Jaiun Simon scores off one of 14 offensive rebounds by the Flyers in Sunday’s 70-59 win over Davidson. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie Wright-Daniel)
The Dayton Flyers played at times Sunday like a team recovering from the flu. Part of it was the flu, and part of it was the fight in the Davidson Wildcats. But the Flyers got it done, thanks to four players in double figures…and a whopping rebounding advantage.
Dayton, OH – It wasn’t a thing of beauty, necessarily.
Although, the Dayton Flyers entered Sunday’s contest with the Davidson Wildcats badly needing a win. And when you really need a win, they say…any win will do.
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Previously, the Flyers had lost four of their last seven, and hadn’t played in nine days.
But the Flyers did win on Sunday afternoon at UD Arena, 70-59, in front of 13,407, and when you’re ‘sick’ anything positive is a thing of beauty.
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‘Sick’?
At least half of the roster had suffered over the past nine days with the flu, or flu-like symptoms. And none worse than forward DeShayne Montgomery, who confessed to having lost ten pounds during his recovery.
And the recent slump that saw them hit rock bottom against VCU (a 99-72 loss) had further spun their prospects for tournament health into a downward spiral. So yes, they were sick for a win…and they got one.
Amaël L’Etang leans into a Davidson defender during Sunday’s 70-59 Flyer win.
“I was really pleased with our effort,” said Anthony Grant, afterwards. “Obviously nine days off is a long break, and that’s rare, but our guys did a really great job of fighting through the flu and some things that we felt we had to work on. We did a really good job today of focusing on execution and things we wanted to implement on both sides of the ball.”
Both teams entered the game with 15-9 records, and if you had asked Davidson coach Matt McKillop he would have echoed the words of Grant. Except, his team didn’t win…and Grant’s did.
“I thought we had some really good efforts across the board,” added Grant. “And I really liked the way we closed the game. Our defense created a lot of offense for us, and our defense won the game for us at the end.”
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One could make the point that Grant’s defense won the game for Dayton long before the end of the game. Dayton held Davidson, known for its outside shooting, to a modest 44% from the field, and 38% from three-point range…largely through the efforts of Parker Friedrichsen, who went 5 of 6 from behind the line while the remainder of the ‘Cats offense shot a pedestrian 3 for 15 from out by the loading dock.
De’Shayne Montgomery finds an open teammate during the Flyers’ Sunday win over Davidson.
The reason? Dayton’s effort and energy on defense.
The other reason they won is as fundamental as putting the ball through the rim. If you don’t put it through the rim you’d better rebound, and Dayton outrebounded Davidson by a whopping margin of 39-15, denying the ‘Cats a lot of second-chance buckets physically, and creating emotional frustration that must have felt like swimming upstream.
“They just sliced us up,” said McKillop in the post-game. “We got off to a bad start in the first half. We missed too many layups because I think we got too cute, expecting to have those shots blocked. And Dayton’s not a great shot-blocking team, anyway. We just didn’t go the rim strongly enough. And they shot the ball well in the first half.
“So the combination of not being strong at the rim and their shooting was just hard for us to overcome throughout the game. We missed at least six layups in the first half and that’s tough when you play in this environment. And this is as good as you’ll find in college basketball.”
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Parker Friedrichsen was the sole of their offense, hitting 5 of 6 from three-point range, 7 of 12 overall, and finished with a game-high 21 points. Teammate Josh Scovens was the only other Wildcat to finish in double figures, with 15 points.
Javon Bennett had a tough shooting day, thanks to the Davidson defense.
Dayton benefited greatly from their rebounding advantage, taking advantage of 14 offensive rebounds to score 16 second-chance points in the game, helping their field goal percentage for the game to 46%.
“It was good to see us rebound the way we did,” said Grant. “Davidson has been a really good rebounding team all year. They have greater size and length across the board, so we knew we’d have to do a good job of blocking out and rebounding, and we did.
“And, I thought we were exceptional with getting those second shots off rebounds today. Down the stretch it was an advantage and it helped us close the game.”
Dayton finished with four players in double figures, led by De’Shayne Montgomery’s 13 points. Amaël L’Etang had 12, Jaiun Simon had 11 points, and Bryce Heard finished his afternoon with 10 points.
Ironically, since Davidson joined the A-10 Conference in 2014-’15 Dayton has beaten the Wildcats now 13 times in 15 starts, and Sunday marked the 11th consecutive win. And in Grant’s concluding words, post-game, he mentioned more than once, “This was a big game for us.”
Bryce Heard snatches one of 39 Dayton rebounds in Sunday’s win at UD Arena.
Like every other Division I team, Dayton has its eye on the post-season and its tournament picture, which now stands at 16 wins, 9 losses, and with six games remaining on their schedule, it’s hardly a sure thing that they’re going to finish with 20 wins and and RPI that’s going to impress the NCAA selection committee. And it’s no sure thing they’ll win the A-10 tournament, either.
Those six games include a road game with George Mason (21-5) this week, St. Louis on the 24th (24-1), at Richmond on March 3, and VCU (20-6) in the final game of the season, at Dayton, on March 6. Dayton not only needs to win at least four of the six, but they need wins against teams with resumes’ better than theirs.
“Dayton was very good in the paint today,” added McKillop. “They hit 26 of 32 and that was huge. Teams are tough to beat when you do that.”
The question now for Dayton…can they keep doing it?
For at least four more games!
Keonte Jones eyes the rim during Sunday’s Dayton win over Davidson.
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