Dayton Flyers will play UMass in Atlantic 10 Conference tournament quarterfinals

The No. 2 seed Dayton Flyers will play No. 10 Massachusetts in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament at 6 p.m. today.

UMass beat No. 7 George Washington 99-88 in the second round Thursday night at Capital One Arena as UD coaches scouted the game from the stands.

Noah Fernandes led UMass with 29 points. The Minutemen made 12 of 29 3-pointers (41.4%).

UMass (15-16) has won three straight games. It beat Fordham 81-73 in its final home game and then won 83-80 in overtime at George Mason in the final game of the regular season.

Dayton beat UMass 82-61 at UD Arena on Feb. 23 in the only regular-season meeting between the two schools. Dayton made 10 of 17 3-pointers (58.8%), then its second-best percentage of the season, while holding UMass to 32.1% (9 of 28). Koby Brea made 4 of 7 3s. Mustapha Amzil made 4 of 5.

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Dayton has won five straight games in the series — by a combined margin of 88 points — since an 86-82 double-overtime loss at UMass in 2018. UMass also won 62-60 at UD Arena that year, which was the first for UMass coach Matt McCall and his mentor, Dayton coach Anthony Grant.

This is the second straight season UMass has won a Thursday game to reach the Friday quarterfinals. It was the No. 5 seed last season and beat Saint Joseph’s 100-66 before losing 86-72 to Saint Louis.

UMass has not advanced past the quarterfinals since 2013 when it lost 71-62 to Virginia Commonwealth in the semifinals.

UMass up 12 with 2:14 left against GW and will play Dayton tomorrow if it wins. The Flyers have won five straight against UMass. This was the big shot by Luwane Pipkins in double OT for UMass the last time it beat UD in 2018. https://t.co/6rWo7YZl2t
— David Jablonski (@DavidPJablonski) March 11, 2022