Dayton’s De’Shayne Montgomery gets to the rim for two of his game-high (and season-high) 27 points in Tuesday’s 88-71 win over East Tennessee State. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Sonny Fulks)
They had to work for it, but it turned out to be a workman-like win against a stubborn East Tennessee State…and De’Shayne Montgomery’s biggest night yet as a Dayton Flyer.
Dayton, OH – You hear a lot of things in a post-game press conference, but sometimes the thing most obvious is that which never gets said at all.
Knapke Kitchens and Baths proudly sponsors Dayton sports on Press Pros Magazine.com.
A win’s a win, they say, sure enough. But a win against a stubborn team who’s determined to compete, at a formative time, is even better…good for what ails you, in a competitive sense. It’s what you have to do to grow and get better.
Publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA and sports at large for Press Pros Magazine.com.
That said, the Dayton Flyers improved to 7-2 on the season Tuesday night with an impressive 88-71 win over East Tennessee State (6-2) before 13,407 that left UD Arena hoping they had seen a forerunner of games to come with Virginia and Florida State looming before opening conference play against Fordham in three weeks.
Coming off a quality win over Georgetown, in overtime, and a competitive loss to Brigham Young in which the Flyers were victims of not enough plays to make a difference in the outcome…Dayton more than addressed that issue against a stubborn, and talented ETSU team that had Anthony Grant’s attention before he boarded the flight back from Florida over the weekend.
Keonte Jones scored 15 points, and created one of 22 forced turnovers by the Flyers in Tuesday’s win over ETSU.
“They’re a really good group,” Grant said of East Tennessee. “They can score, and we played Chattanooga last year out of their league, and they remind me some of that team. I was impressed with them on film, their ability to turn people over on defense, and they create offense through their defense. They’re an efficient team, and they’re ability to play on both ends really had our attention.”
And Buccaneers came out swinging, leading the Flyers by 5 points five minutes into the game before De’Shayne Montgomery and the Flyers went on an 8-1 run at the 8-minute mark to stretch a one-point lead out to and eight-point lead, 31-23. Montgomery, who would score 17 points in the first half on his way to a season, and game-high 27 for the game, got to the rim, shot the perimeter jumper, and scored in transition to stretch the Flyer lead to 46-38 by halftime.
Allenbaugh Insurance, in Jackson Center, supports the UD Flyers on Press Pros Magazine.
In a word, it was as good a ten minutes of basketball by a single individual as you could ask for, especially just nine games into the season. Montgomery shot 70% from the floor for the half, the Flyers shot 63%, collectively, proving that shooting confidence is contagious.
But….
Jordan Derkack had his best night as a Flyer…attacking the rim for two of his 14 points.
“All I care about is the win,” the Georgia transfer answered after the game. “Points is cool, but I care about winning.”
And that’s good, because ETSU fought hard to keep Dayton and Montgomery from stretching their eight-point advantage…well within range of a second half comeback trailing by eight points at halftime.
But the Flyers delivered a haymaker coming out of the locker room to start the second half. They turned up the defensive pressure, created a pair of turnovers, scored in transition, somebody hit a three-pointer…and suddenly they had an 11-0 run, a 57-38 lead, and thereafter settled into a comfortable pattern of sharing the basketball on offense and challenging every ETSU possession on defense.
“We had to finish the game off,” said Montgomery when asked about their second half rally. “You can’t relax when you have a big lead because that’s when they creep up. You put your foot on their neck.”
Minster Bank is a proud sponsor of the Dayton Flyers on Press Pros Magazine.com.
Indeed, as the Flyers finished with four players in double figures – Montgomery (27), Keonte Jones (15), Jordan Derkack (14), and Amael L’Etang (10). while shooting 54% from the floor. Defensively, the Flyers created 22 turnovers while turning it over 15 times, themselves.
“We turned the ball over, but most of those were as a result of trying to make the right play,” said Grant. “Teams hurt us in Orlando by making runs in the second half, and this was a team that was capable of making runs. We had seen that on film, so we knew we’d have to play well. We had a lot of respect for them based on what we had seen. I thought we did a pretty good job of taking care of the ball and they still had a lot of steals…we turned it over fifteen times. We had 19 assists, which you like to see, but I thought it was critical that we didn’t let our foot off the gas. We didn’t want them to go on the kind of run that we’ve seen them go on.
Doing it at both ends…Keonte Jones rejects the shot attempt of ETSU’s Brayden Crump during Tuesday’s 88-71 Flyer win.
“It’s a process…understanding what you’ve got to do to be better. What you have to do as a team to grow and get better, and I felt like we were able to do that tonight. Now we’ve got to be able to sustain that.”
Nine games in, and it’s a good time for a good win over a stubborn opponent as a measure of sustaining growth and improvement. The Flyers next outing will be against Virginia on Saturday, an ACC opponent with a 6-1 record, but looking for a more quality challenge than an early schedule against the likes of Rider, Queens, and Hampton. Prior to Dayton, the Cavaliers entertain Texas on Wednesday night in the ACC-SEC challenge.
“We’ll take it one game at a time,” added Grant. “We know we have a great opportunity and a great challenge in front us, going on the road. Their football team just made it to the conference championship game, so I think they’ll have a pretty crowd, even though it’s at a neutral site (Charlotte, NC).”
A win’s a win, sure enough. But the wins have no choice but to start becoming better. It’s just about that time of the year…when all you care about is winning.
So says De’Shayne Montgomery. So says everyone, actually.
Wilson Health/Orthopedics proudly sponsors the best in area sports and the Dayton Flyers on Press Pros.