Amzil finds the confidence to make another big shot for Dayton

Prior to that victory, Dayton had lost six straight games at the Ryan Center with its last victory coming in 2005. A year after the shot by Davis, Dayton won again at Rhode Island, and this time, sophomore forward Xeyrius Williams got his turn to play the hero, making two 3-pointers in the final 30 seconds, including the go-ahead shot off an assist from Scoochie Smith with 8 seconds remaining in a 75-74 victory at the Ryan Center.

“After I missed the first two shots in the first half, I was saying, ‘Find me one more time. I’m due,’” Williams said then. “Once he kicked it to me, I was like, ‘It’s going in.’ I put it up. It was good.”

Both those shots came from almost the same spot on the court, the left side opposite the Dayton bench.

On Monday, as Dayton and Rhode Island played a game originally scheduled to be their Atlantic 10 Conference opener on Dec. 30, sophomore forward Mustapha Amzil followed in the footsteps of the former Flyers with his own clutch 3-pointer. It wasn’t as dramatic as the shots by Davis and Williams because it came with 2 minutes, 20 seconds to play, but it broke a 54-54 tie and carried Dayton to a 63-57 victory.

Amzil caught a pass from Malachi Smith after Toumani Camara set a screen for Smith near the 3-point line.

“It was a ball-screen throwback,” Amzil said. “I was wide open. I made the shot. I had to trust the plays we run every day in practice.”

“I tell him all the time he’s a clutch guy,” Camara said. “That’s what we need from him.”

Amzil has struggled with his shot all season and had missed 10 3-pointers in a row, including his first two in this game. Of the seven players on the roster who have attempted 30 or more 3-pointers, Amzil is the only one shooting worse than 30%. He’s shooting 28.2% (22 of 78) after shooting 38.2% (26 of 68) last season.

Amzil still had the confidence to take the shot. He didn’t hesitate. Even if this basket ranks a distant second to his last-second buzzer-beater against No. 4 Kansas in November, it was almost as vital to the victory. Dayton’s win probability percentage jumped from 45.7 to 85.6% after the shot, according to KenPom.com.

“It’s nothing nothing new,” guard Koby Brea said. “He’s been doing it for a while now since Kansas. We’re expecting him to be able to make those big-time shots.”

“He’s more than capable, and he’s confident,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “Despite some of the struggles he’s had, he’s never lost confidence in his ability to make them. We needed that. We needed somebody to make a play.”

Amzil’s shot ended a 15-4 run by Rhode Island and started a 9-3 game-ending run by the Flyers, who clinched the victory with two straight defensive stops after the 3-pointer — one coming on a steal by Camara — and 6 of 8 made free throws by Amzil and Malachi Smith in the final 90 seconds.

The victory keeps Dayton (18-8, 10-3) in the hunt for the Atlantic 10 Conference regular-season championship.

“That’s what we’re working towards now,” Brea said. “We know that we’re more than capable of getting up there.”

With five games to play, the Flyers are a half game ahead of Virginia Commonwealth (16-7, 9-3), which plays at Fordham on Tuesday, and one game behind Davidson (21-4, 11-2). The Wildcats bounced back from a 72-65 loss at Rhode Island on Saturday to beat Duquesne 72-61 in North Carolina on Monday.

The Flyers completed a season sweep of Rhode Island (13-11, 4-8). The Rams have lost seven of their last eight games.

“We battled them on the boards,” Rhode Island coach David Cox said. “We took care of the ball. We shared the ball well. But that’s the No. 1 defensive team in the conference, and it looks like it. They’ve just got so much length and athleticism. They do a good job of positioning and with physicality and protecting the rim. Points were at a premium.”

The Flyers won by shooting 45.8% (11 of 24) from 3-point range. They are 10-0 when they shoot better than 40%. Brea made 4 of 8 3-pointers. Camara, who led all scorers with 17 points, made 3 of 5. Kobe Elvis and Amzil each made one.

The 3-point accuracy made up for struggles inside the paint. Dayton made 8 of 33 2-point field goals (24.2%), its worst performance of the season. Rhode Island, which ranks 10th in the country in 2-point defense (43.1) had a lot to do with that. In the first game against Rhode Island, Dayton shot 33.3% on 2-point shots in a 53-51 victory.

“They’re really good defensively,” Grant said. “This is two games in a row it’s been somewhat of a defensive battle.”

Dayton took control of the game in the second half by making four 3-pointers in a row. They stretched the lead to as many as 12 points, 48-36 with 11:13 to play.

Dayton is only the third opponent to shoot better than 40% from 3-point range against Rhode Island. Massachusetts did it twice.

“We’ve been guarding the 3-point line really well throughout the season,” Cox said. “They got a little loose in the second half during that spurt. I thought those were transition threes that they just walked into or hit ahead. That was the difference during the game.”