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Flyers Men’s Basketball Dominates in Season Opener

TJ Thompson ,

(Photo via @daytonmbb Instagram)

TJ Thompson | Sports Editor

The Dayton Flyers overcame a slow start to dominate Saint Francis University 87-57 in their season opener. The Flyers struggled offensively in the first half, shooting just 36% from the field and 22% from three-point range. The starting lineup of Javon Bennett, Nate Santos, Enoch Cheeks, Posh Alexander, and Zed Key combined for 24 points on 8-of-24 shooting.

However, the Flyers turned things around in the second half, thanks to a strong performance from their bench. Malachi Smith, Jacob Conner, and Amaël L’Etang combined for 22 points, helping the team shoot 54% from the field and 28% from three-point range. The Flyers led 40-28 at halftime and cruised to a 30-point victory.

With this win, the University of Dayton extended their streak of consecutive season-opening victories to nine.

GAME RECAP

FIRST HALF

  • Zed Key started the season off by winning the tip.
  • The first points of the season came off an Enoch Cheeks 3
  • Saint Francis responded with a tough reverse layup on its end making the score 3-2.
  • 19:06 – Zed Key is fouled and goes 1-2 from the stripe, scoring his first points as a Flyer.
  • Flyers start cold from three going 1-4 in the game’s first three minutes.
  • An Enoch Cheeks block got the crowd back into the game, which he then followed with two big free throws, ending an almost three-minute scoring drought.
  • 16:08 Javon Bennet goes on a 6-0 run by himself, knocking down two huge threes and lighting up UD Arena.
  • Out of the media timeout, Zed Key went 2-2 from the line after taking a hard foul that shook him up for a bit.
  • Freshman Jeremy Clayville knocked down a three for SFU, ending their scoring drought.
  • First-year Flyers connect as Posh Alexander has his first points at UD off an assist from Hamad Mousa.
  •  11:24 Nate Santos is fouled and goes 2-2 from the line making the score 20-11.
  • 10:53 The first-year connection continues as Jacob Conner gets his first points as a Flyer with a three off an assist from Amaël L’Etang.
  • 7:26 Malachi Smith converts a tough layup for his first points of the season.
  • 7:04 Zed Key shoots his seventh and eighth free throws of the game, going 2-2, extending the Flyer lead to eight, 28-20.
  • A block by Key leading to an Alexander layup puts some fire back in the Flyer offense and extends their lead to 10.
  •  E. Cheeks blows the roof off of UD Arena with two thunderous dunks, one off an alley-oop from Smith and the other off an assist from Santos.  
  • 1:32 Freshman Amaël L’Etang gets his first points as a Flyer with a free throw.
  • With 40 seconds remaining in the half, Posh Alexander coverts on a tough and-1 extending the Flyer lead to 13, 38-25.
  • The first half finished with a bang as Zed Key swatted away his third ball of the game and was then rewarded on the other end with an alley-oop from Malachi Smith, making the halftime score 40-28 Flyers.

SECOND HALF

  • Cheeks started the half off with a block, but SFU struck first bringing the score to 40-30.
  • Zed Key converts for two but takes a hard hit and is taken out of the game and checked on by the medical staff, he would later return.
  • 17:42 Cheeks makes another play by knocking down a 15-footer.
  • 17:30 A Bennett layup makes the score 46-30 Dayton.
  • Cheeks adds two more points to his stat sheet, going 2-2 from the line and putting UD up 18.
  • A bucket from Santos makes it a 10-0 run for the Flyers and gives them their largest lead of the game of 20, 50-30.
  • 12:56 The Flyers offense got rolling converting on six shots in a row, with back-to-back dunks by Zed Key and an Alexander layup.
  • 11:51 Conner hit an and-1 three making the score 63-38 in favor of Dayton.
  •  UD did not take its foot off the gas. Conner knocked down another three and Bennett had a layup and a three making the score 76-49 and putting the game out of reach.
  • Flyers called a timeout with just over three minutes to play with the Flyers up 83-53 as fans were starting to clear out of the arena.
  • 1:21 Jaiun Simon finished a layup for his first points of the season and extended the UD lead to 30, 85-55.
  • 0:19 Junior Atticus Schuler added two more points off a back cut and wide-open layup, making the final score 87-57 Flyers.

NUMBERS

  • 14 – In his first regular season game at UD Zed Key led the team with 14 points.
  • 10 – Enoch Cheeks had 10 rebounds to go with 13 points giving him the team’s only double-double.
  • 25 – The Flyers shot 25 free throws tonight compared to SFU’s 11.
  • 42- First-year Flyers combined for 42 points, which was 48% of all UD’s points.

UP NEXT

  • Dayton will host Northwestern University on Nov. 9 in its second game of the season.
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