While Dayton fans may still have work to do in identifying the eight newcomers on the roster, they have to like what they see on the court. The Flyers trailed by as many as eight points in the first half and faced 30-27 halftime deficit but won the second half 63-29. They routed Bowling Green 90-59 in their final tuneup one week before the season opener against Canisius.
“It was from my perspective a really good game for us,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said.
The final score didn’t indicate how competitive Bowling Green was for the first 28 minutes. The Falcons led 45-43 with 11:49 to play. Dayton scored the next six points and led the rest of the way. The Flyers put the game away with a 12-0 run that started at the 7:07 mark. They led by as many as 31 points.
“In the second half, I thought our guys did a much better job of settling in,” Grant said. “We were able to have our defense create offense for us. I think that could be a strength of our team. When the ball is moving, when we’re playing in the open floor, I think that’s when we’re at our best.”
Rutgers transfer Jordan Derkack missed his second straight game after taking a hard fall in practice. Grant said they don’t want to rush him back and he’ll be “a valuable piece for us when he’s ready.”
Asked after the game what he could say about Njie’s situation, Grant said, “He’s a great young man, and he wants to be out there competing with his team. For me, it’s about the young man and just helping him navigate through this. He wants to play. He’s a competitor like everybody else, so we’re going to support him in any way we can.”
“Our coaches told us it’s a 40-minute game,” guard Javon Bennett said, “so we stuck with it and had confidence in each other.”
Bennett had the most success, making 5 of 9 3s after hitting 3 of 6 against Penn State. He led Dayton with 25 points on 9-of-16 shooting.
Amaël L’Etang made 2 of 3 3s after missing all five of his attempts against Penn State. He scored 15 points.
De’Shayne Montgomery made 2 of 7 3s and scored 16 points.
Bowling Green committed 20 turnovers. Bennett had seven of Dayton’s 12 steals.
Grant said the defense wore Bowling Green down over the 40 minutes and was the difference in the game.
“That’s one of the things that I think this team will be capable of,” he said. “Again, it’s preseason. We’ve got some areas that we’ll get better at on both sides of the ball. They hurt us in the first half on the offensive glass. They got back about half of their misses in the first half. We were able to correct that in the second half. We’ll just continue to take these lessons and learn from them.”
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