Archie Miller: Dayton Flyers’ loss to St. Joseph’s stings

SATURDAY’S GAME

St. Bonaventure at Dayton, noon, NBC Sports Network, AM 1290, News 95.7 WHIO

Dayton Flyers coach Archie Miller sat alone in a small room just off the visiting locker room Wednesday. Poring over a box score from a 79-70 loss to St. Joseph’s at Hagan Arena, he waited for three reporters to question him about his team’s first loss since Jan. 9.

The questions came, and then one more member of the media — ESPN’s famed bracketologist Joe Lunardi, who doubles as a longtime color analyst for St. Joseph’s basketball — interrupted to shake Miller’s hand.

“You don’t need a pep talk, do you?” Lunardi joked. “Because four other coaches called me today.”

“No, I’m all right,” Miller said with a laugh.

“Relax,” Lunardi said, “and don’t listen to what I say.”

Lunardi’s advice was sound. The No. 15/13 Flyers (21-4) saw their nine-game winning streak end and their Hagan Arena losing streak reach eight, but they still occupy a strong position in the race to March Madness. If they drop a spot in Lunardi’s bracket prediction, it’ll be a small demotion. They earned a No. 4 seed in his latest bracket.

Miller may not be able to relax — it’s hard to imagine him doing that if his team was undefeated — but his Flyers are still in first place in the Atlantic 10. Only now they share it with with St. Joseph’s (22-4) and Virginia Commonwealth (19-7). Each team is 11-2.

“Our deal right now is to get back to work,” Miller said. “It’s the first time we’ve lost in a while. It stings. Hopefully, it stings in a good way.”

St. Joseph’s beat Dayton by playing Dayton basketball. The Hawks made 16 of 24 free throws. Dayton got to the line seven times and made two.

The Flyers settled for 3-pointers (8 of 31, 25.8 percent) and struggled to find the shooting touch. Dayton trailed 36-27 at halftime, in part, because it made 2 of 13 3-pointers.

“We missed a lot of shots we usually make,” Dayton point guard Scoochie Smith said. “It became more mental for us. In the second half, we broke through that mental part of the game. It was a little too late.”

Dayton trailed by 14 points at the 11:43 mark of the second half but rallied to make it interesting. A layup by Smith at the 3:49 mark cut the Hawks’ lead to 66-61.

“We had some guys in the second half hang tough,” Miller said. “The game could have gotten away from us a couple times.”

Dayton’s rally ended there. A layup by Isaiah Miles and two free throws by Lamarr Kimble pushed the lead to nine points with just under three minutes to play.

The Hawks’ two stars put up big numbers. Miles had 12 points and 12 rebounds. DeAndre’ Bembry scored 16 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. Miller said St. Joseph’s is as good a team Dayton has seen this season.

“The surprising thing was how they overpowered us,” Miller said. “Physically, I thought they dominated us whether it was off the dribble, or 50-50 balls or loose balls or drawing fouls.”

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