Georgia transfer De’Shayne Montgomery reaches for two of his 16 points in Dayton’s 90-59 win Monday over Bowling Green. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Julie McMaken Wright)
After a slow start and 30% shooting for the half, the Dayton Flyers shot 69% for the game Monday night to showcase the new faces on their 2025-26 roster.
Dayton, OH – It was the perfect exhibition game…everything you’d want as a prep for the real thing that comes with next week’s official opener of the University of Dayton’s 2025-26 basketball season.
Everyone played.
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The Flyers got challenged by the Bowling Green Falcons in the first half, holding UD to just 30% shooting from the floor.
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And all those new faces on the team…Keonte Jones, De’Shayne Montgomery, Bryce Heard, Malcolm Thomas…combined to score 40 points.
They showed stifling defense, particularly in the second half, holding BG to just 39% shooting for the game.
They faced some adversity. BG led by as many as 8 points in the opening minutes of the second half.
There were actually twelve lead changes in the game, and ten ties…about as much drama as the average blood-thirsty UD basketball crowd can manage.
And, of course, they won…90-59, after trailing by three points, 30-27, at halftime.
Cal State-Northridge transfer Keonte Jones ignited the second half runout with this stickback dunk.
And afterward, the gathered media lathered up over their outscoring Bowling Green 63-29 in the second half…the Flyers igniting for those 63 points in twenty minutes by shooting 9 of 16 from three point range.
They fawned over Javon Bennett’s game-leading 25 points, and five of nine from behind the arc – Georgia transfer Montgomery’s 16 points – as the two took questions in the post-game presser.
“How is this team compared to the other two Dayton teams you’ve played on,” Bennett was asked.
“Nothing against those teams,” said Bennett. “But I really like the makeup of this team. The assistant coaches did a great job of finding guys who fit our style, our personality, and our culture of basketball.
“I thought the difference in the game was our turning up the intensity on defense in the second half,” he added. “Creating shots with our defensive pressure. We got into a better rhythm offensively. It was good.”
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Perfect.
Montgomery was asked how he liked Dayton basketball – the University and community – after his transfer from the University of the Georgia.
UD guard Javon Bennett fights his way to the rim during first half action in Monday’s win over BG.
“I like everything about it,” he said with a broad smile, as if on cue. “The school, the team, the community…I like it all.”
But some reality, please…?
Yes, Dayton won its second of two exhibitions by 34 points against a middle-of-the-pack MAC team that’s forecast to do little more than play hard for thirty minutes on any given night. And that’s what they did Monday, leading at the half through a tough defensive effort of their own, and running out to an 8-point lead in the first five minutes of the second half.
Junior Javon Ruffin led the Falcons with 20 points, hitting some threes that were about the distance from the BG to Findlay exit farther south on I-75.
“They hit some tough shots,” UD coach Anthony Grant admitted later. “But I thought it was a really good game for us. Because with exhibition games you try to learn about your team. In the first half we didn’t play offensively as a team. I thought there were opportunities for stamina and cohesiveness that we let slip away. We missed shots, and that happens, but some of our turnovers created easy opportunities for them. Our offense…became their best offense.”
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But that all went away in the second half as Bennett, Montgomery, and Keonte Jones found that cohesiveness – showed their stamina – when tied 43-43 at the 14-minute mark Jones ignited a short 4-0 burst on a stickback dunk. That led to a feeding frenzy – exactly what Grant would have asked for – and suddenly Dayton led 52-47. Within sixty seconds the lead had stretched to 59-49. Over the next four minutes it became a 14-4 UD run as Bennett, Montgomery, and 7’1″ center Amael L’Etang began to rain in three-pointers from distance as far as the pep band on the other end of the floor.
BG’s defense made scoring a challenge in the first half…Falcon Sam Towns stuffs the shot attempt of UD’s Jacob Conner.
LeTang’s second three, at 6:19, stretched the UD lead to 66-52. Bennett’s third bomb in a span of five minutes pushed it to 72-53 at 4:52, and many of the 13,407 began to make their way for the parking lot and last call at Flanagan’s.
Former Botkins stadnout Jameson Meyer is a student manager with the Falcons.
Bennett led all scorers with 25 points (9 of 16 and 5 of 9 from three point range), Montgomery chipped in 16 (6 of 13 and 2 of 7) and L’Etang had 15 points (3 of 4 and 2 of 3 from the arc). The Flyers rebounded from 30% in the first half to 50.8% for the game and 35% from the arc.
BG would dip to 39% for the game, led by Ruffin’s 20 points and 10 from teammate Jevontae Campbell.
“It was an exhibition,” Anthony Grant reinforced…more than once. “We had too many turnovers in the first half, and it hurt us. In the second half we had 14 assists and 3 turnovers, so the offensive efficiency obviously was through the roof.
“I thought our defense in the first half…we did a good job defensively. They made about five really tough shots. And in the second half we picked up the intensity and wore them down. We settled in and had our defense create offense for us. And I think that can be a strength for our team. What you want to do is take these games…these exhibitions…and learn from them. That’s what we have to do to move forward and get ready for the regular season.”
That comes next Monday when Canisius, from New York, and a record of just 3 wins versus 28 losses during the 2024-25 season in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, comes to town.
“Next Monday it’s real,” Grant reminded again, happy with a win, and happy with the effort, and happy with what he saw in forty minutes of exhibition basketball.
But it wasn’t “real.” Too many new faces, too many unknowns, and too many January and February nights, as Grant would call them.
The stuff that’s real.
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