With 4:03 left in Friday night’s game at UD Arena – and his team down by 17 and the nearby Red Scare student section roasting the Billiken players and Coach Travis Ford with high decibel delight – Parker gave Camara a mighty push from behind that sent the 6-foot-8 Dayton Flyer flying.
He lurched across the baseline and into the cheerleaders assembled in front of the stands.
Parker feigned innocence, but the refs saw through Sincere’s insincerity.
They already had whistled a foul, but they stopped play so they could review video of the play and soon they changed the call to a flagrant foul.
With the rest of the players held back at midcourt and a sold-out Arena of 13,400 watching, Camara was brought to the Flyers foul line for two penalty throws, one of which he made.
That added to his total on the night – a team-high 17 points and a game-high 10 rebounds – as the Flyers pushed aside Saint Louis, 70-56.
Afterward Camara smiled when the Parker push was mentioned:
“It’s the game of basketball. I think when you’re losing by 15 and your shots aren’t going well for you, you can get frustrated here and there.
“I personally wouldn’t do that, but some people are like that.”
Sitting next to him at the postgame media session, Koby Brea tried to stifle a laugh, but it turned into a snort.
It was Camara’s seventh double-double effort of the season.
He leads the Atlantic 10 Conference in rebounding (9.3 a game) and is the Flyers’ second leading scorer (14.0). But the box score isn’t the only metric when it comes to his worth to this team.
DaRon Holmes II may be the most celebrated Flyers player and Malachi Smith is the point guard with the knack for engaging his teammates and often irritating the opposition, but the real leader of this team now is Camara, the 23-year-old junior from Brussels, Belgium, who has played in 117 college games (57 at Georgia in two seasons and then 60 since transferring here two years ago).
“He’s the man,” Brea said. “We all believe in him and trust him. We know he’s going to be good. He makes everything easier on both sides of the ball for us.”
Camara is a physical presence who other teams – save for the sneak attack by Parker – don’t try to push around the way they do Holmes with that 6-foot-10 frame that could use some more pounds.
Although he can score from long range – he was two for two from beyond the arc Friday night – Camara is at his best underneath the basket, whether it’s rebounding, defending – his specialty – or backing an opponent down and then hoisting his short jump hook.
And he’s just as good at backing up a teammate.
Tuesday night at VCU, Holmes was getting frustrated by the physical way Rams’ defenders were playing him. After one especially hard foul, the usually effervescent, but sometimes overly emotional Holmes started to melt down.
He took a step, as if he wanted to retaliate, and Camara stepped in front of him, got right in his face and settled him back into the task at hand.
The Flyers went on to topple the league-leading Rams, 62-58, and then Friday they humbled second place Saint Louis.
Those two victories helped the 17-9 Flyers pull a season back from the brink.
Before the VCU win, UD had lost four of its last seven games.
Now Dayton’s back on firm footing for the final stretch of five regular season games – four against the conference’s lower echelon teams – and then a trip to Brooklyn and an A-10 Tournament at the Barclays Center where it could reclaim its NCAA Tournament dream.
This is a time of the year when the Flyers especially need a guy like Camara – a 1,265-point career scorer who has grown into his role as a leader of the team.
Although he started 48 of his 57 games at Georgia, led the Bulldogs in rebounding and was the co-leader in double doubles in the SEC his second season, he wasn’t a leader on the team.
“When I was at Georgia, I was a really quiet guy and just went about my day,” he said. “But when I decided to come here, the coaches told me on our very first Zoom meeting they wanted me to come in and be a leader, especially with the young team we had.
“And my mindset was that I was coming into a new environment and I could change my personality. But last year I had to adjust to the system and be able to learn who my teammates were. I had a lot to learn.
“Now I’m comfortable in that role.”
After Friday’s game, head coach Anthony Grant praised Camara for the way he’s embraced the role of team leader.
Grant said because of the roll-up-your sleeves’ way Camara plays game after game, “other guys here want to follow someone like that.”
He said they’re drawn to someone like him.
So too was UD president Eric Spina, who made his way to the hallway outside the Arena media room late Friday and commended Brea and Camara for the way they played.
Before he left, he raised his two hands to Camara, as well.
His move was sincere.
He gave him a quick hug.
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