DAYTON– The University of Dayton men’s basketball team stays home to host New Mexico State on Wednesday. Dayton is 4-0 this year, while the Aggies are 3-0.

UD defeated Capital 76-55 in its last action on Saturday. The Flyers led for the second straight game.

Dayton was led by Javon Bennett (16 points, five rebounds and five assists), Amaël L’Etang (13 points, 10 rebounds) and Jacob Conner (10 points).

This meeting between UD and New Mexico State is the first in 58 years. The previous two meetings were in the old UD Fieldhouse (now known as the Frericks Center). The Flyers won both: 76-60 on Dec. 16, 1961 and 74-48 on Dec. 30, 1966. All three Dayton-New Mexico State games will be in front of large crowds. The combined attendance of these two games (11,890) is 1,517 fewer than this year’s sold-out crowd (13,407).

Flyer coach Anthony Grant and Comet coach Damon Goodwin were teammates at UD, including on back-to-back NCAA tournament teams. Goodwin won his 450th game Wednesday night, all at Capital.

The New Mexico State game will be broadcast by WHIO Radio, broadcast by Spectrum News 1 in Ohio and streamed on ESPN+. Streaming audio, video and live stats can be found at DaytonFlyers.com.

#TRENDING
• Nate Santos was named First Team Preseason All-Atlantic 10 after being named to the third team following last season. The 6-7 forward from Geneva, Illinois was the Flyers’ second-leading scorer (11.7) and rebounder (6.3) last year. He also finished second on the team in 3-pt. FG% (0.418, 51-122). Santos finished fourth in the A-10 in three-point shooting and 10th in rebounding in 2023-2024.
• Chic Alexander was named Second Team Preseason All-Atlantic 10 and to the Preseason All-Defensive Team. Alexander is a fifth-year transfer who already has 1,000 career points and 500 career assists. The fourth recruit from New York City Anthony GrantDuring his tenure at UD, he led the Big East in scoring in each of the past four seasons (three at St. John’s and one at Butler). Last year at Butler, Alexander averaged 11.3 points, 4.9 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game. He was 16th in the nation in steals per game. In his three years at St. John’s, he averaged 10.9, 13.8 and 10.2 points per game.
• Enoch cheeks was also named A-10 Preseason All-Defensive. He led the team in steals (40), was second in blocked shots (21) and was third in rebounding (4.7) in his first season at UD after transferring from Robert Morris. The Providence, RI native was the 2023-2024 winner of UD’s Steve McElvene Award. Cheeks was consistently assigned the opponent’s best perimeter player on defense. In the 25 games (out of 33) in which the Flyer foe’s best player was a guard or wing, that player was held below his average 17 times. He started all 33 games and averaged 8.1 points per game (9.5 in A-10 play).
• Dayton’s roster includes five players with past all-conference recognition: Junior forward Nate Santos (Atlantic 10), junior Enoch cheeks (Horizon League). junior Javon Bennett (Northeast Conference), redshirt junior Malachi Smith (Atlantic 10) and fifth-year senior Chic Alexander (Great East).
• UD ranked 20th in average attendance in NCAA Division I last season, with an average crowd of 13,407 fans per game in 2023-2024. Of the schools in the top 25 in attendance, only Kansas, Purdue, Michigan State and UConn also sold out every game of the season.
• Dayton has already announced that it has sold out all games for the upcoming 2024-2025 season, including both exhibition games that have already been played. This will be the fourth year in a row that UD has sold out every home game. That streak now stands at 63 games.
• This is also UD Arena’s 55th anniversary season. The Arena underwent a $76.2 million transformation project that was completed in time for the 2019-2020 season.
• The Flyers wear “DJD” on their left shoulder strap in memory of Don Donoher. Coach Donoher passed away last April at the age of 92. He was the first man to coach his alma mater in the NCAA tournament after playing there as a player. A member of the NABC College Basketball Hall of Fame, he is Dayton’s all-time winningest coach (437).

NEXT
• The Flyers travel to Hawaii to play in their fifth Maui Invitational. UD will face 10th-ranked North Carolina in the first round on Monday, November 25.
• Game time is 11:30 PM ET.
• Dayton’s second game in Lahaina will be against No. 4 Auburn or No. 5 Iowa State.
• UD’s record at Valley Isle is 9-3. The Flyers won Maui in 2003.
• The tournament returns to the Lahaina Civic Center after playing the 2023 tournament in Honolulu following the tragic wildfires that devastated the area in August 2023.
• Dayton’s next home game is against Western Michigan on Tuesday, December 3.