NEXT GAME
Virginia Commonwealth at Dayton, 7 p.m. Wednesday, CBS Sports Network, 1290, 95.7
During one break in the action in the second half Saturday, a camera at Richmond’s sparkling, new Robins Center focused on fans, showed them on the video board and asked them to hold up their Kroger Plus cards. Maybe Kiss Cam hasn’t made it this far south.
The Flyers must have left their cards at home. There were no discounts. There were no breaks. There were only bad bounces, unfortunate decisions and a bunch of untimely fouls — or pretty much what you’d expect in an arena where the Flyers haven’t won since 2004.
All that added up to a 73-64 loss that dropped the Flyers to 13-5 and 1-2 in the Atlantic 10.
“Give credit to Richmond,” Dayton coach Archie Miller said. “I thought they played a terrific game. In the second half, in particular, their physicality really never allowed us to play in the way we wanted to play.”
If the Spiders (12-6, 2-1) had shot close to their season average of 63.8 percent at the free-throw line, Dayton would have won by one. Instead they hit 32-of-35 free throws, a percentage of 91.4, easily their best of the season. The Flyers shot well themselves at the line (15-of-18) but committed 27 fouls to Richmond’s 19.
Richmond’s top two scorers on the season, Cedrick Lindsay and Kendall Anthony, combined for 35 points and made 22-of-25 free throws.
“I give their guards a lot of credit for their ability to drive,” Miller said. “It kind of happened to us a little bit at Fordham, as well — our inability to guard great guards off the bounce, getting spread out. But that’s what they do. They put you on islands. They’re very good at it.”
There was no good explanation for why the Spiders shot as well at the line as they did. Both coaches used humor to answer that question.
“At the radio show, I get a lot of tips,” Richmond’s Chris Mooney joked, “and we utilized all those tips to help us make some more.”
“We’ve got to do something about our free-throw defense,” Miller said.
Despite the big disparity at the line, the Flyers led by as many as eight points in the first half and by eight again early in the second half. A back-and-forth game became a tie game with four minutes left. If one possession doomed the Flyers, it came at that point. Richmond missed two 3-pointers and got the rebound each time.
Dyshawn Pierre and Jalen Robinson both had their hands on the rebound after the second miss. They battled each other for the ball, something that’s apt to happen in the heat of the moment, and neither got it. Given a third opportunity, Lindsay got to the line and hit two free throws to put the Spiders up for good.
The Flyers scored one point in the last four minutes, a free throw by Kendall Pollard. They missed their last five shots and committed two turnovers in the final minutes.
“I think that was a really big win,” Mooney said. “Dayton is probably as good as any opponent we’ve played. I thought it was a team effort. We weren’t great offensively. We struggled in shooting. I thought Dayton’s defense was very good. I thought our aggression at both ends helped us get to the free-throw line, where we made some, and it helped us defensively.”
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