TUESDAY’S GAME
Dayton at Saint Louis, 9:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network, 95.7, 1290
Jordan Sibert kept looking back and up at the video board as he left the court Friday at George Washington’s Smith Center. All the Flyers wanted a second look at the last-second shot by Joe McDonald that left Dayton with a 65-64 overtime loss.
Seeing it once, even right in front of them, didn’t quite answer the question, “How did that happen?”
There are many ways to lose a basketball game. The buzzer beater hurts. The second-chance buzzer beater, after the Flyers defended the first shot so well, is even worse.
“We haven’t been playing as good as we wanted,” Dayton guard Kyle Davis said. “We knew on the road it was going to be hard. We knew we had to fight. Today showed we have a lot of fight in us. We just couldn’t get the job done.”
If Dayton’s players knew the team’s history at the Smith Center, they wouldn’t have asked how, but rather why. As in, “Why does this keep happening here?” One word describes Dayton’s history in Foggy Bottom: tortured. They Flyers have lost three games in a row there by a total of four points.
Two years ago, George Washington beat Dayton 81-80 at the Smith Center on a dunk by Isaiah Armwood with two seconds left in overtime. Dayton’s Dyshawn Pierre then swished a 3-pointer, but it came just after the buzzer.
Four years ago, Dayton freshman Juwan Staten fouled George Washington’s Tony Taylor with 10.8 seconds to play, and he hit two free throws to give the Colonials a 60-58 victory. Jabari Edwards blocked a shot by Dayton’s Chris Wright at the buzzer.
Seven years ago, Wynton Witherspoon’s 3-pointer with 1.9 seconds left lifted the Colonials to a 57-54 victory over Dayton.
Eleven years ago, George Washington’s T.J. Thompson banked in a shot with 1.1 seconds remaining to beat Dayton 66-64.
This latest loss came down to one missed assignment. Dyshawn Pierre blocked Kethan Savage’s shot with seconds to play. Davis was also draped all over him.
Scoochie Smith swiped at the ball as Savage drove by, but that left McDonald open. Pierre blocked the ball right to McDonald, who caught it in the air and banked it off the backboard.
“We knew they were a good offensive rebounding team,” Pierre said. “We knew we had to block out. We blocked the shot, and they just got their hands on it and luckily got it up in time. We’ve been losing a lot on the road, and it’s kind of tough when we have it right there and it slips away from us.”
Dayton (17-5, 7-3 Atlantic 10) heads to Saint Louis for a 9:30 p.m. game Tuesday hoping to stop a three-game road losing streak. The Flyers haven’t lost two in a row this season.
“Whether we won this game, lost this game, lost by 20, it doesn’t really matter,” Dayton coach Archie Miller said. “The next day, the next approach is the only thing on my mind right now. They should be proud of their effort. We competed. We played very hard in a tough environment. We battled foul trouble for the first time all season. Guys, to a man, really stepped up and played.”
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