 vaulted into the Top 25 after an impressive run at the Maui Invitational that included drubbings of Georgia and Virginia Tech followed by an overtime loss to Kansas in the title game. Dayton hadn’t been ranked in the Top 25 since February 2016.Back on the mainland, Dayton struggled before pulling away from the depleted Huskies (0-6), who are in a brutal opening stretch of road games. They’d given up 100 points in each of their last three losses against Texas Tech, Michigan and Houston.The Huskies led for much of the first half, before Dayton’s size and depth started wearing them down. The Flyers looked as though their first ranking in years had softened them a bit.“You’re human - OK, 19th in the country, you get a little bit of a big head,” said Trey Landers, who had 16 points and eight rebounds. “I think it was good that they humbled us a little bit. So we needed that.”Their best player was the constant.Toppin was the Atlantic 10’s top freshman last season and has been the catalyst in the Flyers’ breakout run, scoring at least 20 points in all but two games. The forward opened the game with a dunk on an alley-oop pass from Jalen Crutcher and went high to snare a rebound with his left hand and slam it down.Toppin finished with his third double-double of the season in only 24 minutes.“Obi is Obi,” Landers said. “Everybody else, we play to our strengths. We’re just starting to figure out what we can do individually.”Jalon Gates led an early Huskies surge, scoring 16 points in the first eight minutes. He was the focus of Dayton’s defense the rest of the way and got off only three more shots, missing them all. Ian DuBose, the All-Southland Conference guard, started despite a sore ankle and had 18 points in 32 minutes.The Huskies threw a chill into the Flyers early as Gates made five straight shots - four from beyond the arc - for a 22-13 lead, silencing the crowd at University of Dayton Arena. But the Flyers started wearing down Houston Baptist late in the first half. Jhery Matos hit back-to-back 3-pointers during a 10-0 run that put Dayton up 40-35.“When you’re dealing with young people, sometimes you have to get a reality check,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “Maybe the first 10 minutes tonight was something of that.“A lot of our errors in the first half were mental things. They got about 16 points off our mistakes. At halftime, it was more about being able to flush whatever happened and come out and play the way we felt we were capable of playing.”The Flyers made 15 of their first 22 shots in the second half while pulling away.BIG PICTUREHouston Baptist: The Huskies are short-handed with three players missing time, including forward Benjamin Uloko.Dayton: The Flyers got one home game between tournaments. They head to Phoenix for the Basketball Hall of Fame’s Colangelo Classic next weekend.LOPSIDEDDayton’s last four wins have been by 25, 19, 27 and 31 points.MORE MINUTESDayton junior center Jordy Tshimanga played his third game since returning from a knee injury and went 13 minutes - more than the last two games combined - with five rebounds and eight points.UP NEXTHouston Baptist hosts Samford on Saturday, the Huskies’ only home game in their first 10.Dayton plays Saint Mary’s in Phoenix on Sunday.---More college basketball: https://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and https://twitter.com/-Top 25)
Dec 02, 2019No. 19 Dayton convinced the college basketball world of its worthiness in the Maui Invitational last week.An Obi Toppin stare-down provided the punctuation.The veteran-laden Flyers (5-1) will play their first game as a ranked team since February 2016 when they play host to winless Houston Baptist on Tuesday.Dayton took then-No. 4 Kansas into overtime before losing 90-84 in the Maui title game on Wednesday, after advancing with dominating 19- and 27-point victories over Georgia and Virginia Tech."Like I told them in the locker room ... when we came here, we wanted to find out what we needed to do as a team to continue to move forward, and I think these guys did a great job of answering that," Dayton coach Anthony Grant said.Toppin, a 6-foot-9 redshirt sophomore who is considered an NBA prospect, scored 67 points on 25-of-36 shooting and had 21 rebounds in Maui.After hitting a 3-pointer late in the first half of the championship game, Toppin took a long look at a heckling Kansas bench before heading back up the floor.Dayton of the Atlantic 10 Conference is shooting 53.8 percent from the field and out-rebounding opponents by 3.2 per game. The Flyers showed versatility and range against Kansas, when they made 16 of 33 3-pointers and four players scored in double figures.Ryan Mikesell had 19 points, five rebounds and four assists, Toppin had 18 points, Ibi Watson had 16 and Jalen Crutcher had 12, including a game-tying 3-pointer with three seconds left in regulation."We kind of showed people what we can do on more of a national level," said Mikesell, a 6-foot-7 senior. "We wanted to win, but we went out here and we competed for three days straight."I'm really excited about this group. I think we have a lot of talent. Just keep improving as the season goes on, so hopefully we're playing our best basketball at the end of March and hopefully make the tournament, make a good run in the A-10 and go from there." The Flyers, who have been historically under-appreciated despite winning 20 games in five of the last six seasons -- and 10 of 12 -- started two seniors, two juniors and a third-year sophomore against Kansas. Sixth-man Watson is a junior.Dayton ranks first in the nation in 2-point field-goal percentage, hitting 66.2 percent from inside the arc.Houston Baptist (0-5) will continue a rugged early-season stretch. The Huskies have not played a home game this season, and their last three losses were to then-No. 11 Texas Tech, now-No. 4 Michigan and Houston by a combined 111 points."Our nonconference schedule is challenging, as everyone in the Southland (Conference) has," said coach Ron Cottrell. "The hits just keep coming in the nonconference schedule." Senior guard Jalon Gates and junior guard Ian DuBose lead the Huskies in scoring at 17.8 and 15.6 points per game, respectively. Freshman Myles Pierre had a season-high 15 points in the 112-73 loss at Houston last Tuesday.--Field Level Media
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