The Dayton Flyers likely would have lost to Chattanooga anyway because they trailed 75-67 with 2 minutes, 11 seconds to play, but the technical foul against their head coach clinched a defeat Saturday in the second round of the National Invitation Tournament.
Chattanooga outscored Dayton 12-5 the rest of the way and won 87-72 at McKenzie Arena, ending the Flyers’ season and denying them a chance to play at home in the quarterfinals next week. Dayton trailed from start to finish and got no closer than six points in the second half.
“I thought the story of the game was their offense was just better than our defense today,” Grant said. “We didn’t have an answer for everything they had. And give them credit. They came out and they played really well. At the end of the day, it really came down to our inability to get stops.”
Dayton finished the season 23-11. Grant is 172-83 in eight seasons. He’s 2-4 in four NIT appearances. Judging by win total, this was the fourth best of his eight teams.
After the game, Grant was asked about how he will approach Year 9 at Dayton. Five Flyers saw their college basketball careers end Saturday, including fifth-year guard Posh Alexander, who missed the game with an illness. The coaches have work to do in the transfer portal to build a roster for the 2025-26 season.
“We’re going to put our best foot forward,” Grant said. “It’s a different way that you build rosters now. To me, it’s about a process. The first step in the process is we’ll get these guys back to town, and we’ll set up some meetings and try to evaluate the current roster. And then obviously as other things start to transpire outside of what’s going on on our campus, then we’ll look at it and kind of see where we are. It’s just a process that we go through now on an annual basis.”
Chattanooga (26-9) will play George Mason or Bradley in the quarterfinals Tuesday or Wednesday. The Mocs shot 57.1% (28 of 49) from the field, while the Flyers shot 42.4% (25 of 59).
“We did what we could,” Dayton guard Javon Bennett said. “Kudos to them. They were hitting a lot of shots, and the crowd was feeding into them.”
Here’s what else fans should know about the game:
Series history: Chattanooga beat Dayton for the second time in a row. The teams hadn’t played since 2015. Dayton leads the series 8-4.
Stars of the game: Honor Huff scored 26 points for Chattanooga on 7-of-12 shooting. Trey Bonham scored 25 on 8-of-13 shooting.
Nate Santos scored 18 points for Dayton on 5-of-16 shooting.
Key moment: Dayton trailed by as many as 15 points in the second half. The Flyers cut the deficit to 73-67 on a 3-pointer by Nate Santos with 3 minutes, 21 seconds to play. After a steal, Dayton’s Enoch Cheeks had a chance to trim the Chattanooga lead to 3 but missed a 3 at the 2:42 mark.
Halftime recap: Dayton faced a 42-34 halftime deficit. Enoch Cheeks led Dayton with 11 points in the half on 4-of-5 shooting. Huff scored 16 points for Chattanooga on 5-of-7 shooting.
Chattanooga shot 57.5% (15 of 26) from the field. Dayton shot 41.4% (12 of 29).
The Mocs made 6 of 11 3-pointers. Dayton made 7 of 13 3s but 5 of 16 2s.
Dayton trailed 19-16 after a basket by Javon Bennett with 13 minutes, 30 seconds remaining in the half. Over the next three-plus minutes, Chattanooga outscored Dayton 10-3 to take a 29-19 lead at the 9:41 mark.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
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