Men’s And Women’s Basketball Begin A-10 Season On Different Terms

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By: Connor Hanson – Staff Writer

Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams finished 2017 with their Atlantic-10 openers and to the Flyer fan’s dismay, they each began quite differently. The women’s team opened up their conference season with a defensive statement win over La Salle on Saturday whereas the men’s team lost to Duquesne on Friday.

Dayton Women’s: End 2017 on a strong note

Putting senior JaVonna Layfield’s career game to good use, the women’s team ran away with the win at La Salle University 76-47. Making the fourth time the team allowed less than 50 points this season, with the last two times coming in back-to-back games.

The women’s squad played great defensively, forcing 21 turnovers from La Salle. They would go on to win the turnover margin and points off of turnovers margin in dramatic fashion with a 21-10 and 24-4 advantage. Not only did the Flyers lead in those statistics, but also in field goal percentage, shooting 43.9 percent to 32.1 percent, and in the rebounding battle, 42-38.

However, most of this would not have been possible without their defensive stalwart, Layfield, who allotted over half of the teams rebounds with 24 and just under half of their steals with eight. Both of these statistics would be good for second all-time for Dayton Women’s Basketball.

Whereas the women’s team finished the year with answers of what kind of team they were going to be, the men’s team finished with more questions.
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Dayton Men’s: Again undulating the winning percentage line

Now one game under .500 for the year, Dayton dropped its seventh game of the year, losing 70-62 at Duquesne.

However, two bright spots for the Flyers going into the new year are that, redshirt junior Josh Cunningham continues to shoot at a high percentage and can get double-digit rebounds on a nightly basis and senior Darrell Davis can be leaned on to score.

These two Flyers headlined the rest of the squad in the loss, the first finishing with 14 points and 13 rebounds and the latter with 19 points. However, after that, things begin to get murky for the men’s squad as their shot was off on all aspects for the majority of the game, finishing with team percentages of 38-19-52 from the field, three-point line and free-throw line.

The Flyers also ran into foul trouble in the first half and couldn’t sustain their offensive production, allowing for a one-sided game on three occasions. Both Cunningham and freshman Jalen Crutcher had to sit the last eight minutes of the first half due to foul trouble. Their absence would lead to an a Duquesne 13-2 run to close out the half.

The Flyers would then have another scoring drought, lasting just over 3 minutes in the early second half and then another one late, getting outscored 10-1 in the last 4:46 of the game.

FOR LIVE UPDATES ON UD WOMEN’S AND MEN’S BASKETBALL FOLLOW FLYER NEWS SPORTS ON TWITTER HERE.

What’s next?

Although it is the end of the 2017 year, there is a lot of A-10 basketball to be had, and with the women’s defensive prowess and the men’s veteran duo, these squads should be interesting to follow throughout the rest of the season.

The women’s next matchup is home against Rhode Island on Thursday at 7:00 p.m., and the men play home against St. Bonaventure on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m.

Photo Courtesy of Griffin Quinn/Staff Photographer