Nate Santos drives the basket and scores. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie McMaken Wright)
With only three days to recover from the emotional high and physical exertion of beating No. 6 Marquette Saturday, the University of Dayton basketball team faced a bounce back dilemma Tuesday and avoided an upset defeat when Malachi Smith converted a three-point play with eight seconds left to beat UNLV, 66-65.
Dayton, OH — As expected and anticipated, the University of Dayton basketball team encountered ‘The Marquette Hangover’ Tuesday night in UD Arena.
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After the emotional challenge and physical exertion in beating No. 6 ranked Marquette Saturday — and only a three-day turnaround — a lapse could be expected Tuesday night against unranked 5-and-4 University of Nevada Las Vegas.
But with dialed-in determination and a stick-to-it mentality, the Flyers survived — by the width of the shoe laces on Malachi Smith’s sneakers.
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With eight seconds left and UD trailing by two points against a stout and sturdy UNLV, the diminutive Smith looked for Nate Santos.
Covered.
He looked for Zed Key.
Covered.
So he took matters into his own dribbling-the-basketball hands. He nose-dived toward the basket amidst the big guys. He showed the basketball to a defender and the defender slapped at it.
Smith laid the ball softly into the basket to tie the game and the slap drew a foul. Smith knocked down the free throw and the Flyers led, 66-65.
Zed Key looks for a way to drive for the basket.
But it wasn’t over. . .still eight long excruciating seconds for the Flyers. And UNLV got the shot it wanted — a 10-footer to the left of the hoop by UNLV’S best player, Declan Thomas Jr.
The ball banged off the side of the rim and the horn sounded and never did a horn sound so good and so timely for the Flyers and the Flyer Faithful.
It was a 66-65 teeth-gnashing escape for the No. 22-ranked Flyers, their 25th straight home victory and their 10th win this season against a pair of losses.
“The emotions involved Saturday, then turn around on a quick turnaround and have to fight like that tonight, hand-to-hand combat, so to speak,” said UD coach Anthony Grant.
“I’m proud of the guys that they were able to stick to it and find a way to get a win.”
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Nate Santo provided a player’s view of what entailed coming back quickly from an emotional high when he said, “I think so. . .yes, it was hard coming back because it (Marquette) was such a big game. It definitely was a little bit difficult.”
UD trailed, 62-58, with 1:25 to play and a fan in the student section grumbled, “We’re in trouble.”
Amael L’Etang finishing a play with a thundering slam dunk.
Not this gritty group.
Nate Santos hadn’t made a three all night but had the guts and wherewithal to bury a three and cut the lead to 62-61.
UNLV missed a shot and Smith burst down the floor for a quickie lay-in and the Flyers led, 63-62, with 37 seconds to go.
It appeared that it took UNLV longer than 10 seconds to cross the line against UD’s press, but it wasn’t called. And just as the shot clock was about to whine, Julian Rishwain nailed a three from near mid-court, pushing the Runnin’ Rebels to a 65-63 lead with 23 seconds to go.
Rishwain scored 21 points in UNLV’s previous game against Pacific and made five three-pointers. But he was scoreless in the first half Tuesday before nailing three big three-pointers in the final minutes.
But Malachi Smith saved the Flyers, as much with his game-winning free throw as his game-tying basket because free throws have nagged him.
Before the game-winner, he was 0 for 2 from the line on this night and began the game shooting only 61% from the foul line.
Of the last play, Smith said, “I had to make a play and I didn’t want to overthink it. If I had guys open, I would have thrown to them. I just guessed the best shot for my team was for me to attack and try to get a foul.”
Javon Bennett gets fouled by Jalen Hill, who is wearing sun glasses.
And Smith executed it as if the X’s and O’s were drawn on the Blackburn Court floor.
And then the free throw?
“I was a little nervous,” he said. “I had to make sure I made it, to be honest. I took a little walk toward mid-court to just relax because I missed two earlier and I’ve been struggling with my free throws. I made it and we got the dub (w, as in win).”
Grant said putting the ball in Smith’s hands at do-or-don’t-do time is like putting several piles of $100 bills in a Brink’s truck. . .it’s safe and sound.
“We wanted a couple of options,” he said. “First, Nate Santos to see if we could free him up. They did a good job of taking away Nate. The next option was to get Mali in the middle of the floor.
“They did a good job, but Mali made a heck of a play,” Grant added. “He got a guy on his hip, got to the rim, got contact with great focus and presence to finish the play. And then the big-time free throw.’
Enoch Cheeks scored just six, but snagged 10 rebounds.
Cut it and print it. It was perfection.
“Malachi has done this for us ever since he stepped on campus,” said Grant. “We wanted to put the ball in his hands to put him into position to make a play for himself or one of his teammates. You look at the last play, but throughout the game and throughout the course of the season he’s shown what he showed tonight.”
It wasn’t an offensive dandy for the Flyers — 24 for 51 shooting (47.1% and 5 for 21 from three (23.8%). Smith scored 11 points with five assists, Santos scored 14 and Zed Key added 13. Enoch Cheeks scored only six, but snagged 10 rebounds.
For most of the game the Flyers looked as if they were listening to Jackson Browne’s ‘Running On Empty.”
Posh Alexander launches a jumper for one of his three baskets.
And after Marquette, they probably were, making Grant doubly proud.
“If we are going to have the season we think we can have, we have to win games like this. You look at these as some of the more guttier wins, “ said Grant.
“Everybody wants to talk about when you play the ranked teams, but these kind of games are what makes you who you are,” he added. “The mark of a good team, and these guys have shown it all year, is resiliency. It’s a level of toughness and they continue to keep themselves in the fight. When they get hit, they may stagger for a minute, but they get right back up, get right back in the fight and they did that throughout the game today.”
And the turnaround for the next game is short, with a deep challenge. On Friday night, the Flyers bus it down to Cincinnati to play the 19th-ranked 8-and-1 University of Cincinnati Bearcats.
Malachi Smith, the night’s hero, controlled the ball all night for the Flyers.
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