Sports Today: Dayton’s win part of busy basketball night

The Dayton Flyers went on the road and took care of business, downing Richmond 87-81 Wednesday night.

Anthony Grant’s team is back to .500 — again.

Is this the time the Flyers turn the corner and start to play like a conference contender?

No one really knows.

Again the formula for success was seniors Josh Cunningham and Darrell Davis leading the way (a combined 37 points) with Trey Landers contributing a career-high 18 points.

RELATED: 4 reasons the Flyers won at Richmond

Next up is a very beatable VCU team Friday night at UD Arena.

Unfortunately, beatability hasn’t been much of an indicator this season if Dayton will win, and neither has playing at home.

John Crosby and Kostas Antetokounmpo had nine points apiece off the bench while this night’s loser in minutes roulette was Jordan Davis, who started but saw only 10 minutes of action…

Elsewhere in college basketball, Middletown’s Vincent Edwards scored 10 points for Purdue as the fifth-ranked Boilermakers won at Michigan 70-69 in a game that could end up looming large in the Big Ten race, and Miami University was also a winner last night.

Intriguing late signee Nike Sibande led the RedHawks with 17 points while Darrian Ringo added 16 points and seven assists as Miami downed Kent State 80-69 at Millett Hall…

Tuesday night was not short on drama in high school basketball around the area. 

At least four games were decided at, close to or even after the final buzzer.

Versailles, with Ohio State signee Justin Ahrens, suffered its first loss of the season when visiting Fort Loramie’s Dillon Braun made a pair of free throws with less than a second remaining to break a 46-all tie.

He was at the line because Tigers coach Travis Swank called a timeout he didn’t have after Evan Berning hit a game-tying 3-pointer for the Redskins.

Berning scored eight points and was credited with making life tough for Ahrens, who finished with 12 points.

Elsewhere, Matt Welker made Dayton Christian a winner over Yellow Springs when he made two free throws after time had expired, Michael Kriel hit a game-winner with less than three seconds to go in overtime for Butler against Stebbins and Triad beat Greeneview on Hadley Levan’s runner as time expired…

Meanwhile, the Cincinnati Bengals’ offseason continues in earnest. 

My take on whether or not Blake Bortles has surpassed Andy Dalton when it comes to NFL quarterback quality resulted in lots of discussion -- mostly supportive of Cincinnati's signal-caller -- and that was pretty much the point.

Dalton has done more in the league, but nothign is static. Everyone is constantly getting better -- or worse. That’s part of what makes it interesting!

Both Bortles and Dalton had better seasons than Joe Flacco if that interests you.

Finally, Jay Morrison had a nice summation of what challenges face the Bengals heading into 2018.

I’m betting the offense improves because the offensive line is more likely to be better than not, Joe Mixon should be even more effective in year two and presumably they’ll get something from John Ross.

Those things would all benefit Dalton, of course.

The defense has plenty of room to improve, too, with Carl Lawson and Williams Jackson entering heir second seasons on the field and more experience for Nick Vigil and Andrew Billings.

I have zero expectations for the leadership void to be filled.

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