Fordham coach: Dayton playing ‘very connected’

In the second half, Dayton guard R.J. Blakney jumped to catch a ball Fordham guard Antrell Charlton had knocked out of his hands. Charlton continued guarding him closely. Blakney swung an elbow as he tried to protect the ball. Charlton got in his face.

This happened right in front of Dayton coach Anthony Grant, who stepped in between the two players as the officials blew the play dead. Other players ran to the spot. Dayton coaches Ricardo Greer and Darren Hertz pulled DaRon Holmes II out of the middle of it all as yapping from both sides continued.

There were no punches thrown, but there was a metaphorical punch first-year Fordham coach Keith Urgo brought up in the opening moments of his postgame press conference following Dayton’s 82-58 victory.

“They came out and punched us in the mouth,” Urgo said. “Credit Anthony Grant. He’s got a team that’s playing very, very, very connected.”

Credit: David Jablonski

Credit: David Jablonski

Dayton (12-5, 4-0) won its seventh straight game and sat alone in first place in the Atlantic 10 Conference through Tuesday with a one-game lead over Virginia Commonwealth (12-5, 3-1). Dayton plays VCU at 9 p.m. Friday at UD Arena.

Saint Louis (11-6, 3-1) and Richmond (10-7, 3-1) are tied for second place with VCU. Saint Louis beat George Mason 63-62 on Wednesday in St. Louis when Yuri Collins made 1 of 2 free throws with one second remaining. Richmond won 61-57 at Davidson.

Dayton has won 18 of the last 19 games in the series with Fordham. The only loss in this stretch came two years ago: 55-54 at Fordham.

Urgo’s team had the best record in the A-10 in non-conference play (12-1) but fell to 1-3 in the league. He said he’s most impressed with what Grant has done with the Flyers since they lost starting guards Malachi Smith and Kobe Elvis to injuries on Nov. 25. Both players sat on the bench for the 10th straight game. Dayton is 9-1 without them.

“They’ve got an incredibly talented team,” Urgo said, “but more importantly, really impressed with the way (Grant) and his staff have rallied them. They all kind of know their role. They play to that role. That’s really impressive. They’ve got a lot of length and obviously some versatility. I’m impressed with the way they came out and kind of punched us in the mouth and put us on our heels.”