Phones blew up, just as brackets exploded. No one would call Dayton’s victory — a No. 7 beating a No. 10 — an upset, but most experts picked Nevada. With Dayton facing a 17-point deficit with under eight minutes to play, the same experts had to be feeling smart.
That didn’t matter to the Flyers. The players believed they could do it because they had done it before, and that’s why Postorino, a former Dayton player and staff member in the Oliver Purnell years, marveled at what he just witnessed.
“I‘ve never seen anything like it,” said Postorino, who now works for UD as a director of athletic development and often calls games on WHIO Radio with the voice of the Flyers, Larry Hansgen. “I asked President (Eric) Spina, ‘What happened? I was sitting there watching it. But what happened?’ I’m just proud of these players and how they hung in there and the coaching staff because it was going bad quickly. That’s why you’ve always got to keep hanging in there. Miracles happen. This was close to a miracle. It was unbelievable.”
Dayton’s comeback ranks tied for fifth in NCAA tournament history. It’s the biggest overcome since Nevada erased a 22-point deficit against Cincinnati in 2018.
The Flyers (25-7) advanced to play No. 2 seed Arizona in the second round at 12:45 p.m. Saturday. The game will start at 10:45 a.m. in Utah.
The winner will advance to the West Regional semifinals at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The possible opponents all play Friday: No. 6 seed Clemson faces No. 11 New Mexico; and No. 3 Baylor meets No. 14 Colgate.
There’s little time to celebrate victories in the tournament. The Flyers will return to the Delta Center on Friday for an afternoon practice. This one, unlike the Wednesday practice, will be closed to the public.
On Thursday evening, at least, the Flyers could rejoice in one of the great victories in program history — and the first NCAA tournament victory in nine years. They improved to 3-0 in Salt Lake City, winning a game in the Beehive State for the first time since two NCAA tournament victories in 1984 started a run to the Elite Eight.
“This is one of the greatest feelings in the world,” guard Koby Brea said. “This is something I’ve dreamt about.”
Credit: David Jablonski
The Flyers got their season on track with a 15-point comeback in the final 10 minutes against LSU in the Charleston Classic in November. More recently, in their last victory, in fact, they erased a 17-point first-half deficit to beat Virginia Commonwealth 91-86 in overtime on March 8 at UD Arena.
In this game, Dayton trailed 56-39 with 7:39 to play. At that point, Dayton had a 1.5% chance of winning, according to KenPom.com.
“We stick together,” Brea said. “In those moments when things get harder, that’s when we get closest. We’ve been in those situations before. We’re comfortable in them.”
The comeback started with a single free throw by DaRon Holmes II with 7:14 to play. That ignited a 17-0 run. Holmes had five points in the stretch. Nate Santos had a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 56-53 at the 3:40 mark. Brea made three 3s during the run, including one that tied the game at 56-56 with 2:45 to play.
This wasn’t the first time those players had made big shots this season. Brea and Santos made back-to-back 3-pointers in the final minute to beat LSU. Brea had the big basket late in a victory at Southern Methodist. Kobe Elvis made back-to-back 3-pointers in overtime to help the Flyers beat VCU.
In this game, Holmes converted a 3-point play with 2:01 to play to give Dayton its first lead since the first half. Then Santos made a go-ahead layup with 34 seconds to play. Santos made two clutch free throws with 15 seconds left to force Nevada to attempt a game-tying a 3-pointer, twice, in the final seconds.
Holmes led Dayton with 18 points. Brea scored 15. Nate Santos and Enoch Cheeks each had eight.
Dayton shot 42.1% from 3-point range (8 of 19). Brea made 5 of 8, scoring 15 points. antos, Javon Bennett and Elvis each made one.
Nevada shot 31.8% (7 of 22), including 3 of 13 (23.1%) in the second half. Jarod Lucas led Nevada with 17 points.
Dayton ended the game on a 24-4 run. The 17-0 run was only one point better than Nevada’s 16-point run to end the first half. The Wolf Pack turned a 25-18 deficit into a 34-25 halftime lead.
“I don’t think I expected to see a 24-4 turnaround,” Nevada coach Steve Alford said. “For the majority of the game, we were handling the game, so I wasn’t expecting it. I know Dayton is very good. They’re very explosive because they can make 3s. We did a really good job of defending the 3 ball. The 3 line was defended extremely well until the last six minutes. Then they made everything. We didn’t defend it very well. We didn’t handle their runs. We called timeouts as much as we could.
“We had zero flow to us offensively. I didn’t like what we did offensively at all. Then defensively we got no stops. I mean, first-four minute game, we held them to four; second four-minute game, four; third four-minute game, six. And then it went 11, 13. If you’re going to give up 11 and 13 in the last two four-minute games, stuff like this can happen.”
For Grant, the victory had to be sweet considering his personal NCAA tournament history. The seventh-year Dayton coach won a NCAA tournament game for the first time since his first season as a head coach. In 2007, he led No. 11 seed VCU to a 79-77 upset of No. 6 Duke.
VCU lost 84-79 in overtime to No. 3 seed Pittsburgh in the second round in 2007. In 2009, when Grant was in his third and final season at VCU, the No. 11 Rams lost 65-64 to No. 6 UCLA in the first round. Grant made one NCAA appearance in six seasons at Alabama. That came in his third season in 2012. The No. 9 Crimson Tide lost 58-57 to No. 8 Creighton in the first round.
Brea and Holmes both got emotional when asked what winning a tournament game for Grant means to them.
“It means a lot,” Brea said. “I’ve been here four years. A lot of tough stuff has happened since I’ve been here with him. To see him be able to cherish this moment and do it with all of us, I’m extremely grateful he gets to experience this.”
“He deserves it,” Holmes said. “He’s gotten a lot of hate and all the things he had to go through. How hard he coaches us, nobody really sees it. We’re just going to stick together. We love him.”
SATURDAY’S GAME
Dayton vs. Arizona, 12:45 p.m., CBS, 1290, 95.7
Credit: David Jablonski
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