it made history as the first No. 16 seed to beat a No. 1 seed, Virginia. The UMBC coach then was Ryan Odom, who coached the program for three more seasons. Odom then coached Utah State and Virginia Commonwealth before moving to Virginia, which plays Dayton on Dec. 6 in Charlotte, N.C.

4: Scouting report: UMBC lost 82-81 to Maryland in an exhibition game Oct. 27. Daylon Dickerson, a 6-foot-6 junior forward, led the team with 16 points in that game.

In the season opener Tuesday, UMBC beat a lower-division school, Penn State York, 74-53. York is a member of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association. Jah’Likai King, a 6-2 junior guard who played the last two seasons at New Haven, scored 23 points.

The team’s top returning player, 6-6 fifth-year forward Josh Odunowo (11.1 points per game last season), did not play in the opener. Devin Ceaser, a 6-1 senior guard who averaged 11.5 points at Old Dominion last season, also did not play.

“We’ve got to get guys healthy,” Ferry said in a postgame radio interview Monday. “We’ve got more guys in street clothes than we’ve got in uniform. Hopefully, we can get some of these guys healthy. We really don’t know yet what we’re going to have.”

UMBC ranked 11th in the country in 3-point field-goal percentage (38.4) last season. It made 11 of 28 3s (39.3%) in the opener.

5: Odds and ends: KenPom.com gives Dayton a 98% chance of winning and predicts an 88-65 score.

• Dayton guard Javon Bennett hit the 1,000-point milestone by scoring 20 points Monday. He has exactly 1,000 points in 100 games. He has scored 673 points in three seasons at Dayton.

• Junior walk-on Evan Dickey, a Chaminade Julienne graduate, scored his first career points Monday. He made 2 of 2 free throws. In his first two seasons, Dickey appeared in nine games, playing a total of 15 minutes, and missed all three of his field-goal attempts.