Enoch Cheeks bends over backwards to get off a shot. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie McMaken Wright)
In a game that resembled a barroom brawl under both baskets, the University of Dayton Flyers sloughed off a bad shooting first half and outscored New Mexico State by 20 points in the second half, led by Nate Santos’ game-high 23 points, to win their fifth straight, 74-53.
Hall of famer Hal McCoy writes UD Flyer basketball exclusively for Press Pros Magazine.com.
Dayton, OH. — When the University of Dayton basketball team takes the UD Arena floor, it is greeted with boxing ring announcer Michael Buffer’s famous phrase, “Let’s get ready to rumble.”
On Wednesday night against the New Mexico State University Aggies, the Flyers were not ready to rumble. It was more like stumble and fumble.
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That was a first half that ended with the 14 1/2-point favored Flyers leading by a scant one point.
The second half?
The Flyers did, indeed, rumble and tumble in the second, behind the dead-eye shooting of Nate Santos and a stifling defense and full-court press.
The final? Dayton 74, New Mexico State 53.
And this was because the Flyers led by the skinny ‘l’ in their name at halftime, 29-28. And Santos? Six points.
The second half was a coach’s delight. Santos went off, He hit 6 of 10 three-pointers en route to 17 of his game-high 23 points.
Nate Santos fires in one of his six three-pointers on a 23-point night.
And Dayton’s nostril-to-nostril defense and a choking press wore down the Aggies as the Flyers outpointed them in the second half, 45-25.
New Mexico State arrived in UD Arena with a 3-and-0 record against three non-competitive opponents.
But UD coach Anthony Grant feared the Aggies because the roster was stuffed with fifth-year players and one sixth-year player, “A highly veteran and experienced team.”.
And their style of play fits nicely on a harbor wharf. The action under both backboards was brass knuckles without the brass.
The Aggies came in averaging 16 offensive rebounds a game and averaging 10 more rebounds a game than their opposition.
That’s what Grant feared. That’s what he emphasized during pre-game prep work.
And he was not unhappy with his team’s sluggishness in the first half, even though his team rattled the Flyer Faithful by missing their first five free throws.
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“Our guys did a great job in both halves of executing what we had to do,” said Grant. “Offensively, in the first half we had trouble getting shots to fall.
“And uncharacteristically for our group, we’ve really struggled our last two games at the free throw line,” he added after the Flyers were 10 for 18.
Amael L’Etang scores two of his 11 points with a follow-up layup.
Despite the shooting miseries and catastrophic free throw shooting, the Flyers built a 27-18 lead with four minutes left in the first half. New Mexico State burst on a 10-0 run to take a 28-27 lead in quick order, mainly because bench player Pete Fillipovity hit two three-pointers in a 60-second span on his way to 15 points.
In the second half, Santos went off and the defense went on. With 10 minutes left, the Flyers led, 51-40. UD exploded on a 21-3 run that put NMS down, 72-43.
They could have, and should have, turned off the lights.
“When you watch them on film, they are a dangerous team,” said Grant. “They really get after you defensively. They turn you over (UD had only seven turnovers) and you can’t ignore a team that averages 16 offensive rebounds a game, I don’t care who you are.”
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Santos, expected to be one of the team’s top scorers, if not the top scorer, averaged only 8.2 points in the 5-0 Flyers’ first four games.
Of the sudden surge in the second half, Zed Key, who contributed 10 points, said, “We started getting more stops collectively. Our offense came together, we hit shots, we found guys in the right area and in the right spots.”
Malachi Smith tries to block Zawdie Jackson’s pass down the court.
What Key meant was that Santos hit shots and the rest found Santo in the right area, in the right spots.
So was Santos feeling it, releasing it knowing it mostly rustle net.
“Yeah, a little bit,” he said with a wide grin. “My teammates were finding me and they did a great job of getting me the open shots..
Key knew the key to winning this game. It is spelled S-a-n-t-o-s.
“I was just trying to find him and get him the ball at the end,” he said. “He got the hot hand. Everyone knows he can shoot. So we gotta find him. He’s a big part of our offense.”
On this night, he was the biggest.
Grant prefers to take the talk-about-the-team approach and said, “In the second half I thought the combination of what we were able to do defensively and offensively, the shots falling,” he said. “Actually, it may have been one of our more complete games overall. We had 20 assists on 27 made baskets.
Javon Bennett had 5 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds and one steal for the Flyers.
“And that team came in with a plus-10 in rebounding margins and getting 16 offensive rebounds a game,” he added. “We ended the game plus-10 for us in rebounding (41-31) and they had only 10 offensive rebounds.”
Rebounds? Santos, a 6-foot-7 senior, also led the Flyers in cleaning the glass with eight.
“Nate’s played well all the way through,” said Grant. “The shots went in for him tonight. That’s the game of basketball. You play the game the right way, you work hard. Nate does all the right things so it was great for him to see shots go in. Overall, he played a solid game on both sides of the ball and he has, really, all year.”
And now the degree of difficulty on the schedule reaches a crushing crescendo. The Flyers are in the Maui Classic, beginning Monday.
And the field is a who’s who of winning basketball programs. The Flyers open against North Carolina and will play three games against a field of Connecticut, Auburn, Colorado, Iowa State, Memphis and Michigan State.
“A tough, tough field,” said Grant. “I really think one of these teams could go 0-and-3 in the tournament and still make it to the (NCAA) Sweet Sixteen.”
A Slam Jam dunk for UD’s Zed Key en route to 10 points.
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