Amaël L’Etang fights off Billikens star Robbie Avila. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie Wright-Daniel)
After losing by 31 points at Saint Louis two weeks ago, the University of Dayton leaped to a 40-15 lead late in the first half on its way to a revenge win, 77-62. The Flyers fourth straight win, all by double digits.
Dayton, OH. — As they say, paybacks can be hell.
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Saint Louis University sashayed into UD Arena Tuesday night, scoffing at the idea that the place was the self-proclaimed, “Epicenter of College Basketball.”
What it was for Saint Louis was hell on a hardwood floor as the University of Dayton reaped revenge for a 31-point loss at Saint Louis a couple of weeks ago.
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It was Dayton 77, Saint Louis 62. But it was much worse than that for a team ranked 23rd in the Associated Press poll and a 25-2 record when their bus rolled into the parking lot.
With the Flyer Faithful raising the roof at a decibel level to rival a United Airlines 747 departing LaGuardia Airport, the Billikens were looking for shock treatment late in the first half.
The Flyers led, 40-15, with 3:42 left in the half and Saint Louis looked as if somebody pulled the pin on a hand grenade and they had no place to dive for cover.
Javon Bennett was on target all night with 17 points.
This is a team that led the nation in scoring margin at plus-22. And it is a team that was fifth in the country in offense at 90.1 points a game.
And this was a team that not only buried the Flyers a couple of weeks ago, 102-71, they threw dirt on the coffin.
In that game, they made 17 three-pointers, seven by Xavier transfer Trey Green.
The Flyers, though, were wild-avengers on defense, a face-to-face defense so close that UD players could smell the Billikens’ pre-game dinner.
Saint Louis missed its first 11 three-point attempts and was 1 for 12 at the half. And Green not only did not make a three the entire game (0 for 4), he didn’t score a point.
For the Flyers comparing the first game to this one was the difference between caveman art and the Mona Lisa.
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The Flyers applied a touch of Paris to the Billikens in the personage of Amaël ‘Frenchy’ L’Etang. After winning Atlantic 10 Player of the Week last week, L’Etang did even better on this night — a career-best 26 points and a double/double with 10 rebounds.
Jordan Derkack on the attack on a fast break.
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The only way Saint Louis could have stopped L’Etang on this night would be to steal his white Nike sneakers. And he had them double-knotted.
Add it all up and it was UD’s fourth straight win, all by double digits, and an improvement record-wise to 19-9 and 10-5 in the A-10.
“We were ready, ready to go, thinking about the last game,” said L’Etang.
There was two monumental ‘message’ plays that turned UD Arena into a scream chamber.
With two minutes to go, L’Etang had the ball with his back to the basket. Jordan Derkack cut behind him. Without looking, L’Etang whipped a behind-the-back pass and Derkack’s basket made it 73-58.
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“I didn’t know he was going to do it, but that’s a very French thing to do,” said Derkack, scorer of 14 points in only 24 minutes of playing time. “He could have dropped it off to me, but the French thing was to wrap it around his back to get the crowd going like it was.”
Keonte Jones slams home a crowd-pleasing dunk.
Of his crowd-pleading Harlem Globetrotters pass, L’Etang said, “I don’t know. It was just a feeling. It might be crazy but I thought it was the easiest way to get the ball to Derkack.”
A few seconds later, Derkack took the ball and fled uncontested toward the basket. Not only did he dunk it, he hung on the rim and swung on it like a 10-year-old dangling from a playground’s jungle gym bars.
He was assessed a technical, but said it was worth it.
“I thought about what they did to us a couple of weeks ago and I was, ‘Yeah, I’m going to do to them what they did to us,’” he said. “If it takes hanging on the rim and getting a tech, I’ll do that.
“That moment for me was big, the most fun I’ve had in any game,” he added.
Derkack is all-out every second, plays the game as if it is football and every play is fourth-and-one. He’s so tough on the floor he probably could sleep hanging on a meat hook.
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“When you get beat that bad, you want to come back and do the same thing to them,” he said. “We tried to emulate what they did to us two weeks ago.”
Mission emulated.
Jaiun Simon was a hustling shooter and defender.
Early this season, L’Etang was not a fan favorite and they wondered, “Why is this guy starting. He is a seven-footer afraid of contact and stands outside the trey line and hoists threes.”
Not any more. L’Etang has evolved into a force around the basket, not afraid to push, shove and elbow with the best of them. He thoroughly outplayed the much more heralded Saint Louis star Robbie Avila, the Billikens leading scorer. He put in only 10 on Tuesday.
“He (L’Etang) is big for us” said Derkack. “He has been awesome for us. More important that the points and the rebounds and the assists is when he plays tough, when he’s going at people, it just gives us a really big boost.
“The points and rebounds speak for themselves, but the more important stuff is that he had a blocked shot late in the game, he had some really big assists and did a lot of contesting at the rim,” added Derkack.
De’Shayne Montgomery hits the basket, then hits the floor.
After the game, coach Anthony Grant said he told the team how proud he was of them for their effort and the preparation they displayed.
“Knowing what Saint Louis is capable of our guys did a great job of locking in scouting report-wise and understanding the level that we had to compete at to put ourselves in position to win” he said.
“The first half our guys really did a good job,” he added. “We knew the importance of running a good offense against their defense. And as prolific as their offense has been all year, their defense has been really good.
“We had to take away some of the things that they were able to have some success with in the first game,” said Grant. “We did a good job of that.”
Mostly, they guarded the three-point line with tenacity, holding the Billikens to 5 for 21 after they were 17 for 28 in the first game.
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