There were no sweet treats available for the Dayton Flyers as they filled containers of food outside the locker room and left the arena on Saturday afternoon. This game was more trick than treat, a difficult test against the Southern Conference regular-season champion on short rest in a tournament many of their own fans didn’t want to watch.
The 87-72 loss to Chattanooga in the second round of the National Invitation Tournament brought an end to a season full of memorable victories, painful defeats and everything in between. Dayton won 23 games but failed to achieve any of the goals it seeks every season, namely winning the Atlantic 10 Conference regular-season championship and/or the A-10 tournament and earning a NCAA tournament berth.
The consolation prize of playing in the NIT for the fourth time in eight years gave Dayton a spring break of sorts in Boca Raton, Fla., where it beat Florida Atlantic 86-79 on Wednesday, and then Chattanooga. The team flew home soon after the game to an uncertain future.
Nate Santos, Enoch Cheeks, Zed Key and Brady Uhl played their final college basketball games Saturday. Posh Alexander, who did not travel to Tennessee because of an illness, also saw his college career end with the loss.
Any of the other scholarship players on the roster could decide to enter the transfer portal, which officially opens for business Monday. The coaches have signed two incoming freshmen, Damon Friery and Jaron McKie, but will need to find at least three players in the portal — and probably more.
“In college basketball, you’re not going to have the same team every year,” Dayton guard Javon Bennett said after the game. “So we’re going to have to see what we can get.”
Asked if he expected to return to Dayton for his senior season, Bennett said, “Yeah, as of right now, I’m going here. I’ve got to talk to my family and see what my next step is.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Here are three takeaways from Dayton’s 34th and final game:
1. Dayton’s defense did not get the job done: Chattanooga (26-9), which led from start to finish, shot 57.1% (28 of 49) from the field. That’s the highest percentage an opponent shot against Dayton this season. It was the fourth-best percentage for Chattanooga.
Honor Huff scored 26 points for Chattanooga on 7-of-12 shooting. Trey Bonham scored 25 on 8-of-13 shooting.
“I’m really proud of the guys,” Chattanooga coach Dan Earl said. “That was a well played game, I thought, on both sides. Credit to Dayton. They’re a really good basketball team. They make shots. They execute. They’re tough and physical. I thought we did a pretty good job of exceeding or matching their physicality.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
2. Dayton’s comeback fell short: Dayton trailed by as many as 15 points in the second half. The Flyers cut the deficit to 73-67 on a 3-pointer by Santos with 3 minutes, 21 seconds to play. After a steal, Cheeks had a chance to trim the Chattanooga lead to 3 but missed a 3 at the 2:42 mark.
Chattanooga outscored Dayton 14-5 in the last three minutes. It scored two points on free throws after a technical foul against Grant at the 2:11 mark.
“I thought the story of the game was their offense was just better than our defense today,” Grant said. “We didn’t have an answer for everything they had. And give them credit. They came out and they played really well. At the end of the day, it really came down to our inability to get stops.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
3. The loss denied Dayton a chance to play at home next week: Chattanooga will play at Bradley in the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Bradley won 75-67 at George Mason on Saturday.
Dayton would have played Bradley at UD Arena if it had won at Chattanooga.
With George Mason losing, only one of the six A-10 teams that received a NIT bid is alive. Loyola Chicago played a second-round game at San Francisco on Sunday.
Grant spoke to the team in the locker room after the game about the season.
“I think it’s all just about lessons,” Grant said. “They’re young people. My job is to try to help them become the best versions of themselves, not only as basketball players, but as young people and to help them understand the game better, understand life and better understand what it means to be a part of something bigger than themselves. Those lessons throughout the course of the year, hopefully they’ll be able to take some things away from them, along with the good and the bad and everything in between, and be better for it with whatever’s next.”
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