Dayton hopes for one more home game after winning big on Senior Night

In the previous 10 years, the seniors walked off the court with the certainty that they had played their last game at UD Arena — Sibert had no idea he would get a NCAA tournament game at home weeks later — but the 2021 seniors left the court after a 76-53 victory against Saint Louis hoping they will get one more home game this season.

The Atlantic 10 Conference’s surprise decision Thursday to move its tournament a week earlier in March while keeping the championship game on the same date (March 14) but moving it to UD Arena gives the Flyers an extra bit of motivation to carry into the conference tournament. Three victories in three days — assuming Dayton doesn’t get a top-four seed or a bottom-four seed — in Richmond, Va., would give them the chance to earn a NCAA tournament berth on their home court eight days later.

“We’re all motivated,” Crutcher said. “We’re all ready for the A-10 tournament. We’d love to play the championship game in our own arena, so we’re looking forward to it.”

“There’s definitely some extra motivation,” Dayton senior Ibi Watson said. “We didn’t want this to be our last game at UD Arena. We’re excited for the opportunity, and we’re going to compete as hard as we can and try to get back in this building again.”

Advancing to the championship game will be no easy task for a team that has struggled with consistency all season, but Dayton (12-7, 8-6) showed again on Friday it can compete with the best teams in the conference. It completed a season sweep of the Billikens (11-4, 4-3) with its most lopsided victory of the season.

Dayton led 17-5 after seven minutes and 43-23 at halftime. When the game reached the middle of the second half, at which point Dayton started to blow an 18-point lead Tuesday at Rhode Island, the Flyers kept pushing the pace. They never let the Billikens get closer than 17 points.

“That’s what we’ve been struggling with in the second half,” Crutcher said. “We try to run plays and slow the game down. We’re best when we’re running and getting down in transition.”

Dayton outscored Saint Louis 25-3 in fast-break points. Crutcher had six assists and scored 10 of his team-high 19 points at the free-throw line in his final regular-season home game. Watson added 14 points. Mustapha Amzil scored 10.

Rodney Chatman returned to the starting lineup in his second game since returning from injury and had nine points and five assists. Jordy Tshimanga had eight points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots.

The Flyers shot 50 percent from the field and made 8 of 22 3-pointers (36.4 percent), while Saint Louis shot a season-worst 27.1 percent from the field while making 7 of 31 3-pointers (22.6 percent, its third-worst mark of the season). Even 21 offensive rebounds, 16 of which came in the second half, didn’t help the Billikens, who were able to turn those into only 10 second-chance points.

“Our defense in the first half was outstanding,” Grant said, “and allowed us to build the lead. I thought we did enough in the second half to make sure we came out with a win.”

The victory keeps Dayton (12-7, 8-6) ahead of Saint Louis (11-4, 4-3) in the standings, though it’s hard to project where either team will land in the end because so many teams have played a different number of games.

Dayton has two games remaining — at Saint Joseph’s on Wednesday and at St. Bonaventure on Sunday — to improve its A-10 record, while Saint Louis has three games remaining. Dayton will end up having played six more games than Saint Louis if there are no more postponements.

Grant wasn’t ready to talk about what the possibility of playing the A-10 championship game at home means for his team, knowing there are two more games in the regular season, but he said Dayton needs to help itself in the final week as much as possible even if the seeding of the tournament is out of its control.

“I think seeding will be important for this tournament,” Grant said. “I do feel you’ve got a lot of really good teams in the league. There’s a lot of potential movement right now with the seeding.”