WATCH: Highlights of Dayton vs. Duquesne
The Flyers (13-4, 4-1) bounced back because of how they and their coach handled the gap in between games.
“They’ve been through it, and as a coach, you don’t want to beat those guys up,” Miller said. “One loss is one loss. You don’t want to lose twice to the same team because you overreact. You don’t want to put them in situations where they’re not feeling it coming to the gym. We’ve been playing some good ball. Our guys have been working extremely hard. We had a very poor performance against UMass. They had resolve coming back. We were more focused.”
Here are three reasons the Flyers won:
1. Good start: The Flyers opened the game on a 12-4 run, gave up a basket and then scored nine straight points. They led 21-6 nine minutes into the game. One Duquesne player shouted to his teammates, "Wake up!"
“I’m extremely disappointed with all of us,” Duquesne coach Jim Ferry said. “To start a game like this, that’s on us. Fourteen turnovers in the first half. We played slow defensively. We tried to do things one on one. That’s not how we’re going to win. That’s certainly not how you’re going to beat a team like Dayton.”
2. Mature response: Duquesne opened the second half on a 12-5 run to cut Dayton's lead to 41-35. In the next three minutes, Charles Cooke and Xeyrius Williams combined to make 4 of 5 shots.
Duquesne made two 3-pointers in the same span, but Dayton slowed Duquesne’s momentum. The Dukes got no closer than eight points in the last 12 minutes.
“We’re a young team,” Ferry said. “We played a very old team, the best team in our league, and we got punched in the nose.”
3. Underrated performance: Dayton's Sam Miller made the most of his eight minutes on the court. He scored six points and had five rebounds. He made 1 of 4 shots from the field but 4 of 5 free throws.
“He had a good eight minutes,” Archie Miller said. “We’ve just got to keep working and find a way to get him on the floor more. He was important in some key moments when it was going a couple of different ways. He was on the glass with two big offensive rebounds. He’s an important piece of the puzzle. The more he plays, the better off we’re going to be.”
THURSDAY’S GAME
Richmond at Dayton, 7 p.m., ESPNU, FM 95.7, AM 1290 WHIO
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