As Bennett did his own postgame interview after a 71-63 victory against Saint Louis, he talked about learning about the history the Flyer Faithful know so well.
“We knew coming in here this was going to be a hostile environment, especially with the kind of rivalry we have,” Bennett said.
A number of fans in the front of the Saint Louis student section spent the entire game shirtless. They painted themselves blue. Each student had a letter in “Billikens” painted on their chest. Nearby, an inflatable tube man, also called an air dancer, tried to distract Dayton free-throw shooters in the second half. Dayton guard Posh Alexander was so focused he never saw it.
“This arena and the fans were awesome,” Alexander said. “We just tried our best to keep the fans out of the game tonight.”
In a speech to the team, coach Anthony Grant told the players about the Crutcher shot.
“He said it’s talked about to this day,” Bennett said.
Credit: David Jablonski
Dayton did not need Crutcher-type heroics Friday to beat the Billikens. Bennett hit big shots, including 4 of 8 3-pointers, and led Dayton with 19 points, but the Flyers clinched this victory by making 9 of 11 free throws in the final two minutes.
Dayton (15-7, 5-4) moved into fourth place by itself in the Atlantic 10 Conference with its fourth victory in the last five games. It trailed first-place George Mason (16-5, 7-1) by three games but had a half-game lead over four teams that were 4-4 heading into Saturday games: Saint Joseph’s; George Washington; Duquesne; and Massachusetts.
Saint Louis (13-9, 6-3) fell out of a tie for second place with Virginia Commonwealth (16-5, 6-2) and sat alone in third place halfway through the league schedule.
Dayton spoiled the night for the largest crowd of the season (9,819) at Chaifetz. It continues to dominate the series. Since losing six of nine games between 2009 and 2012, Dayton has won 18 of 23 in the last 12 seasons.
Saint Louis coach Travis Ford was 5-14 in eight seasons against Dayton. New coach Josh Schertz is 0-1. He gets another chance on March 4 at UD Arena when Dayton plays Saint Louis in its final home game of the regular season.
“Credit to Dayton,” Schertz said. “They were the better team, the aggressor. They outplayed us for the vast majority of the game and deserved to win. We didn’t have our fastball on either end tonight. I didn’t think we were particularly good defensively, particularly in the first 12 to 13 minutes and thought we got a little better there. We were equally as bad or worse offensively. A lot of the game, our offense was their best offense, just in the points in transition off turnovers.”
Dayton bounced back from its most lopsided loss of the season, 75-53 at St. Bonaventure on Tuesday, by getting off to a better start from a shooting standpoint and performing better defense throughout the game.
Dayton led by as many as 17 points in the first half and owned a 37-25 halftime lead. It shot 53.8% (7 of 13) in the first half, while Saint Louis shot 25% (3 of 12).
The shooting numbers mostly evened out by the end of the game. Saint Louis shot 38.5% (10 of 26) from 3-point range. Dayton shot 39.3% (11 of 28). The Billikens shot much better inside the arc (56.5, 13 of 23) than Dayton (13 of 30, 43.3%).
Dayton won in part because it took nine more shots in the game. That was a result of Saint Louis committing a season-high 19 turnovers, seven more than Dayton. The Flyers recorded a season-high 13 steals.
Five turnovers in the last four minutes ruined the Saint Louis comeback attempt. It got as close as two points after trailing by 14 points early in the half.
“I thought our defense set the tone for us,” Grant said. “When we get stops and get out in transition, it opens things up for us. At times, the game slowed down, which kind of helped them a little bit. They’re obviously a really good team. They’ve got really good players. They made a run. For our guys to weather the storm on the road like that, I’m really proud of the effort all the way through.”
TUESDAY’S GAME
Davidson at Dayton, 7 p.m., Spectrum News 1, ESPN+, 1290, 95.7
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
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