Dayton picks right play and executes it perfectly to beat Richmond

A season ago, early in his freshman year, Blakney burst onto the scene with his first career 3-pointer, a game-tying shot in an overtime victory at Mississippi State. Until Tuesday, that was the biggest shot of his career. He one-upped himself by quite a bit with a go-ahead dunk with 1.2 seconds left. It proved to be the game-winning basket in a 55-53 victory against the Richmond Spiders at the Robins Center.

Everything about the play was perfect — from the screen Toumani Camara set to free Blakney, to the alley-oop pass Malachi Smith threw to Blakney from under the basket, to the one-handed slam by Blakney over Richmond’s Tyler Burton and Jacob Gilyard. The play call was perfect, too, but it almost didn’t happen.

After Richmond tied the game on two free throws by Burton with 18 seconds left, Dayton advanced the ball past half court and called timeout with 12 seconds left. Richmond had fouls to give and used them all, fouling Dayton with five seconds left and then with four seconds remaining and again with two seconds to play.

Prior to the final foul, Grant called the same play that would win the game, but then he picked a different play. His assistant coaches convinced him to stick with the original plan because they saw Blakney would have been open if the foul hadn’t stopped Dayton from running the play.

“They said, ‘No, no, run the one you ran before,’” Grant said.

The decision led to the team’s most thrilling finish since The Finnish, the buzzer-beater by Mustapha Amzil to beat Kansas earlier this season.

That play started with a drive by Smith, who had his shot blocked right to Amzil, and this play also started with the freshman point guard, who recorded the most memorable of his 161 assists, the second most by a freshman in school history.

“Heck of a pass,” Grant said. “Heck of a finish.”

“Coach drew it up,” Blakney said, “and Mali threw a tough pass, and I had to go and get it.”

Richmond coach Chris Mooney saw Dayton attempt the same play earlier in the second half and sensed it might try again.

“We should have handled it better, of course,” Mooney said.

Smith also said Dayton ran the play earlier, but he didn’t throw the pass because he was scared of turning it over. This time, he threw the pass, and it was right on the money. He was already bouncing up and down with his hands in the air to celebrate as Blakney finished the dunk.

“I knew R.J. was going to catch it once I threw it,” Smith said. “Toumani (Camara) set a good screen. Once I threw it, I already knew R.J. was going to catch it.”

The Flyers practice that play often in practice, Smith said, and Blakney is the obvious target because of his athleticism. Earlier in the second half, he had an even more emphatic dunk, a putback slam after a miss by Camara.

“I don’t think any of our other wings would automatically dunk,” Smith said. “I think they would have had to come down or something, but R.J. is probably our most athletic wing, so I think that was a smart play.”

With the victory, the Flyers (21-9, 13-4) bounced back from a 62-60 loss to La Salle on Saturday in a game in which the final play — a missed 3-pointer by Koby Brea — did not go their way and secured a top-three seed and a double bye in the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament. They will start play in the quarterfinals March 11 at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., and will have to win three games in three days to earn the league’s NCAA tournament bid.

Fourth-place St. Bonaventure (19-7, 11-5) lost 74-51 at second-place Virginia Commonwealth (21-7, 14-3) on Tuesday, so even if Dayton loses to first-place Davidson (24-4, 14-2) on Saturday and the Bonnies beat Richmond (19-11, 10-7) on Friday, UD will finish a half game ahead of the Bonnies, who are not making up one of their postponed games.

Dayton could still get the No. 2 seed if it beats Davidson and VCU loses at Saint Louis on Saturday. If Davidson loses to George Mason (14-13, 7-7) on Wednesday and then to Dayton on Saturday and VCU loses to Saint Louis, the Flyers would claim the No. 1 seed, plus a share of the A-10 regular-season title.

A victory Saturday would also give Dayton a rare kind of momentum — seven victories in its last eight games — heading into the postseason. The last time Dayton had that kind of run at the end of the regular season, aside from 2020 when it won all 18 A-10 games before the postseason was cancelled by the pandemic, was 2017 when it won nine straight games before losing at George Washington in its final regular-season game.

This Dayton team, the youngest in the country, according to KenPom.com, has shown again and again it’s as good as any team in the conference. It finished 2-0 against the the A-10′s most veteran teams, St. Bonaventure and Richmond, who rank eighth and 19th, respectively, in experience.

Dayton won this game with balanced scoring. Camara scored 11 points and grabbed 12 rebounds after missing the La Salle game with a knee injury. Blakney, Smith and Koby Brea all had 10. DaRon Holmes II scored eight, and Kobe Elvis had six.

The Flyers took control late in the first half with a 12-2 run to build a 32-29 halftime lead. In the second half, they never trailed, though both offenses slumped. From the 9:00 mark to the 3:00 mark, each team made one field goal.

Richmond tied the game three times: 43-43 with 10:07 left; 48-48 with 2:52 to play; and finally 53-53 on two free throws by Burton with 18 seconds left. Every time Richmond tied the game, Dayton took the lead within the next minute.

Blakney’s defense on Burton, who scored a season-low three points and missed all five of his field-goal attempts, impressed Grant even more than the final play.

“His assignment tonight was to make it difficult for Burton, who is one of the top players not only in the A-10 but across the country,” Grant said. “It was a tough matchup. R.J. did a great job tonight. Now obviously the play at the end is what everybody talks about, but if not for the other things, we wouldn’t have been in that position.”

SATURDAY’S GAME

Davidson at Dayton, 12:30 p.m., USA Network, 1290, 95.7