Dayton Basketball: Takeaways from offensively dominant win over Davidson

Dayton Basketball clinched the Atlantic 10 conference title on Friday behind the absolutely scintillating offensive performance.

Dayton Basketball destroyed the Davidson Wildcats’ defense on Friday, only missing one attempt from 2-point range all night. On top of that, Dayton basketball shot 36.8% from the 3-point line and played solid enough defense to pick up the no-frills win.

The only place the Flyers didn’t shoot well from was the free throw line and that was a moot point due to their ability to score from all over the floor with ease. Head coach Anthony Grant will surely want the Flyers to brush up on their 3-point defense as they allowed the Wildcats to shoot 42.9% from the 3-point line.

On top of Davidson’s success from the 3-point line, they also found something by attacking Dayton defenders one-on-one with scorers Kellan Grady (22 points on 9-for-18 shooting) and Jon Axel Gudmundsson (20 points on 6-for-9 shooting). This is something opposing head coaches will study up on heavily when gearing up to face the Flyers. But ultimately, the Flyers are too talented as an offensive group and junior Ibi Watson, who averages 10.2 points per game, was huge with his 13-point effort on Friday. It was Watson’s first double-digit scoring output since January 25th, so his re-emergence indicates that an already legendary offense may be getting a boost making their defense even less of a concern.

So it is all smiles at Dayton after their 132.3 offensive rating in Friday’s game sealed an A10 regular-season title but they still have areas to improve upon if they truly want to be this season’s “team of destiny.” Count on Toppin to continue to fluster opposing coaches throughout the rest of the season but Friday showcased that Dayton basketball is oh so close to reaching their absolute ceiling as a team.