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From the opening moments of Dayton's game against the Providence Friars, you could feel that things were going to go their way.
The Friars' Kris Dunn swung his arms up to make a drive to the basket, and it happened to be perfectly timed with the arrival of Kyle Davis to guard him. Dunn's elbow connected with Davis' chin drawing a flagrant foul and putting the Providence point guard and second best offensive player on his heels early.
He would pick up his second foul two minutes later and the whole Friars team was back on its heels.
The two teams were not setting any offensive records with their performance in the first half -- Dayton seemed a little tired, Providence lost without Dunn to guide them -- and Dayton led by three at the break.
The clock struck midnight before the second half, and a new day brought a new Dayton team out of the locker room. Jordan Sibert finally found his shot, and led the Flyers to 38 points in the second half, and a 66-53 win.
Providence didn't do so well with late hour. Everything seemed short. They were getting outhustled, and seemed to end in tie-ups with Dayton, or being a second late and fouling almost constantly.
The Friars would shoot just 33.9 percent from the floor, despite making 10 3-pointers and trying to hang with the Flyers.
Of course, there was the requisite complaining about the "home" crowd for Dayton following the loss. Columbus sits just a little more than an hour away from the home of the Flyers, and the seats were filled with red-shirted fans. Forget that those same fans would have been getting behind Boise State to root for the upset if things had gone the same way had the Broncos been there.
The fans, the referees (who did nothing to help their already poor reputation from earlier in the day), the play of his team, obviously got to Providence coach Ed Cooley, who got called for a technical foul after flipping his chair during a timeout.
That all occurred with less than four minutes left and the Flyers already leading by eight. Sibert made just one of the free throws to extend the lead to nine, a lead that seemed like 100 given how Providence was playing.
Dayton once again proved that they are willing to outwork every team on the floor. They had eight steals and four blocks. That is four blocks from a team that is 6-6 and under. And those eight steals don't count all the held balls they forced.
Archie Miller continues to work wonders with this bunch of Flyers, getting more out of them than should be possible given how he has to run this team.
They get a chance to make us all believers again when they take on Oklahoma on Sunday.
You certainly won't want to miss it.