DAYTON – A red-hot second half on both ends of the floor lifted the University of Dayton men's basketball team to a 74-53 victory over New Mexico State on Wednesday night inside UD Arena.

The Flyers led by only one at the break, but surged ahead thanks to a 55-percent shooting effort from the floor while holding the Aggies to just 34.6 percent.

Senior Nate Santos led the offensive charge for the Flyers, scoring a season-best 23 points on a career-high-tying six threes while also adding a team-high eight rebounds. Amaël L'Etang scored 11 points and Zed Key posted 10. The guard combination of Posh Alexander, Javon Bennett and Malachi Smith dished out 15 assists and just two turnovers.

GAME RECAP
First Half – Dayton 29, New Mexico State 28

• Junior guard Javon Bennett got things started for the Flyers with a clean trey ball at 17:47 to go ahead 3-0.
• Redshirt junior Malachi Smith cut the UD deficit to two with a nice layup in transition following a fast break created by Posh Alexander.
• Junior Jacob Conner got the crowd fired up with an emphatic slam to tie up the score at nine with 13:44 remaining in the half.
• Grad student Zed Key posterized an Aggies defender on a two-hand slam to put UD up 15-11 and ignite the crowd.
• Senior Nate Santos forced a New Mexico State timeout after hitting a gorgeous 3-pointer to give Dayton an 18-11 with 9:20 left in the half.
• Senior Enoch Cheeks knocked down a beautiful 3-pointer with a hand in his face thanks in part to an offensive rebound from junior Isaac Jack.
• Freshman Amaël L'Etang hit a layup and then got to the free-throw line the following possession, knocking down both at the stripe to give Dayton a nine-point advantage with 4:10 still left in the half. 
• Key knocked down a pair of free throws with 51 seconds remaining to slow down an Aggies push nearing the half and give UD their lead back at 29-28.

​Second Half – Dayton 74, New Mexico State 53

• Cheeks collected his own miss and scored, on the ensuing possession Cheeks drained a 3-ball from the left wing to make it a 37-30 game.
• On a smooth pass from Bennett, Santos hit a crisp 3-pointer at 16:34 to move his point total to double-digits.
• Bennet found an open Alexander in the corner for a catch-and-shoot trey ball to give Dayton a 43-35 lead.
• Following Alexander's 3-ball, he lobbed up an alley-oop that Zed Key slammed home to give the Flyers their first double-digit lead
• On the ensuing possession, Cheeks pushed the ball up the court in transition, and found an open Santos to nail a triple that ballooned the lead to thirteen.
• The barrage of 3's from Santos continued, hitting his fourth of the game on the find from Bennett and Dayton would go ahead by sixteen points. 
• Freshman Hamad Mousa got on the box score with a dunk on the assist from fellow freshman L'etang, Dayton led 53-40 with 10:54 remaining
• Santos reached the twenty-point mark on his fifth 3-ball of the night to put the Flyers up 56-41 with 9:20 still on the clock.
• Smith and Key scored easy transition buckets 21 seconds apart, UD would continue to punish New Mexico and take a 67-41 advantage with 6:09 remaining.
• Following a pair of made free-throws from NMSU, UD went on a 5-0 spurt courtesy of a layup from Key and another 3-pointer from Santos, Dayton would take a 72-43 lead.
• Sophomore Will Maxwell bagged a pair of free throws with 1:35 in the half, giving the Flyers a 74-47 lead.

BY THE NUMBERS
5- Nate Santos drained five 3-pointers on six attempts in the second half after just hitting one in the first half.
51%- The Flyers shot 51 percent from the field in the second half, an 11- percent increase from the first half.
33:35- Despite the back-and-forth nature of this game in the first half, Dayton remained in control for 33 minutes and 35 seconds of the game and only trailed for 3:23.
18- UD was pushing the pace of play all night long, getting out in transition and dominating with 18 fast break points and getting 24 % of their points on the fast break.
25- Zed Key led the Flyers with a plus-minus at +25. He scored 10 points and went 4-7 from the field.
29- This game was up for grabs at half with Dayton just leading by one point (29-28), but a couple of offensive pushes blew this one open as the UD lead ballooned all the way up to 29.
10- The Flyers were able to keep the home crowd out of their seats tonight with 10 dunks, accumulating to 14 % of their total points.
10 (again)- Dayton both out-rebounded (41-31) and out-assisted New Mexico State (20-10) by 10 tonight.
6:20- UD went on a 16-2 run while limiting the Aggies to just two free throws over 6:20 +to swell its lead to the largest of the night.

UP NEXT

• The Flyers will travel to Maui to battle North Carolina in the Maui Invitational next Monday, Nov. 26th
• Tip-Off is scheduled for 11:30 p.m. ET