Loyola Ramblers Preview – https://loyolaramblers.com/news/2025/2/ ... ntile.aspx

Dayton Stats and Intel - https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/sc ... /2025.html

Record: 18-8 (8-5, 3rd in A-10 MBB)
Coach: Anthony Grant
PS/G: 75.1 (149th of 364)
PA/G: 69.6 (112th of 364)
SRS: 9.48 (74th of 364)
SOS: 4.56 (92nd of 364)
ORtg: 113.6 (60th of 364)
DRtg: 105.2 (207th of 364)
Preseason Odds: Championship +25000


Dayton Flyers (18-8, 8-5) at Loyola Chicago Ramblers (17-9, 8-5) – 6:00pm CST Gentile Arena, Chicago, IL

Tonight, the Ramblers shoot for a 4-game winning streak and to take down arch-rival University of Dayton before a capacity crowd for an ESPN2 A-10 Friday night showcase game. We enter this game at 4th place in the A-10 standings, tied with our nemesis at 8-5 who is ahead of us by virtue of tiebreaker. A win tonight would climb us further up the standings, to third place. We all know this is a huge huge huge game.

Loyola Chicago and Dayton meet for the second time this season. Loyola has won 5 of its last 6, and Dayton has won 4 of its last 5, including 7 of 9. The Ramblers won their last three over Richmond, Saint Louis, and Davidson. Impressively, Loyola has also won 20 of its last 21 home games dating back to the 2023-24 season.

Last time we met (Saturday January 18), the Flyers defeated the Ramblers in overtime by the score of 83-81 on an Amael L’Etang lob layup as time expired. Enoch Cheeks had a phenomenal game and was lights out from deep, leading all scorers with 29. Loyola mounted a furious second half comeback behind stifling team defense and timely threes from Des Watson and Sheldon Edwards Jr. who finished with 19-apiece. We shot the ball extremely well but turned it over an unfathomable 19 times and had a tough time playing defense without fouling as Dayton shot 27 free throws.

Last 3 games, Loyola Chicago has shot the leather off the ball from three behind Sheldon Edwards Jr. and current leading scorer (13.5ppg) Jayden Dawson. The offense and shot selection has looked as good as ever. Dawson has been explosive, dominating, and playing possessed, piling 74 points in 3 contests. Will the duo’s high scoring and barrage of threes continue a 4th straight game?

Perhaps, as this does not bode well for Dayton as they’ve struggled to defend the three this season - allowing opponents to shoot 35.8% from three, the highest rate in the A10.

Dayton has been a strong offensive team all season, but they continue to show they are unable to lock down opponents and play defensive games. The Ramblers gave away the game late last time they played Dayton with sloppy turnovers and bail-out fouls. Loyola Chicago will need to play much cleaner in this game to get the win at home.

On the road, Dayton is a much different team than they are at home. They’ve been inconsistent offensively, and struggle shooting. The Flyers also prefer to play at a slow pace as they rank 301st in the nation in possessions per game. Dayton has attempted the third-fewest field goals in league play. As a team, Dayton is averaging 75.1 PPG on 46.7% shooting from the field, 36.2% from three, and 73.8% from the foul line this season. From deep, they are led by Santos who is second in the Atlantic 10 in 3-pt. FG% (.429, 54-126).

Dayton has 5 guys averaging double figure scoring - Nate Santos leads the Flyers in scoring with 13.8 PPG with 5.3 RPG. Enoch Cheeks averages 12.9 PPG with a team-high 6 RPG. Zed Key comes off the bench at 10 PPG with 3.8 RPG. Malachi Smith gets 10.2 PPG with a team-high 5.5 APG to lead the Flyers in assists, and Javon Bennett chips in 10.5 PPG.

Miles Rubin’s scoring, rebounding, blocking, and activity level has gone to second gear the last month. Zed Key, and with the emergence of Amael L’Etang, will keep Rubin busy at the defensive end tonight. Another strong and stat-filled game from Rubin will undoubtedly influence a 4th straight win.

And our bench...... Our starting 5 has recently emerged as one of the best, if not the most efficient, starting 5 in the nation. But we are in dire need of better bench production and scoring. Quinn – DeLoach – Nwaokorie and even Glazkov each need to give us additional buckets.

At this juncture of the season, teams know each other very well by now and this game means a lot for both Dayton and Loyola, and both fan bases. This game is massive. We should expect both Loyola and Dayton to be locked in defensively and for this to be a very tight, lower-scoring affair, and somewhat similar to what we watched when we beat Dayton in our house last year, 77-72.

If the threes aren't falling, I'd expect us to pound the paint and look to Des Watson's mid-range game. He was lit from mid range when we beat Dayton last year.

Dayton’s struggles since their impressive non-conference wins have largely come against the top teams in the A-10 like George Mason and VCU. Loyola-Chicago has now entered the picture….. and while Dayton won the first meeting at home, they are a .500 team on the road and they come to Gentile Arena where Loyola-Chicago is 13-1 on the season with revenge on their minds.

Be loud. Roll Blers.


Dayton Probable Starters – 6-7 F Nate Santos, 6-3 G Enoch Cheeks, 6-0 G Malachi Smith, 5-11 G Javon Bennett, 7-1 C Amael L’Etang

Loyola Probable Starters – Watson, Dawson, Edwards Jr., Houinsou, Rubin


LAST 10 GAMES FOR BOTH SQUADS

Ramblers: 7-3, averaging 71.8 points, 31.4 rebounds, 15.9 assists, 6.5 steals and 5.0 blocks per game while shooting 45.6% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 67.9 points per game.

Flyers: 7-3, averaging 73.2 points, 28.0 rebounds, 14.2 assists, 8.2 steals and 3.2 blocks per game while shooting 45.9% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 70.8 points.


Watch / Listen – Friday night’s game is nationally televised on ESPN2 with Mike Corey and Dalen Cuff on the call, and can be listened to Rambler Sports Network with our friends Sudikoff and CT.

Postgame Show - Tune in to Sudikoff on RSN, followed by TalkinBlers Spaces on the X: https://x.com/blerstalking?s=21


Odds: Loyola +2.5 (as of 8am)

Jayden Dawson has scored 20+ points in 3-straight games for the 1st time in his career. He has now accounted for 7 of Loyola Ramblers Men's Basketball's 38 20+ games since joining the A-10. Tied with Des Watson for the most by an active player.

Dawson has also netted 5+ 3-pointers in each of those 3 games & has 4 games this season with 5+ 3PM and 5 in his career. That ties Sheldon Edwards, Jr. for the most 5+ 3PM games in the last 3 seasons.

During the 3-game win streak...
Des Watson: 16.0 PPG, 45% FG
Jayden Dawson: 24.7 PPG, 53% FG, 17-32 3PT

And for the 1st time in his career, Miles Rubin has scored double-figure points in 4 of 5 games. In the last 5 games...
11.0 PPG, 8.2 REB, 2.6 BLK for Rubin while playing a career-high 31 minutes on 2 occasions.

During the 3-game winning streak:
80.7 PPG - 72.7 allowed
43.5 FG% - 43.4% allowed
41.4 3PT% - 34.7% allowed
72.2 FT%
16.3 AST - 14.3 allowed
8.3 TO - 10.0 forced
4.3 BLK/gm
7.0 STL/gm

Great info and pre game.....so How are people feeling about this? I am thinking they will be focusing on Dawson and stopping that mid-level pick and roll....so who is gonna step up ? I am saying that Sheldon Edwards will be hot..Houinsou is gonna have his biggest game as a Rambler.....Quinn gets Tuscola tough and has 5 steals.

I know the perception is that our offensive has been "hot" lately. However, in my opinion, we are only getting close to where I expect them to be. We were only playing well for 30 minutes a game. Now, it is closer to 35 minutes. The spacing is getting better. The ball is moving. Our top performers, Des Watson, Jayden "Jake" Dawson and Sheldon Edwards are better players this year. They all have improved, but earlier this year their shots were not falling If you look at Des Watson - he has improved his FT% this year (+5%), but his FG% (-3.4%) and 3PT% (-4.5%) are still below how he performed last year. Dawson, who has improved the most, has improved his FT% and his FG%, but not his 3PT%. Edwards has improved his FT% and his FG%, but his 3PT% is not where it was last year. I know these players have improved, but they need to shoot more to show it.

I am expecting another great game from these three.

5:35 CT Pregame
6:00 CT Gametime
http://www.loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=213&type=Live
Go Ramblers & Varsity Network Apps

HUGE win. 16-3 on the year when Dawson and Kymany are healthy. And saying that, it is huge to find a way to win when Dawson was off tonight like he was. Des was elite. Miles unlocking the offense is a major boost. Getting hot at the right time...

Postgame Interviews:

Drew - https://soundcloud.com/ramblersn/drew-v ... al_sharing
JQ - https://soundcloud.com/ramblersn/rsn-mv ... al_sharing

Students came out tonight in big numbers and we needed that.
Crowd into it all night!
Dayton of course had their huge turnout but we got louder when needed.

Ramblers played tough and they had to.
Loved that we fought for the ball tonight. That never let up.
This was a very entertaining game from the outset.


5 Ramblers in double digits: Des, Sheldon, Rubin, JQ, Deloach.
Note our recent star JD NOT double digits but we still won.
Key may be Rubin (14pts) doing scoring as of late.

Ramblers 32 points in paint (Dayton 28) and 22 bench points (Dayton 9 bench).
Dayton 3 ball D was a bit much for our guys tonight. We didn’t light it up from deep and settled for many short range shots.

19 fouls but Dayton had 20. Both teams 9 TOs.
I still say let’s get our FTs to 71% (63% tonight) so it doesn’t kill us in the wrong game.

We play GW this Wednesday at the Joe… bring it on. I like our odds.

Man it's fun to win these games. Great atmosphere but it was kind of a weird game. Like the Dayton fans didn't really believe. Very weird ref crew. Apparently one of the guys Sirmons has done like 90 games this year, #1 in the country. And another guy has done four. They were really inconsistent.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

Entertaining game. And a different formula. The last couple were Sheldon and Dawson hitting dagger 3s. Tonight was more diverse. I thought Quinn was strong, especially in the first half.