Rudolph’s glowed.
Zed’s bled.
Early in Friday night’s physical game with the Cincinnati — a Hoops Classic matchup that UC won 66-59 at the Heritage Bank Center — Key caught an elbow to the face from the Bearcats’ big man, 7-foot, fifth-year player, Aziz Bandaogo.
Key, who’s 6-foot-8 and wears a mask to protect his already broken nose, caught Bandaogo’s blow right on his beak, and it began to trickle blood.
“That’s why I had something (cotton) in there to kind of stop it,” he said.
A few minutes later, Bandaogo flattened Key with hard bump. After reviewing the video, the referees ruled it a flagrant foul.
“It was a shoulder check, and I felt it,” Key said with a nod. “I went right to the ground. And that’s when I thought, ‘Alright, you’re not gonna outmuscle me tonight!’”
Although Key would hit the floor once more in the second half courtesy of a Bandaogo collision, he made good on his promise, at least if you peruse the box score.
Bandaogo ended with six points, three rebounds and a block.
Key finished with 11 points, six boards and a block and his response is part of the UD’s silver lining in what often was a Bearcat beatdown.
Credit: David Jablonski
The No. 22 Flyers were playing their third game in six days against a high-profile opponent — with all of this happening on top of finals week — and that made for a weighty task Friday night.
“Coach told us it was going to be a difficult week — playing (No. 6) Marquette; then three days later a gritty UNLV team; and then a couple days later playing Cincinnati,” said UD guard Javon Bennett. “I think their physicality kind of overwhelmed us, but we showed some resilience. We fought back.”
With 7:36 left in the game, UC led by 18.
With 57 seconds left, Dayton had cut the deficit to just four and nearly two, but Nate Santos’s rushed up-and-under layup just missed.
“I’m proud of the team and hard they fought,” said Key, a fifth-year player who came to UD this season after four years and 121 games with Ohio State. “Coach Grant said we’re a resilient group and we are. UC was the better team tonight, but regardless of this score, we are a really good team, too.
Santos agreed: “We’re a tough group. I think we’ve shocked a lot of people so far this year. I don’t think people expected us to be this good, but we believed in ourselves.
“And that’s what we’ll take to heart the rest of the way.”
The Flyers beat both Marquette and UNLV leading into the UC game. And before that, at the Maui Invitational, they topped two-time defending national champions Connecticut, and played both North Carolina and Iowa State down to the wire.
“I’d say Cincinnati is as physical as any team we’ve played to this point,” UD coach Anthony Grant said before saluting his own team.
While he said the Bearcat’s muscle, aggression and skill enabled them to corral 17 offensive rebounds and force the Flyers into an uncharacteristic 17 turnovers, he also noted: “And yet it was a four-point game with two minutes to play. So we’re pretty good, too.
“For us, we always look at the big picture. We always talk about where we want to be. I think we’ve put ourselves in a position where we can control our destiny after finishing 10-3 in the non-conference.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Return of the rivalry
It’s great to see the Dayton-Cincinnati rivalry resume.
Friday night was the 93rd meeting between the schools, although the annual matchups had been shelved for 13 years until the two teams met in the first Hoops Classic last season.
Dayton dominated the Bearcats in that one, 82-68, and as that game ended the Flyers fans, who had outnumbered their UC counterparts, filled the Heritage Bank Center with the chant: “We are…UD!”
UC coach Wes Miller and his players hadn’t forgotten that comeuppance and Santos believes it fired them up Friday night from the opening tip:
“Right from the jump they came out with a lot of emotion. Coach talked about that before the game and afterwards, too. He said they’d play with a lot of emotion because we beat them last year.”
Bennett echoed similar thoughts: “I feel they kind of wanted to get some revenge because of last year. It was a very physical game. A very emotional game.”
The Bearcats dominated early and eventually led 16-4.
In the first 12 minutes of the game, Dayton scored just one field goal and the Flyers never led Friday night.
Although UC would finish with an advantage on the boards (38-32), had fewer turnovers (17-11) and blocked six shots, UD continued to scrap back and eventually found some footing.
Guard Malachi Smith — who had scored the game-winning three-point play to beat UNLV — had a tough night early on and had six turnovers. But he finally started to show signs of his usual self down the stretch and hit some big shots to finish with 13 points. Santos also had 13, while Key and Posh Alexander both had 11.
Cincinnati had three players in double figures: Dan Skillings Jr. had 17; Jizzle James had 14 and Simas Lukosius added 13.
Grant praised the UC players and Miller a couple of times in his postgame comments. The Bearcats are ranked 19th and now 9-1, but it’s about more than that.
He has a special appreciation for the UC coach who has embraced his efforts to spotlight mental health in young people.
The Flyers have played exhibition games the past two seasons — last year against Ohio State and this past October against Xavier — to raise awareness and funds for the issue.
Miller took up the effort in Cincinnati.
His Bearcats played Ohio State this year to help benefit the Jay’s Light charity started in honor of Grant’s late daughter, Jayda. He also had his team visit a local high school to put on a clinic and raise awareness.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
A well-deserved break
The Flyers now have a much-earned few days off for Christmas before they resume their schedule on New Year’s Eve with the first of their 18 Atlantic 10 Conference games, a 2 p.m. matchup with LaSalle.
“The past week here has been a really, really challenging week, just in terms of what we’ve had to do on and off the floor,” Grant said. “We’ll take a few days off. The guys deserve this. Hopefully they’ll feel good about what they’ve been able to do in the non-conference.
“(Now) they’ll be able to get away and clear their heads and be recharged and excited as we head into conference play.”
The Grants are going to Florida, where both Anthony and his wife Chris grew up.
Key said he was heading out Friday night already for his home in New York. He said he’d get Christmas presents for his family when he got there and in return, they knew what to get him:
“I’m a big car guy so they get me parts for my car.”
Bennett was leaving Saturday for his home in Florida.
“I asked my people for clothes,” he smiled. “I need some new clothes, some that will keep me warm up here.”
Santos would join his family outside Chicago.
Although he’d get his parents a gift, that might be the extent of his holiday shopping he said, then grinned:
“My siblings are all older than me, so I take advantage of being the youngest. They get me gifts.”
He said the most important thing though was being with his family and he didn’t really care what he got, that he’d be happy with anything.
No wonder.
After the gift exchange he and his teammates had just had with the Bearcats — where they got controlled on the offensive boards, were forced into turnovers and had some shots swatted — any present that didn’t involve bloodshed or being crumpled to the court would be appreciated.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
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