Some 7 ½ hours before tipoff — at the end of the morning’s shoot-around at the Arena — Patriots’ coach Kim English had all his players take an important fantasy tour.
“He had all of us close our eyes and imagine knocking down two big free throws in here,” said Mason guard Ronald Polite III said after the game. “The mind is powerful. We all imagined and so when the time came, I didn’t have no worries. I was locked in.”
“You just put yourself in that positon before it happens,” added his teammate, 6-foot-9 Josh Oduro. “It’s a big moment in this place. There’s a big crowd, like 13,000 or something, and he wanted us to make sure we had been there before; that we’d thought about it and then would step up to the challenge.”
And that’s exactly what happened.
Although George Mason came into the game as the worst free throw shooting team in the Atlantic 10 — and was ranked 348th of 363 Division I teams — the Patriots visualized themselves into a gritty, come from behind victory.
George Mason made 16 of 19 free throws in the second half; went 12 of 13 from the line in the final 6:44 to erase a five-point Flyers’ lead and went 6 for 6 in the final 10 seconds of the game to seal the triumph.
Polite finished 8 for 8 from the line and was 4 for 4 in the final 10 seconds. Two other Patriots were perfect from the stripe as well Saturday.
Meanwhile, Dayton had a wobbling free throw effort.
From that same 6:44 mark, the Flyers missed 7 of 13 attempts and in the final 2:02 of the game, they missed 4 of 6 attempts.
“When you look at the final numbers that could be the difference,” admitted UD coach Anthony Grant.
But UD came apart in more ways than just that down the stretch.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Free throw struggles
In those final 122 seconds, the Flyers had three turnovers, committed four fouls and attempted just two shots, both by Malachi Smith, who made a three and missed a short jumper in the paint.
DaRon Holmes II, the Flyers standout 6-foot-10 sophomore, scored a career-high 34 points and early on was superb from the line, making 10 of his first 12 attempts. But then he faltered and missed four of his last six foul shots.
Fellow big man Toumani Camara also missed his final two attempts late in the game.
“I just have to breath and slow down and do my same routine,” Holmes said. “I’ve just got to continue to rep it, because we do it in practice.
“But when the game is on, it’s a whole difference because there are fans, There’s people there watching. So I just have to be able to mentally lock in.”
As Grant explained: “We have certain drills to put our guys in the mindset and have them understand, but it’s hard to simulate game atmosphere for free throws. Our guys went out there and did their routines, but sometimes things don’t go your way.
“(Holmes) didn’t try to miss. He tried to make them, but just missed and that’s part of the game.”
But faltering in front of the home crowd is a rarity for the Flyers. They had lost only once before at home this season – to annual Arena nemesis VCU – and came into the game 13-1 on Blackburn Court.
That’s why Kim English turned into John Lennon and had his team “Imagine.”
“That definitely works,” Oduro, the Patriots’ top player, said before he boarded the team bus outside the Arena. “I feel like visualization is a really important tactic.
“We’ve all been working hard on our free throws. We make 100 every day and tonight when we had to, we stepped to the plate and made some big ones.”
As he was getting on the bus, he carried a large green and white sign that bore just one word:
“MINDSET”
Teammate Saquan Singleton carried one, as well.
“We’ve just got two of them, but we bring them everywhere we go,” Oduro said. “They’re at the pregame meal. The post-game meal. They were in the dressing room here tonight.
“The signs just remind us of the kind of culture we want as a team.”
He said that especially came into play when he fouled out with 2:20 left – and the game was tied, 64-64 – and then again 52 seconds later when 6-foot-8 Malik Henry, his replacement, fouled out, as well. At that point UD led by a point, 66-65.
But the Flyers would score just three points after that. George Mason surged to the victory with nine points.
“The other guys stepped up, Man did they ever,” Oduro said. “They weren’t scared of the moment.”
This isn’t saying the Flyers were scared of it, but they certainly weren’t quite ready for it.
Grant admitted he didn’t like the way his team started out —especially on defense — and noted how aggressive the Patriots were from the opening tip.
Camara’s assessment included: “They were more physical.”
Grant pointed out that while his team has one of the top ranked scoring defenses in the nation – the Flyers are now ranked 11th, allowing just 60.5 points per game – it was unable to get stops late in the game.
In his final analysis, Camara made one interesting comment: “We have a lot of things we need to work on as a team …(after) being exposed like that.”
Holmes scored nearly half of Dayton’s points. No one else was in double figures.
The bench only produced five points, all by Mike Sharavjamts. Both R.J. Blakney and Mustapha Amzil, who played a combined 33 ½ minutes, were held scoreless.
‘March Madness’ the ultimate goal
The loss makes winning the A-10 regular season title almost impossible. Front-runner VCU would have to lose both of its remaining games and Dayton would have to win out.
But as Holmes noted, winning the regular-season crown wouldn’t have meant that much in the NCAA Tournament picture.
Before Saturday, Dayton already had nine losses and, almost surely, would have had to win the A-10 Tournament in Brooklyn to get the conference’s automatic bid.
Oduro and Polite, who led Mason with 22 points, both talked about how their team —winners now of five straight — was peaking at the right time,
That seemed to be the case with the Flyers, too until Saturday’s loss snapped their four-game winning streak.
Holmes said the Flyers need to have “a quick memory” about the loss and put it in the rearview mirror:
“March Madness is our ultimate goal.”.
That means UD needs to be playing its best basketball now, too.
“We’re trying to lock in a top 4 spot in the league and be able to go into the (A-10) tournament and play only three games,” Camara said. “That would be huge for us.”
Holmes agreed: “We just have to lock in these last two games (Tuesday against LaSalle in the home finale and Friday at Saint Louis) and then win the tournament. That’s what it’s going to come down to at the end of the day.
“We just have to try to have good maturity about us and look forward.”
Maybe they could borrow the Patriots “MINDSET” signs.
And they could use some of that imagination, too.
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