Instead, Virginia Commonwealth won the regular-season championship by at least two games — maybe three depending on its result Saturday at George Washington — and Dayton’s 65-61 loss to Saint Louis on Friday at Chaifetz Arena meant little. The Flyers put up a fight, though they could not improve their position in the A-10 tournament, but lost to a team that had the extra motivation of wanting to win its final home game for seven players honored after the game.
“We’re all competitors,” Dayton guard Koby Brea said. “Anytime we’re on the court, we want to win at all costs. But I guess it helps us deal with it a little better knowing it doesn’t really affect us too much.”
One thing Dayton didn’t want going into the postseason was another injury, but freshman guard Mike Sharavjamts left the game after a six-minute stretch in the first half with an apparent knee injury. He left the locker room after the game with a bag of ice attached to his knee. Coach Anthony Grant said it was a non-contact injury, but he didn’t know how severe it was.
Forward DaRon Holmes II also left the game after the first play after appearing to twist his ankle and went to the locker room but quickly returned and played 30 minutes. He scored five points in the first half to become the 51st player in school history to reach the 1,000-point milestone and led the Flyers with 13 points. He passed Sean Finn, who was at the game with his family, and moved into a tie with Darrell Davis for 49th place with 1,008 points.
Dayton trailed for the entire second half and faced a deficit as big as 10 points but got as close as two points three times in the final six minutes. It had two chances to tie the game in the final minute, but Mustapha Amzil turned the ball over on a travel call with 38 seconds to play, and Toumani Camara missed a jumper with 24 seconds remaining.
“Coming into the second half, we had a burst of energy, and we played pretty well for a good period of time,” Holmes said. “So we’re actually pretty happy — definitely not happy about the loss, but happy to see us play like that.”
As the No. 2 seed, Dayton (20-11, 12-6) will play in the quarterfinals of the A-10 tournament at 5 p.m. Thursday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. It will have to win Thursday and then again in the semifinals on March 11 and the championship game on March 12 to earn a NCAA tournament bid.
With Dayton owning tiebreakers against Saint Louis and Fordham, which had a chance to move into a three-way tie for second on Saturday, it had little to gain on Friday.
“At the end of the day, we secured the two seed coming into this game,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “This was more about the competition. We gave ourselves a chance.”
“We’re not really too upset about anything over here,” Holmes said. “It is a rivalry game. So it sucks that we lost, but at the end of the day, we didn’t lose anything major.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Dayton lost despite committing a season-low four turnovers. Its inability to finish at the rim hurt. It shot 39%, its second-worst performance of the season, from 2-point range. It ranks 33rd in the country in 2-point percentage (54.3) but is 1-6 when it shoots below 50%.
Dayton made 8 of 24 3-pointers after making 9 of 22 in the first game against Saint Louis, a 70-56 victory on Feb. 10 at UD Arena. The 3-pointer helped Dayton keep it close in the second half, but it missed its last seven attempts.
“We want to try to hold down the 3s as much as we could,” Saint Louis coach Travis Ford said. “I thought that was the difference in the first game. You can easily get caught up in Holmes and Camara, deservedly so because they’re probably as good a four and five as there is in the country but what hurts is all the 3s that they can throw in on you.”
Saint Louis shot 47.5% from 2-point range, below its average of 51.4. It also made 9 of 9 free throws, while Dayton made 5 of 8.
Javonte Perkins led the Billikens with 17 points. Yuri Collins, the A-10′s all-time leader in assists and the NCAA leader the last two seasons, had 10 assists and 12 points. They were two of seven players honored after the game on Senior Night for Saint Louis.
Saint Louis (20-11, 12-6) bounced back from a 79-67 loss at VCU on Tuesday and won its fifth straight home game. It will earned a double bye to the quarterfinals of the A-10 tournament. It will get the No. 3 seed if Fordham loses at home to Duquesne on Saturday, the final day of A-10 play, or the No. 4 seed if Fordham wins.
Like Dayton, Saint Louis entered the season with great expectations and now will have to win three games in Brooklyn to live up to them. It’s the 16th-most experienced team in the country, according to KenPom.com. Richmond rode a similarly-experienced roster (18th in the country) to the A-10 tournament championship last season after a disappointing regular season.
“I think here lately our experience has helped us a little bit for sure,” Ford said. “We’ve learned a lot throughout the season, and hopefully it can help us be our best right now.”
Next week, Dayton will try to win the A-10 tournament for the first time in 20 years and for the first time outside its own arena.
“I feel good about the way we’re playing,” Grant said. “and I think it was great to see the guys take ownership down the stretch. The communication on the court is what we need, the stops we were able to get, I think there will be some good takeaways from the game, but right now, it’s brand new season.”
THURSDAY’S GAME
Dayton vs. TBA, 5 p.m., USA Network, 1290, 95.7
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