Men's Basketball Kicks Off A-10 Play With 84-70 Win Over La Salle

Malachi Smith Led The Way With 20 Points

Box Score DAYTON – The University of Dayton men's basketball team wrapped up the 2024 portion of the 2024-25 campaign in style, taking down La Salle 84-70 to start Atlantic 10 play on Tuesday at UD Arena.

A 19-2 first-half run lasting nearly nine minutes vaulted the Flyers (11-3, 1-0 A-10) past the Explorers (8-6, 0-1 A-10) in the conference opener.

Redshirt junior Malachi Smith led the way for Dayton with 20 points, six assists and five rebounds in the contest, while junior Javon Bennett and freshman Amaël L'Etang added 12 apiece and senior Enoch Cheeks had 10, along with four steals.

First Half -- Dayton 36, LaSalle 21

After the Flyers fell behind early, Malachi Smith got them on the board with a mid-range basket.
La Salle then scored five unanswered points to push its lead to 8-2 but a block from Amaël L'Etang led to a putback dunk at the other end from Jaiun Simon to cut the Explorer lead to four.
Posh Alexander followed that sequence with a nice jumper on the next possession.
After La Salle extended its lead to 10-6, Javon Bennett knocked down a three to cut it to a one-point game.
The game continued to be a back-and-forth battle as a La Salle basket was answered by a L'Etang dunk.
After a successful stop on the defensive end, Simon hit a three to finally give Dayton its first lead at 14-12 with 12 minutes remaining in the half.
The Flyers stayed hot out of the media timeout as Jacob Conner finished off a drive to the hoop to get himself into the scoring column.
A three-and-a-half-minute UD field goal drought allowed La Salle to regain a one-point lead but Enoch Cheeks put the Flyers back on top with an impressive finish through a foul off of an alley-oop pass from Smith. He would convert the and-one opportunity to give UD a 20-18 lead with just under eight minutes to play.
A cold stretch from both teams saw UD push their lead to six with a 7-0 run. Conner was able to push the run to 9-0 with a steal and a slam.
Bennett followed the dunk up with a three on the next possession to extend the Flyer lead to double digits at 29-18 with four minutes left in the half.
L'Etang finished off an impressive spin move in the post to push the Flyer run to 14-0.
In the final minute of the half, Conner knocked down a three and Key converted two free throw attempts to give Dayton a 36-21 lead going into the break.
The Flyers finished the half on a 19-3 run spanning nearly eight minutes.

Second Half – Dayton 84, LaSalle 70

After La Salle scored the first basket of the half, the Flyers got a dunk from Nate Santos and a layup from Smith on consecutive possessions to make the lead 40-23 with 18 minutes left.
A 13-2 run from the Explorers saw them come within six at 42-36 but Cheeks finally got the Flyers back in the scoring column with a mid-range jumper to extend the lead to eight with 14 minutes left to play.
The back-and-forth trend of the second half would continue as Smith quickly nullified free throws from LaSalle with a layup.
After a La Salle dunk, Cheeks would grab a steal on the inbounds pass and find Bennett for a wide-open layup to push the lead back up to eight.
Another steal, this time from Smith, led to a L'Etang dunk on the fast break.
The next possession saw Smith knock down a jump shot to extend the Flyer lead to 42-55.
A three from Smith and a successful and-one from Cheeks on the next two possessions made the score 61-44 with nine minutes on the clock.
Two consecutive threes and a layup from the Explorers saw them draw a bit closer at 61-52 but Bennett finished off a drive to the hoop to push the lead back into double digits with seven minutes remaining.
Both teams continued to exchange blows until the Flyers put three baskets together consecutively with an alley-oop finish from L'Etang, a fastbreak layup from Smith, and a Cheeks fast break dunk off of the inbound.
La Salle continued to refuse to be beaten, cutting the lead to nine before six unanswered points from Smith made it 79-64 with just under two minutes to play.
Cheeks then grabbed his fourth steal of the game, and the team's 11th, before finding Bennett for a fast-break layup to extend the lead even further.
A three from Santos on the next possession would seal the win for the Flyers in the final minute.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

4 - Rebounds grabbed by Jaiun Simon, a career-high for him.
5 - Points for Simon, another career-high.
5 - Flyers scoring in double figures (Smith, Santos, Bennett, L'Etang, Cheeks).
11- Steals recorded by UD, a season-high.
21- Minutes played by Amaël L'Etang, a career-high.
26 - Bench points for the Flyers.
19 - Rebounds for the Dayton bench.
28 - +/- for Javon Bennett to lead the Flyers.
19 - Home wins in the 2024 calendar year for UD. Dayton has the fourth-best active homecourt winning streak in D-I (26 games overall).

UP NEXT

The Flyers will travel to Washington, D.C. to take on George Washington on Saturday, Jan. 4.
Tip-off is scheduled for noon ET.
After playing at UMass on Jan. 8, UD's next home game is on Jan. 15 against George Mason.

Print Friendly Version