Nate Santos was UD’s only proficient scorer with 20 points. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie McMaken Wright)
For the third straight game, the heavily-favored University of Dayton basketball team tripped over the half-court line and tripped over the foul line and lost another Atlantic-10 Conference game, dropping the Flyers to 1-3 in league play and the loss to George Mason ended UD’s 26-game winning streak in UD Arena.
Hall of famer Hal McCoy writes UD Flyer basketball exclusively for Press Pros Magazine.com.
Dayton, OH — There is a mystery team wearing University of Dayton basketball team uniforms, impostors one and all.
Those weren’t The Real Flyers floating around UD Arena like lost butterflies.
Those weren’t The Real Flyers taking proverbial punches to the solar plexus by George Mason on UD’s own Blackburn Court.
Wilson Health proudly sponsors your favorite area sports on Press Pros Magazine.com.
George Mason turned Blackburn Court into Black & Blue Court, a 67-59, whipping, Dayton’s third straight Atlantic-10 defeat.
And the score is misleading. GM led, 65-46. with 5 1/2 minutes left before the Flyers engaged on a superfluous 13-0 run, a run that began under false pretenses because it was too late.
This isn’t the team that beat Connecticut. This isn’t the team that beat Marquette. This isn’t the game that played so well against North Carolina and Iowa State.
This is the team that lost to George Washington. This is the team that lost to UMass. And this is the team that lost to George Mason.
GM’s win ended Dayton’s 26-game home winning streak and it was GM that last defeated the Flyers in UD Arena two years ago.
Zed Key’s throws an elbow that would get him ejected from a hockey game.
George Mason wears the initials ‘GM’ on its game shorts and, of course, it stands for George Mason. But it could stand for General Motors because the Flyers played as if they were hit by a car, a hit-and-run.
Seventeen seconds into the game, GM’s Darius Maddox hit a three and this game was over. In the blink of a turnover — and the Flyers had 20 of those — it was 17-7.
Early in the second half, UD trailed, 51-34 and Nate Santos had 17, exactly half the Flyers’ total. But he would score only three more to finish with 20.
UD’s offense, and that’s a misnomer, was as shattered as a car window hit by a softball-sized rock.
Malachi Smith scored 14 and Enoch Cheeks scored 11. Next best was Javon Bennett’s 7, all from guards.
UD’s three ‘big’ men — Zed Key, Arnael L’Etang and Isaac Jack — played a combined 44 minutes and scored seven points.
Key played 16 minutes and scored four, L’Etang played 15 minutes one point and Jack played 13 minutes and scored two points.
The bigger, stronger, muscular GM big men turned the area around the basket into a WWE zone and put some whacks on the Flyers that would get them thrown out of a hockey game.
Malachi Smith ended a scoring slump with 14 points on 6 of 11 shooting.
And whatever happened to that harassing, strangling, tie-‘em-up defense the Flyers played early in the season?
While UD’s basket seemed thimble-sized to the Flyers, GM’s basket must have looked like great grandma’s backyard wash tub.
GM popped away with open looks. Not only did the Colonials 52% for the game (25 for 48), they hit 55% of their three-pointers (11 for 20).
After Maddox hit the opening three, the 6-foot-5 senior transfer from Virginia Tech went on to make 8 of 11 shots — 4 of 5 from three — on his way to 20 points.
“We’re in a little bit of a slump,” said Santos, not expanding on what constitutes a little bit of a slump. The Flyers are 11-6 and 1-3 in the Atlantic 10.
George Mason is 13-5 and 4-1 in the A-10.
“We proved ourselves in the first half of the season, but we’re not playing the same we had,” Santos added. “We have to come together and figure it out.”
Allenbaugh Insurance, in Jackson Center, supports the UD Flyers on Press Pros Magazine.
So what’s the difference.
“At the beginning of the year we were the attacker,” said Smith. “Now a lot of teams are coming right at us and it’s something we’re not used to.
“It’s part of the game, ups and downs,” Smith added. “We have to stay together. We’re going through a littte slump right now, some adversity. There’s time. We can still win a champion and complete our goals.”
Enoch Cheeks heads for the hoop for two of his 11 points.
Not without a quick turnaround and the Flyers have a quick turnaround in the schedule — Saturday afternoon game against Chicago Loyola in UD Arena.
“Give credit to George Mason, they’re a really good team,” said UD coach Anthony Grant. “And they played really, really well tonight.
“We knew with their size inside, we’d have to really play well offensively,” Grant added. “They made it real difficult for us in the first half.”
The Flyers trailed at the half, 41-27, making only 9 of 24 shots (37.5%). And it didn’t get any better. At one point, the Flyers trailed by 20, 58-38. with 11 minutes to go.
“They made shots,” said Grant. “We had a breakdown here and there, but for the most part I thought we played pretty good defense, but they played better offense.”
Logan Services, in Dayton, Cincinnati, an Columbus, is a proud sponsor of area sports on Press Pros.
While it seems the season is slip-sliding away, Grant refuses to believe the deep lull will continue.
“We’re all disappointed with the results,” said Grant. “Nobody has invested more than our players. Nobody cares more than them. We have to understand we have to go to work. We have to get ready. I like the guys in our lockerroom. We just have to go to work and take it one game at a time.
Javon Bennett came off the bench to score seven points and concoct three steals.
“It’s a long season with a lot of basketball to be played, we’re four games into the (league) season,” he added. “We don’t like the way it’s started. They don’t hand out championships in the middle of January.”
But a lot of championships can be lost in the middle of January and as Grant said, “My focus is on getting better, whether it’s one day, two days or a week. We just have to work to get better. The guys have been ready to work.”
So now the Flyers have lost two games to schools named after founding father — George Washington and George Mason.
George Mason was a statesman and patriot who attended The Constitutional Convention. He was a near-neighbor of George Washington and founded the Ohio Company to buy, sell, trade and develop land on the upper Ohio River.
Neither George knew anything about basketball because it wasn’t invented, but their namesake schools have made life miserable for the Flyers.
Nate Santos drives the base-line en route to a layup.
The Dave Arbogast family of dealerships is the official transportation source for Press Pros Magazine.com.