Dayton Flyers women's basketball team will play Alabama A&M in opener

While the Dayton Flyers women’s basketball team can’t and won’t look past its season opener Tuesday against Alabama A&M, there’s no doubt the second game of the season soon will be on the minds of coaches, players and fans.

After starting the season at 11 a.m. Tuesday at UD Arena, the Flyers play the most high-profile game on their non-conference home schedule, facing Duke at 7 p.m. Friday.

“We need all the game reps and action that we can get and preparation for later on next week,” coach Shauna Green said last week before an exhibition game against Indiana University of Pennsylvania. “We take it one game at a time, one day at a time, but there’s no question that we need these two games to really continue to improve and to fine tune some stuff leading into a really big game next Friday night.”

Dayton beat IUP, a Division II program, 83-46 on Friday at UD Arena. Its next opponent, Alabama A&M, finished 10-7 last season and 8-5 in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. It was picked to finish fourth in the league’s preseason poll this season.

Alabama A&M features two players who earned All-SWAC preseason honors. Senior forward Dariauna Lewis, who averaged 17.8 points and 13.0 rebounds last season, made the first team. Guard Deshawna Harper, a graduate student, averaged 15.2 points. She made the second team.

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Alabama A&M’s roster includes one player from Ohio: Trotwood-Madison graduate Quantaijah Huffman, a freshman guard.

After playing Dayton, Alabama A&M will stay in Ohio to play another Ohio team, Cincinnati, on Wednesday.

The Flyers’ second game will be against a team picked to finish eighth in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Duke opens the season Tuesday against Winthrop. Its game against Dayton will be its first road game. It will be the first of six games against teams from Power 5 conferences for Dayton, which also plays Purdue, Mississippi State, Illinois, Florida and Clemson.

With its most experienced roster in years, Dayton hopes to set the tone for the season early. The opener will air on ESPN+ as will the game against Duke.

“Pressure is a good thing in our eyes,” sixth-year senior guard Araion Bradshaw said. “We know that we’re really good, and we expect to compete at that level all the time. We just try to go out and have fun and make each other better every single day.”