“Will it be a tough game? Yes,” she said. “Every game in our conference is such a game.”
That’s been the case four of the five times Dayton has played Loyola since it joined the Atlantic 10 Conference in the 2022-23 season.
• In the first matchup at UD Arena in January 2023, Dayton led 72-66 with 49 seconds to play. Braden Norris made a 3-pointer with 41 seconds to play. Then Philip Alston made a game-tying, bank-shot 3-pointer over Dayton forward Toumani Camara with 0.4 seconds on the clock to send the game to overtime. Dayton still won the game 85-81.
• Last season, Dayton lost 77-72 at Loyola. The Ramblers made three 3-pointers in the last three-plus minutes to take control of a close game.
• In the first meeting this season on Jan. 18 at UD Arena, Dayton won 83-81 in overtime when Amaël L’Etang caught a 55-foot alley-oop pass from Malachi Smith and made a go-ahead layup with 0.2 seconds to play.
• The game Friday featured a Dayton comeback from a 13-point second-half deficit but a 76-72 loss for the Flyers, who haven’t lived 105 years like Sister Jean but know well the difficulty of winning A-10 road games. They fell to 3-4 away from home in conference play.
“Unfortunately, we lost,” Dayton guard Enoch Cheeks said, “but we battled through the whole game. We tried to make some adjustments, tried to do different things, play unique lineups and stuff like that. We just fought hard to the end, and we just gave it our all today.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Dayton (18-9, 8-6) fell into fourth place with four games to play. Loyola (18-9, 9-5), now in third place all by itself, has won six of its last seven games.
Dayton faced its biggest deficit, 56-43, with 10 minutes, 54 seconds to play. The deficit was 61-52 with 7:20 to play when seven straight points by Nate Santos sparked the comeback.
Santos is from Geneva, Ill, 55 miles west of Loyola. He’s the latest in a long line of Chicago-area Flyers. Two Chicago natives who starred for Dayton in different eras sat behind the UD bench Friday: Kevin Conrad; and Kendall Pollard.
Santos was one of the last Dayton players to exit Gentile Arena after the game because he greeted a long line of family and friends outside the locker room. He led Dayton with 18 points on 5-of-9 shooting and was proud of the rally, even if it stalled in the final minutes.
“The fight that we showed in the second half, that’s good,” Santos said. “We kind of left it all out there.”
Santos made two free throws at the 4:31 mark to cut Loyola’s lead to 61-59. Desmond Watson answered with a jumper. Dayton again drew within two points when Enoch Cheeks made two free throws on its next possession.
Watson missed a 3, and Dayton had a chance to tie the game. Javon Bennett shot an open mid-range jumper but missed. Loyola responded with a 3 by Sheldon Edwards at the 2:29 mark, pushing its lead to 68-63.
Even in the final minutes, Dayton had chances to draw closer. In Grant’s mind, three calls against the Flyers proved pivotal.
“I thought there were some bad calls down the stretch,” Grant said. “Man, I’ve just got to call it what it is. It was just bad. There were three pivotal calls that could have swung things in a different manner. All three of them went against us — let alone some no calls on the (offensive) side of the ball. It’s just unfortunate.”
Grant felt so strongly about the plays he watched the replays in the locker room immediately after the game before ranting about them in postgame interviews on WHIO Radio and then with the Dayton Daily News.
• The first was a block call against Dayton guard Malachi Smith with 3:21 to play. Dayton trailed 61-59 at that point. Jalen Quinn rammed Smith with his shoulder, and Smith flew out of bounds. The call went against Dayton. Quinn made two free throws to give Loyola a 63-59 lead.
• The second call was the fifth foul on Santos. He fouled out with 2:03 to play. It’s hard to say what the official saw on the play. Santos was trying to fight through a screen but did not make much contact with the two Loyola players he was trying to get around.
• The third foul Grant disagreed with came in the final seconds. Trailing 74-72 after three free throws by Smith, Dayton’s Cheeks and Jaiun Simon trapped Watson. Cheeks appeared to get his hands on the ball. The official could have called a jump ball. He called a foul on Cheeks. Watson then clinched the victory by making two free throws with five seconds to play.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Throughout Dayton’s comeback, redshirt freshman forward Jaiun Simon was on the court. He played a season-high 18 minutes. He had only three rebounds and three points but stayed in the game with four starters.
Simon did not leave the court after replacing starter Amaël L’Etang with 11 minutes, 46 seconds to play.
“I was just out there trying to play as hard as I can,” Simon said.
“I thought defensively he really kind of changed the tenor,” Grant said.
Loyola won the game by shooting better than Dayton. It made 22 of 40 2-pointers (55%), while Dayton made 18 of 37 (48.6%). From 3-point range, Loyola made 5 of 14 (35.7%), while Dayton made 6 of 25 (24%).
Loyola improved to 14-1 at Gentile Arena. Only Virginia Commonwealth has won there, and that was on Jan. 4. The Ramblers have since won six straight home games.
Loyola averages 2,973 fans but had a crowd of 4,557 thanks in part to many Dayton fans in the crowd.
“We’re a hard team to beat here,” Loyola coach Drew Valentine said in his postgame press conference. “Shout out to our students, other athletes and staff for showing up. The place was rocking. I gotta give our guys credit because they continue to find ways to win. We made some stops down the stretch that really helped us out. We have to stop the late-game fouling, but we grow from it and hopefully it will make us better come March.”
WEDNESDAY’S GAME
Dayton at Rhode Island, 7 p.m., CBS Sports Network, 95.7, 1290
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