The Dayton Flyers will host a dangerous George Washington team on Saturday as they try to keep pace with the other top teams in the Atlantic 10.
When Dayton and George Washington met more than a month ago, the Colonials were coming off a two-week COVID pause. Nobody knew what to expect. What we saw was a complete annihilation by the Dayton Flyers. VCU did the same to them in the next game.
The next week, with their feet under them, GW upset one of the league contenders in George Mason. They’re 5-3 since returning in the second week of January, including a narrow defeat to Davidson. Bottom line, the George Washington team that Dayton embarrassed is much better than their first matchup.
James Bishop continues to lead the Colonials and is a completely different player than when the Flyers saw him on January 8th. He scored 12 points that afternoon and made just 2-10 from three-point range. The LSU transfer has exploded in the past couple of weeks, averaging 26.4 points including a 30-point performance in a loss at Saint Louis. He’s knocking down the three ball (17-37) and getting to the free throw line (38-47) since the Rhode Island game.
While Bishop’s scoring is going up, Brendan Adams has been going down. His scoring average has dropped almost three points and is now contributing 8.8 points to go with 3.8 rebounds. He has struggled to shoot the deep ball at 24.4%.
Joe Bamisile is second on the team in points (15.0) and third in rebounds (5.4) per game. His three-point shooting has improved since getting into conference, knocking down 40.3% from the arc in the A10. He had a strong 7-10 perimeter shooting night in a win at La Salle.
6-10 Hunter Dean (2.3 ppg, 4.2 rpg) starts in the middle and has become the primary big man for the Colonials. He leads the team with a 54.2% field goal percentage. He’s reached double figures in two of the last three games.
Qwanzi Samuels has moved into the lineup and started eight games now for GW. He’s averaging 2.3 points and 1.7 rebounds.
Ricky Lindo Jr. was a focal point for this offense at one time, but has taken a step back in conference. He’s still averaging a solid 7.7 points and 7.4 rebounds on the season, but his only good performance in the last three weeks was a 10-point, 10-rebound effort against Fordham.
Freshman guard Brayon Freeman has been their top producer off the bench, scoring 9.1 points a night and knocking down 37.5% of his perimeter shots.
Other reserves off the bench include Noel Brown (3.4 ppg, 2.4 rpg) and Amir Harris (0.9 ppg, 1.5 rpg).
George Washington scores 66.7 points a night, but is giving up nearly 72 points a game. Their three-point defense has generally been good, but Dayton was 8-16 (50%) from the arc in the first meeting and 31-47 (65.9%) from two. Dayton enjoyed a 41-28 advantage on the glass.
Anthony Grant is usually really good about keep his team's attention on what’s immediately in front of them, and it will be even more important on Saturday. The Flyers cannot afford to slip up on Saturday, especially with a tough turnaround at Rhode Island just a couple days later.
Dayton and George Washington will tip-off at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday from UD Arena with the game being televised by Spectrum News One and streamed on ESPN+.
