Nate Santos did his late-game heroics to save the Flyers. (Press Pros Media Files)
The University of Dayton basketball team fell behind Rhode Island by 10 points in the first half, built a 20-point lead in the second half, then had to hold off a furious late charge by the Rams, with the aid of comfort of Nate Santos, to post an 85-77 win.
Kingston, R.I. — There is no player on the University of Dayton basketball roster named Murphy.
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But there should be because with the Flyers this season anything that can go wrong certainly goes wrong.
And it almost happened again Wednesday night before the Flyers staggered to an 85-77 victory over the University of Rhode Island.
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Midway through the second half, the Flyers owned a 20-point lead, but before anybody could say Rhode Island is the smallest state in the union, the Flyers’ lead had evaporated to six points with five minutes left.
But the man who is always the man at crunch time, Nate Santos, came blatantly barging through again.
In most games, Santos is an invisible man early in games, nobody notices him as he lurks in the shadows. But when he is needed the most, he is as visible as the morning sun on the equator.
When the Flyers’ 62-42 lead had dwindled to 68-62 on Rhodie’s 20-6 run, Santos said, “Get out of my way and I’ll win this one for you, too.”
—He swished a three with four minutes left to push UD up, 71-62.
Providence native Enoch Cheeks entertained 30 relatives and friends.
—Rhode Island moved back to within six again and Santos ripped off another three. And he followed that up with two free throws and UD led, 79-71.
—Rhode Island refused to say, “Enough,” and pulled within 81-75. Santos walked to the foul line and hit two more free throws for an 83-75 lead and that etched the ‘W’ beside the Flyers’ name.
The victory for UD was ultra-important as it placed them fourth in the Atlantic 10 standings. The first four teams in the standings get a double-bye in the conference tournament.
Immediately after the game, somebody pulled the fire alarm, believing Santos had set Ryan Center on fire, and the place was ordered evacuated.
It is for sure Rhode Island didn’t cause any flames, not even a spark with their three-point shooting. In the Rams’ previous game against Saint Louis, they hit 10 of 22 three-pointers. On this night, they couldn’t hit the water if standing on a pier on Trustom Pond. They made 2 of 19 on their home court, where they were 13-2 when the night began.
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On an ugly scale of 1 to 10, this game was a 12. It was a longshoreman’s wrestling match under the baskets and the two teams ran up-and-down, back-and-forth as if doing killer sprints.
In the first half, it appeared as if the officials lost the beans in their whistles and couldn’t blow them. It was no homicide, no foul.
Javon Bennett was 1 for 7 from three, but still scored 11 points.
Realizing that the officials were just spectators, Rhode Island muscled its way to a 25-15 first-half lead with pure muggery — scoring 18 of its 25 in the paint.
Rhode Island led, 17-15, early-on, then went on an 8-0 run to grab the 25-15 lead.
It was White-Out Night for the fans and all those white t-shirts must have blinded the Rams after the 25-15 lead. They went six minutes without a field goal and the Flyers chip, chip, chipped away on an 18-5 run to grab a 33-30 halftime lead.
The officials, realizing that somebody might get maimed if they didn’t start calling fouls, called them profusely in the second half, including technical fouls on Malachi Smith and Zed Key.
Using a match-up zone defense that befuddled the Rams early in the second half, the Flyers opened the second half with a 29-10 breakaway to construct the 62-42 lead.
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In addition to Rhode Island’s fear of making a three, their leading scorer, Sebastian Thomas, was foul-plagued and sat out a good portion of the game.
When the Flyers’ lead shrank to 68-59 with 7 1/2 minutes left, Thomas re-entered the game. Rhode Island was 1 for 17 from three when Thomas hit one with 2:50 left to pull the Rhodies to within, 77-71.
Malachi Smith did his usual wizardry with assists and ball-handling.
But he drew his fifth foul ten seconds later and was seated with only 12 points, six below his average.
The late splurge by Santos netted him 17 points to the balanced UD scoring. Enoch Cheeks, a Providence, R.I. native entertained 30 relatives and close friends with 15 points and eight rebounds.
Although he was only 1 for 7 from three, Javon Bennett scored 15 and Malachi Smith was a perfect 7 for 7 from the foul line and scored 15.
More importantly, as always he passed out assists like his mother passing out Reese’s Cups on Beggar’s Night, parceling six assists, most of them shining beauties with a degree of difficulty at 10.
For the game, the 18-9 Flyers (8-6 in the A-10), were 27-55 from the field, 10 for 23 from three with Santos making five of eight from trey land.
And the Flyers sealed matters by making 21 of 23 free throws.
Rhode Island (17-10, 6-9)? The Rams were exactly the same from the field as the Flyers (27-55), but shot that hideous 2 for 19 from three and 21-for-30 from the foul line.
Posh Alexander came off the bench and made a major contribution.
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