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.  Enoch Cheeks contributed 14 points while Nate Santos recorded 12 with 13 rebounds.  Malachi Smith went for a season-high 11 assists.  

Dayton improves to 9-2 on the season, while Marquette falls to 9-2.

First Half -- Marquette 36, Dayton 26
•    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
•    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.
•    Javon Bennett then scored a contested two as the shot clock expired to cut the lead to eight.
•    Posh Alexander hit a mid-range shot after an offensive rebound from Amaël L'Etang with 4:17 remaining.
•    Enoch Cheeks scored a layup off the inbound from Smith with 2:34 remaining.  
•    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.
 
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