Xeyrius Williams’ scoring average
transfer, left Oakland University for Dayton in late August. Bass was limited to eight games because of concussion issues.
Six of Dayton’s scholarship players have never worn the red and blue. Here’s a by-the-numbers look at the roster the Flyers will have when they open the season Nov. 10 against Ball State:
Number of seniors
Guard Darrell Davis averaged 5.5 points last season and shot 38.5 percent from 3-point range. He’s the only scholarship player who’s a senior, but he will have company on Senior Night. Walk-on Joey Gruden will be a fifth-year senior.
Players 6 feet 7 or taller
Even without the 6-7 Mikesell and 6-9 Miller, this is a tall team. Freshman center Jordan Pierce (7-0) is the biggest of the bunch. Freshman Obadiah Toppin is 6-9. Freshman Matej Svoboda of the Czech Republic is 6-7.
Kostas Antetokounmpo, a 6-10 forward who sat out last season as a NCAA partial qualifier, is almost as big as Pierce. Antetokounmpo’s status is still unclear. He suffered an injury in Greece on July 10. UD will not release an update on him until he returns to campus later this month and gets examined.
The junior forward from Wayne was the team’s most improved player last season, and he’ll have to take his game to the next level if the Flyers hope to compete for an Atlantic 10 title.
Josh Cunningham’s scoring average in first two games
Cunningham opened his Dayton career by scoring 13 and 12 points against Austin Peay and Alabama. He tore a ligament in his ankle in the final seconds of the Alabama game. He returned for the final nine games but wasn’t the same player. He expects to return to the form he showed at the start of last season when this season begins.
Percentage of points returning
The four graduated seniors — Scoochie Smith, Kendall Pollard, Charles Cooke and Kyle Davis — plus Miller and Mikesell combined to average 61.9 points per game.
If you pay attention to local golf happenings, you probably have heard of the Gilkison brothers, Jake and Josh of Springboro.
The 19-year-old Josh, who will attend Kent State University in a couple of weeks, is the one who won the 2016 Ohio Junior Championship and the last two Miami Valley Metropolitan Championships.
Jake, who will be 21 in 10 days, is a junior on the University of Dayton golf team. He finished third in the recent Metro at Heatherwoode
Bowling taught BrittanyAnn O’Connell and Steven Kocher to do more than throw strikes and pick up spares.
The Greater Dayton United States Bowling Congress scholarship recipients have learned valuable life lessons on the lanes.
“Bowling has made me more strong-willed, but it’s also taught me how to be humble,” Kocher said. “It has taught me to never give up and always give 100 percent.”
O’Connell has greater confidence and perspective after a decade of bowling. “You can’t take things for granted, not in bowling or Golf Club.
The Gilkisons first made news when they sparked the Springboro High School golf team to some high finishes in the Ohio High School Division I championship.
Now that they will be off to college, a third member of the family is preparing to give the Springboro program a boost. Jordan Gilkison, 15, will be a freshman at SHS this year. He came within one stroke of making the cut in the Metro when he had rounds of 74 and 75.
“He was by far the smallest person in the tournament,” said Steve Jurick, executive director of the Miami Valley Golf Association. “He would have made the cut if he hadn’t bogeyed the 15th hole and doublebogeyed the 16th (in the second round.)”
Compared to his older brothers, Jordan is a little guy, but he stands tall on the golf course.
Last Sunday he was the overall winner in the 14-15 in life,” O’Connell said.
O’Connell and Kocher were recently named 2017 recipients of the Kurt Gostel Scholarship. The award — which takes into account academic strength and community involvement as well as bowling success — honors the coach who taught bowling at the University of Dayton in the mid-1960s and instilled a love of the game in countless Miami Valley bowlers.
“I had an aspiration of winning this award for many years,” Kocher said. “It means a lot.”
O’Connell, 18, was instrumental in helping the Beavercreek High School team advance to the state tournament in each of the past four seasons — winning the Division I girls championship in 2014.
She has rolled both a 300 game and a 707 high series and earned several GWOC awards during her age group of the PGA’s Drive, Pitch & Putt Sub-Regional qualifier at the TPC at River’s Bend. Hitting three drives of approximately 230 yards into the fairway while a few others were hitting it farther and missing the fairway at least once, he finished first in driving.
“As he grows, he’ll get a lot more distance,” brother Josh predicted.
Jordan finished second in chipping and first in putting as he earned a spot in the Regional competition Sept. 16 at Muirfield Village Golf Club.
The goal is to participate in the national final at the Augusta National Golf Club during Masters week in 2018.
Josh Gilkison got some good news recently: He received an invitation to play in the Under Armour/ Jordan Spieth AJGA Championship this week in Dallas.
Gilkison is one of three Ohioans in the field. The others are Jack Herceg of high school career.
Behind the scenes, she served as president of the GDUSBC Youth Leaders, assisted with city youth and adult tournaments and helped with lane certifications.
She was actively involved in student council and PALS, a group that assists students with special needs. O’Connell was also a member of the Spanish and American Sign Language clubs and volunteered at a veterinary clinic, all while maintaining a 3.39 GPA.
She is excited to move on to the next level as a member of the Maryland Eastern Shore bowling team.
“I’m really looking forward to the traveling and the competitiveness of college bowling,” she said. “I think it will make me a stronger bowler.”
The Northmont High School bowler found success early.
He rolled his first perfect Dublin and Jack Kozlowski of Columbus.
The 54-hole event will be played Tuesday through Thursday at Trinity Forest Golf Club, which has a Scottish-style course designed by Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore.
Moraine Country Club will host the annual Mercedes-Benz Dealer Regional Championship on Monday. It’s a two-person net better ball event in which the best individual score per hole counts as the team score.
One third of the entry fee goes to the Norma J. Ross Youth Foundation. The winning duo advances to the Western Section championship at Torrey Pines Golf Course in La Jolla, Calif.
A Southern Ohio PGA Open also will be held Monday at Four Bridges Country Club in Liberty Township. game when he was 13 and won the boys individual D-I state title in his freshman year.
Kocher, 18, placed in the Top 20 at state during the following two years as well. He landed on the GWOC first team all four years and was recognized as the Thunderbolt Athlete of the Week.
His work ethic was equally strong in the classroom.
Kocher earned a place on the honor roll every semester throughout his high school career and graduated with a 3.75 GPA. He was always willing to provide academic assistance to fellow students or tutor his teammates.
While academics remain a priority for the Bowling Green State University sports management major, he also plans to bowl on the club team.