And they got to wear pink.
It was a memorable day for the UD bench.
Along with the 21-rebound effort of Arianna “Nani” Smith, the Dayton Flyers starting post player who’s always a force on the boards, the team’s bench was the story in the hard-fought 62-57 victory over Fordham on Saturday at UD Arena.
It was the annual Play4Kay Pink Game and the Flyers players and coaches wore special pink warm-up shirts as they both honored the late Hall of Fame coach Kay Yow, who battled breast cancer, and also celebrated survivors, several of whom were singled out in the crowd.
“I think it’s cool we can embrace it through basketball and just shine light on it because it’s something that’s important,” said back-up guard Shantavia Dawkins. “And it’s cool that we get to wear pink and just show our recognition and support to those fighters and survivors.”
Dawkins and the rest of the UD bench were the big difference in the game. They outscored their Fordham counterparts, 28-17, with guard Nayo Lear leading the way with 11 points, seven rebounds and some in-your-face defensive play.
Speaking of fighters, the UD bench showed it could go toe-to-toe with the always rough-and-tumble Fordham team, which had beaten Dayton in each of the previous four games they’d played since Tamika Williams-Jeter became the Flyers head coach.
“Fordham is physical and they try to do that every game,” Dawkins said. “Coach Meek (Tamika) kept telling us ‘Don’t get punked! Don’t get punked!’”
Dawkins transferred to UD this season after two years at Iowa State, where she came off the bench. She started the first eight games this season, but since then has been used in a reserve role with limited minutes.
After Saturday’s game she was candid about her situation: “You just have to keep a positive mindset through the season and play your role. If that means being on the bench, being someone who is just cheering and giving everything I’ve got to my teammates, then that’s what I’m going to do.
“But when I’m called to go in, I try to block all of that out and just rise up to the moment out there.”
She did just that and more — too much more in the refs’ eyes ― with 7:50 left in the fourth quarter.
She had missed a turnaround jump shot just outside the paint and in the scrum beneath the boards had gotten her own rebound.
“I ended up on the ground,” she said. “I was looking to pass it — I didn’t wasn’t to travel – and No. 13 came in and it got tied up. It wasn’t intentional what happened, I just got tied up.”
The Rams’ No. 13 is forward Emma Wilson-Saltos and, according to Dawkins” “She tried to yank the ball away. But I wasn’t going to let go and it became a thing.”
The tug fest ended up veering toward the nearby UD bench.
In a private conversation later, Dawkins recounted the moment with a laugh: “Everyone was yelling ‘Don’t get punked! Don’t get punked!’
“That was going through my mind. And before the game I remembered Coach Meek saying it, so I didn’t let go of the ball.”
Other players on the court rushed to them. The Flyers backup post player, Eve Fiala caught in the emotion of the moment, came off the bench to support Dawkins. Fordham coach Bridgette Mitchell came down that way.
Referee whistles blew. Players were separated. The crowd stood.
It took the three game officials over nine minutes to watch a replay video and discover who was involved.
Eventually, Dawkins was assessed a technical for an intentional foul and Fiala was given a technical and ejected from the game for leaving the bench.
Instead of the Flyers getting possession because the jump ball arrow had been pointing in their favor, Fordham — trailing by four at the time — would get four straight free throws.
Credit: Erik Schelkun
Credit: Erik Schelkun
‘What are we going to do’
As they had waited for the refs’ decision, Williams-Jeter made sure she was tempered in her words and actions. Rather than get caught up in the swirl of what had just happened, she wanted to focus her team on what now lie ahead.
“I believe where I go, they go,” she said of her team. “I wanted to watch what came out of my mouth.
“As a player I would have been spicy. I’d have been very driven to try to hurt them. I’d have been ready for a fight: I’m punching someone in the face.”
She started to laugh:
“Maybe its because I’m 45 now. I’m old and scared to death. Maybe its because now as a coach I know how I react; that’s how my team reacts.
“My message was ‘OK, they’re getting four free throws and that could tie the game. What are we going to do?’
“When we played Saint Louis the other night and things got gritty, we didn’t respond. This time I wanted them to say, ‘OK, we’re still coming for you. We’re coming and you’re not going to stop us.’ Fordham’s Kaila Berry made two of the four foul shots to cut UD’s lead to 46-44.
Soon after that the Rams made a bad pass. Dawkins got the ball, spun in the paint and scored.
The Flyers (15-12) never relinquished the lead after that.
‘We didn’t get punked’
Williams-Jeter’s first UD team — the 7-21 Flyers of 2022-23 — had so few players that, at times, no one was on the bench except walk-on Eleanor Monyek.
“We had the five on the court and Eleanor,” Williams-Jeter said. “Our practices were short, and players had to pace themselves in games.”
Although she got more playing time back then, Monyek said this year’s team is so much better because of its depth:
“Our players out there can go 100 percent. They can empty it all on the court and we have someone who can come in and keep it going.
“And of someone has a down game, there’s someone on the bench who can step in and pick it up. “It’s great to see the way Coach Meek has grown this team over the years.”
This year several bench players have had shining moments.
Saturday it was Lear and she had another strong game last Wednesday, scoring 12 in Saint Louis, although the Flyers lost.
Molly O’Riordan, a 6-foot-3 freshman forward who benefits from being able to practice against seniors Smith and Shannon Wheeler, has developed as the season has progressed and is getting more and more playing time.
She had 11 points in a win at George Washington eight days ago and seven rebounds and three blocked shots against LaSalle a month ago. Saturday she had nine ponts.
Freshman guard Olive Leung — who is mentored by veterans Ivy Wolf and Nicole Stephens in practice — has had several memorable efforts, including 21 points in a win at VCU and 17 points in a victory over Loyola.
And Ajok Madol, a transfer from Minnesota, had big games early in the season, including 11 in an upset of Providence and 12 against mighty Duke.
Yet for all those shining moments, there still are times when the Flyers have wilted down the stretch or showed a lack of a KO punch when they had a team on the ropes early.
The latter happened Saturday when they had Fordham down 18-8 early in the game and then let the Rams surge right back.
Williams-Jeter chided her team in the locker room at half time for not putting their foot on a team’s neck when they had it down like that.
This time the Flyers eventually showed their moxie in the fourth quarter.
“We didn’t get punked,” Dawkins reiterated.
Although the game got tight again in the final minute, the Flyers made their free throws at the end and had some defensive stops.
“That’s the way you stay with a team like Fordham — you match their grit,” Williams-Jeter said. “This late in the season, it might not be pretty, but it going to be gritty.”
On this day the Flyers were both.
As Dawkins noted, they were pretty in pink. And when things turned black and blue, they looked even better with their grit.
About the Author