“I told him, ‘We need you to play your best defensive game today,’ ” Gregory said of that pregame chat. “He’s a freshman. He wasn’t happy I took him out so early — and then he went out there and played his best defensive game of the season. He did a really good job on Green and Briscoe. Those two guys are dangerous and explosive.”
Briscoe finished with 14 points and Green 13, but they combined for just 10 in the first half when the game was still in doubt. Staten once forced Green to dribble off his leg and let out a primal scream as the ball was rolling out of bounds.
“When we play against another great guard and I get a chance to rattle them and turn them over, that becomes mental, and our team can feed off that,” Staten said.
“Coach told me they had great guards and that their guards were the key to the team. They got some stuff early, but I knew I had to lock down and play good defense.”
Staten has a sturdy build, and it paid off on back-to-back three-point plays in the first half. Instead of getting knocked off balance with fouls, he muscled his way to the rim.
“We got a lot of ball movement,” said Staten, who tallied 13 points and four assists. “Coach told us if we move the ball and make the defense move, they wouldn’t be able to close out. When I saw the lane open, I just had to take it.”
The Flyers were a giddy bunch afterward. Following back-to-back humbling losses, they notched their most one-sided road win in eight years.
“It gets our confidence up and lets us know that if we keep playing Dayton basketball — play the way we play — we know we can be successful no matter who we play,” Staten said.
BOARD BRUTES: The Flyers re-established their dominance on the boards. They led the league with a plus-4.0 per game average but actually were getting outrebounded slightly in Atlantic 10 play.
Against the 49ers, UD had a 37-23 edge with Devin Searcy leading the way with seven.
“We’ve been getting away from the things we do,” forward Luke Fabrizius said. “We haven’t been rebounding the ball lately, running the ball and defending. We really hit the glass hard and played good defense, holding them under 40 percent (35.4).”
Gregory added: “I thought we played tremendous defense. That really gets our transition game going.”
MILESTONE NIGHT: The 49ers were playing their 200th game in 15-year-old Halton Arena. They are 150-50 in the building.
SCOUTS LOOKING ON: The NBA sent a few scouts to see UD's Chris Wright, but foul trouble limited him to 14 minutes. Gregory was asked if he thought about playing the senior forward more to showcase him for the pros. Scrunching his face, the coach said: "No. C'mon. They'll see him. They HAVE seen him."
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