Dayton Flyers: Anthony Grant updates status of Josh Cunningham

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Cunningham missed the first two games of the season with after injuring his hand in practice Nov. 6. Grant said Saturday after a 76-46 victory over Coppin State he was hopeful Cunningham could play in the third game of the season at 7 p.m. Friday against Purdue Fort Wayne. He said Monday Cunningham was able to shoot in practice earlier in the day but did not participate in contact drills.

Obi Toppin replaced Cunningham in the starting lineup and scored 18 and 19 points in the two games. He was named Atlantic 10 Co-Rookie of the Week on Monday.

“We like having Josh available,” Grant said, “but you cant control injuries. Next-man up mentality. We were a little short-handed. We had a couple of guys cramping over the course of the two games because of the extra load of minutes we had to play guys, but we got a chance to see some different combinations on the floor. We had a chance to look at some different lineups. I always felt if you can go through that adversity early in the year, just learning about yourself, that gave us a chance to learn a little quicker about ourselves. Obviously, once you add Josh back to the mix, you can see some different combinations that may be able to work well together based on the experience we got in the first two games.”