After watching the Dayton Flyers win their third game in a row Wednesday night with a 67-53 conquest of the St. Joseph’s Hawks, it is clear that Oliver Purnell’s club can play defense. Forget the one-night wonders and endless hoping that turned out to be an oasis or freak of nature. Dayton’s defense is excellent and it’s likely to stay that way for the rest of the year. After all, the Flyers held their ninth straight opponent to under 70 points — something that hasn’t happened since UD Hall of Famer and current 1290WHIO announcer Bucky Bockhorn was in uniform.

Dayton’s offense has been spotty at best this year, but it has been good enough for seven wins. The defense has been good enough for 11 wins. Only a 76-62 setback to Miami exposed Dayton on the defensive end.

The Flyers improve their record to 7-5 and 2-0 in the A-10 while St. Joseph’s falls to 7-6 and 1-1.

In what was one of the ugliest games of the year, Dayton fell behind 6-0 at the start and trailed 15-7 before tightening the valve on the defensive end and converting key baskets on the offensive side. The defense was so good in fact that Phil Martelli’s team didn’t score a field goal for the last 9 minutes of the half. Only a stray free throw or two kept St. Joe moving as Dayton clawed back into the game and took the lead. At the same time, Mark Ashman exposed St. Joe’s freshman center by using patented pump fakes to score easy baskets in the paint. The turnaround in the game was so profound that UD led 28-20 at intermission.

In the second half Dayton threw the ball into Ashman on the first four offensive possessions for easy lay-ins that forced Martelli to burn a timeout. Ashman was unstoppable and the Hawks had no answer. Only foul trouble kept Ashman from netting a career high — he played only 17 minutes.

For the second game in a row, Andy Metzler gave Purnell a spark off the bench by penetrating the lane for tough baskets among the St. Joe frontcourt. Metzler’s points helped Dayton build a 20-point lead with 10 minutes to play and allowed the Flyers the infrequent luxury of coasting to a win without the need for late-game heroics. Metzler finished with 10 points and 4 rebounds in 22 minutes of action.

While Ashman and Metzler were doing the scoring, Tony Stanley and Edwin Young chipped in with strong defensive games that overshadowed the 10 points apiece they each scored. The Hawks had a terrible time running their offense with Edwin and Tony in the way. On the other end of the court, St. Joe blanketed Stanley everywhere he went and made it a point to limit his scoring opportunities. As a result, Stanley took only 10 shots but rarely forced the play and let others carry the scoring load.

Yuanta Holland, starting once again at the power forward slot, played an excellent defensive game and finished with a team-high 7 rebounds and 3 blocks in 19 minutes. If Holland can duplicate that every night for Oliver Purnell he will continue to start. Holland continues to struggle offensively however and nearly broke the backboard on his only two shot attempts. Holland is tentative on offense and it shows. He has no confidence in his jumper, is a liability at the free throw line, and gets little respect from opposing defenders. If he can add an offensive game to his bag of tricks he will be one of the better “tweeners” in the league.

Cain Doliboa struggled all night and his lack of hustle on the defensive end earned him a spot on the bench as the second half started. Doliboa was beaten repeatedly for rebounds and shots and looked sluggish all evening.

Dayton’s overall defensive effort was good enough to limit St. Joe to .404% from the floor and 1-9 from long distance. The Flyers had problems of their own however, shooting just .386% from the field. The most telling statistic however was in the rebounding department where the Flyers outhustled the Hawks on the glass 36-29. Martelli’s team came into the game with a +9 rebounding margin.

Dayton is clearly playing good basketball. The defensive effort is good enough to stop most teams on most nights. Purnell’s concern is scoring — or lack thereof. While UD is holding opponents to 61ppg, Dayton is averaging under 70ppg. In the end, the only thing that matters are wins and losses and it’s unlikely Dayton’s game plan will change dramatically after five consecutive strong performances. The Flyers figured to run and press a lot this year but it’s looking more and more as if Purnell is content with a halfcourt game that allows the defense to control tempo and style.

Dayton starts a three-game road trip on Sunday in Kingston, RI, against the URI Rams. Following the URI game are stops at George Washington and LaSalle. Dayton must come away with at least two wins or they will be playing catch-up all year in the A-10 West. Considering UD dropped a few games at home most figured they would win, a few road surprises are needed to balance out the disappointments.