Getty Dayton big man Obi Toppin.
The Dayton Flyers will host the Duquesne Dukes for a battle of two of the Atlantic 10’s top teams on Saturday.
The game is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. ET. While it won’t be broadcast nationally on television anywhere in the US, you can still watch a live stream of the game on your computer, phone, or streaming device via ESPN+, the new digital streaming service from ESPN (no cable required) that has exclusive coverage to dozens of college basketball games–and several other sports–every week.
You can start a free seven-day trial of ESPN+ right here, and you can then watch a live stream of the game on your computer via ESPN.com, or on your phone (Android and iPhone compatible), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or other compatible streaming device via the ESPN app.
If you can’t watch live, all games — including Duquesne vs Dayton — that are streamed on ESPN+ are also available to be watched afterwards on-demand via ESPN.com or the ESPN app.
Duquesne vs Dayton Preview
Since opening their season 5-5, the Flyers have gone 9-2, including 6-2 in A-10 play.
On Tuesday, they upended St. Joseph’s 75-64 at home, dominating the Hawks on the interior — the Flyers outscored their foes 46-20 in the paint and more than doubled them up on the offensive glass, 11-5.
“Before the game Coach told everybody we were going to have an advantage inside,” redshirt freshman forward Obadiah Toppin said, according to the Dayton Daily News.
The Flyers’ leading scorer — senior forward Josh Cunningham, who scores 14.8 points per game — notched just three points, but Toppin came off the bench to score 25 on 11-of-14 shooting, adding 12 rebounds, a pair of assists, and a block.
“It was great to see him go out and do the things we had talked about,” Dayton head coach Anthony Grant said, per the Dayton Daily News. “I thought he was able to impact the game with his rebounding and obviously, his scoring. And defensively he had some great plays for us.”
Ryan Mikesell — who scored 21 points and grabbed six boards — told the paper there’s more to Toppin’s game than the electric dunks that have become his calling card.
“Everybody, they see his dunks now, but I’m kind of used to it,” the redshirt junior forward said. “He was doing that last year too when we were sitting out as redshirts on the scout team. He was doing it every day in practice.
“He worked extra hard. We were always together in the gym. We’d play one-on-one and we had a lot of fun. I knew going into this season he was going to have a great year.”
Last week, Duquesne (15-6 overall, 6-2 in the A-10) had their five-game winning streak snapped by VCU. The Dukes appeared headed for a second consecutive loss on Wednesday, trailing Rhode Island 41-22 at halftime.
“We couldn’t be any worse, emotionally,” Dukes head coach Keith Dambrot said of the first half, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “We looked like a bunch of Night of the Living Dead zombies. There’s nothing you can really say until you get emotionally engaged. There’s no basketball. There’s really nothing X and O wise. But you have to come to play.”
Frankie Hughes, the team’s fifth-leading scorer at 9.1 points per game, went scoreless in the first half and didn’t start the second.
Once he finally got back in, he dropped 20 to lead the Dukes to a 75-72 victory.
“Just came out with no energy,” Hughes said, per the Post-Gazette. “They got on us in the locker room at halftime, just about our effort. Not even playing, the way we got in our sets, the cuts on offense, it was all just lackadaisical. So our mindset in the second half was just to come out with way more energy.”