Dayton capped off their incredible regular season with a 76-51 win over George Washington. The Flyers came out a little nerved by the Colonials, who were controlling the pace of play while also hitting big shots and limiting the amount of Dayton possessions on offense. The Flyers went into halftime up by only one point before completely dismantling GW in the second half en route to covering the spread and winning by 25. Dayton improves their win streak to 20 games and a 29-2 overall record, 18-0 in the A10. George Washington dropped their fifth loss in a row and now stand at 12-19 overall, 6-12 in the A10. Onto the takeaways.
Dayton is heating up at the right time
Even though the first half was nothing short of abysmal, Dayton was able to right the ship with a few defensive adjustments as well as picking up the pace on offense to really put GW out of sorts. If you look at this as an overall performance, Dayton picked up right where they left off from the games against Davidson and Rhode Island. The offense is starting to remain consistent, which is bad for their opponents and especially the A10. This team is heating up by beating up their last three opponents, which is good heading into Brooklyn.
Jamison Battle is a stud.
Battle is primarily a three-point shooter for the Colonials. He was their main offensive threat in this game for GW, as he jacked up 13 shots, making 6 of them (4-11 from three). He finished with 16 points, the only Colonial in double figures. He is only a freshman, so this game was a huge boost of confidence for the young man. He is only going to develop into a better player over the next three years in Foggy Bottom, which should excite the GW fanbase. He also led the team with 7 rebounds.
Dayton’s defense puts up another good outing
We have said all season that the defense is what might be one of the team’s main weaknesses. For most of the season, Dayton was sitting in the 50s of KenPom in defensive efficiency. As of today, they sit at #39 on KenPom in adjD. That is a huge improvement over the past two weeks. Dayton has held their opponents to under 60 points in three of their past four games (at Mason, at URI, vs GW). They held Davidson to 67 points, which is still good since they are the second best offensive team in the A10 (KenPom #23 in AdjO). Even with their offense flourishing at the moment, it is critical that the defense keeps up the intensity and makes key in-game adjustments to shut down their opponents on offense.
George Washington slides down to 11th in the standings
What does this mean? George Washington is reeling right now, and they moved to finishing 11th in the A10, which means they will play in the first round of the A10 tournament in Brooklyn. They were out of the Wednesday games for much of the season, but faltered down the stretch. Additionally, they will play Fordham in the first round, who they lost to twice this season. You don’t want to be the team who loses to Fordham three times in one season.
Thank you, Trey Landers and Ryan Mikesell
What a career for the two Dayton-area natives. They continued the tradition at Dayton of having really good seniors that become great senior leaders of the team. I’m really glad that Trey and Ryan played for this program and saw this program reach new heights. Not going to lie….I shed a few tears watching it at home. These two seniors will forever be fan favorites. From sticking with this program with a coaching change, to being the glue guy brothers on an incredible team, we truly will miss Trey Landers and Ryan Mikesell. Hang the Elmers from the rafters.
Up Next
Dayton earned the double-bye in the A10 tournament and will await the winner of the UMass/VCU game. They play their first game on Friday at Noon. The game will be broadcast on NBC Sports Network.
George Washington will open up tournament play against Fordham on Wednesday afternoon at 3:30 PM. The game is on ESPN+.
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