DAYTON -- The University of Dayton men's basketball team won in comeback fashion 71-63 over Marquette on Saturday. This marks the Flyers' 24th consecutive home win.
The Flyers were led in scoring by
Javon Bennett and
Zed Key with 15 points. Bennett went 3-for-4 from beyond the arc. Â
Enoch Cheeks contributed 14 points while
Nate Santos recorded 12 with 13 rebounds. Â
Malachi Smith went for a season-high 11 assists. Â
Dayton improves to 9-2 on the season, while Marquette falls to 9-2.
First Half -- Marquette 36, Dayton 26
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Zed Key got the scoring started with a put-back lay one minute into the action
•  Marquette used spurts of 7-1 and 10-0 to lead 18-5 with 9:34 lft in the half
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Posh Alexander forced a turnover and Amaël L'Etang finished the fast break with a dunk to make the score Marquette 21, Dayton 14 with 7:42 remaining.
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Javon Bennett then scored a contested two as the shot clock expired to cut the lead to eight.
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Posh Alexander hit a mid-range shot after an offensive rebound from Amaël L'Etang with 4:17 remaining.
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Enoch Cheeks scored a layup off the inbound from Smith with 2:34 remaining. Â
•   Back-to-back turnovers for Marquette resulted in three points for the Flyers
•   With 47 seconds Cheeks cut the lead to 7 and brought the Flyer Faithful to their feet
•  After a Marquette turnover, Dayton had a chance to make it a two-possession game, but a bad miss led to an MU bucket as time ran out to made a 10-point margin
•   The Flyers had seven assists on nine made baskets in the first half
•   12 second-chance points for the Flyers in the first half outscored Marquette's five
Second Half Dayton 71 Marquette 63
•  Marquette scored a three to start the half to push its lead to 13
•   Bennett started the second half scoring for the Flyers with a corner three.
•   Cheeks forced a Golden Eagles turnover on the ensuing possession and laid the ball in to cut the Marquette lead to eight.
•   The strong defense continued for the Flyers with yet another stop.
•   Smith assisted Key who finished off a dunk with 17:09 remaining forcing a timeout.
•   The Flyers pushed the pace and got the ball inside with Smith leading to a Bennett three, his second of the half cutting the lead to three.
•   Alexander had a strong take to the basket out of the under-16 timeout to bring the Flyers within 1 at 41-40 with 15:10 left to play.
•   Smith found Key for another dunk and Cheeks the following position on an alley-oop to cut the deficit to four at 48-44.
•   Out of the under 12 timeout Santos scored his first three of the night to cut the lead to one.
•   Smith scored his first points of the night cutting the lead to two, Bennett immediately stole the inbound pass to time the game at 53 moments before the under-eight timeout.
•   The Flyers took the lead with a layup from
Zed Key and immediately drew a player-control foul on the Golden Eagles.
•   Key found his way wide open under the basket for a dunk to raise the lead to four.
•   L'Etang found Cheeks under the basket to extend the Flyers' lead 60-54.
•   Santos with the putback to push the lead to five the largest of the game.
•   Santos pushed the lead to four with 1:17 Remaining after hitting one of two free throws.
•   Cheeks laced the ball in with 30 seconds remaining to push the lead to 6.
•   Smith with a lay up to extend the lead to eight with 12 seconds left to seal the victory.
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INSIDE THE NUMBERS
•   0 - Turnovers in the second half for the Flyers.  UD had all seven of its turnovers in the first half.  Marquette came into the game forcing 17 turnovers a game
•   1 -
Nate Santos recorded his first double-double of the season with 12 points and 13 rebounds
•   7 - Straight games for Santos to log double figures
•   11 - Assists for a season-high for
Malachi Smith (10 in the second half)
•   16-
Javon Bennett led the team in +/-
•   19 - Assists on 29 made field goals
•   46 - Second chance points for Dayton, out-scoring Marquette by 20
•   55% - Dayton shot 55.6% from the field (20-36) in the second half, after shooting just 36.0% (9-25) in the first half
•   10 -- Dayton had 10 steals in the game, led by three each from Bennett and
Enoch Cheeks
•   3 -- Bennett made three of UD's four three-pointers in the game.  He made three of four attempts from beyond the arc (the rest of the team made one of 15)
•   8 -- Amaël L'Etang grabbed eight rebounds off the bench in 11 minutes of action
•   2 -- The last time the Flyers had two Top Six wins in a season was during its NCAA run to the 1967 Final Four .
•   45 -- Dayton scored 45 points in the second half, out-pointing Marquette 45-27
UP NEXT
•   The Flyers are back in action as they host UNLV on Tuesday, December 17th at UD Arena
•   Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET
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