Women’s basketball: Saint Louis ends Dayton’s 40-game A-10 home winning streak

“It’s tough,” Dayton coach Shauna Green said. “Every Senior Day I’ve had as a head coach, we’ve won, and most of them have had a championship celebration. You have to digest the loss quick. This senior class means so much to me. They’re just amazing players and amazing people. I hate to lose, but I hate to lose on Senior Day. I wanted this game so badly.”

Dayton lost an Atlantic 10 Conference game at home for the first time since Dec. 4, 2016 (54-51 to La Salle). It had won 40 straight league games at UD Arena: 37 in the regular season and three A-10 tournament games last season.

Dayton (12-2, 11-1) saw its 11-game winning streak end when Saint Louis (10-3, 8-3) took control in the final minutes with a 9-2 run. Earlier in the half, Dayton overcame a 12-point deficit to cut the Saint Louis lead to 46-45 at the end of the third quarter.

The Flyers led twice midway through the fourth quarter, but after a layup by Giacone gave Dayton a 54-52 lead with 4:33 to play, Dayton scored two points in the next three minutes. In the same span, Saint Louis made 4 of 5 field goals and pushed its lead to 61-56. It clinched the victory with three free throws in the final 10 seconds.

Dayton couldn’t overcome its worst shooting performance of the season (21 of 71, 29.6 percent). After taking a 12-4 lead in the first four minutes of the first quarter, Dayton didn’t score for almost eight minutes, a drought that stretched into the second quarter. Erin Whalen and Kyla Whitehead carried the offense with 20 and 18 points, respectively.

“We got the ball where we wanted,” Green said. “We missed so many layups. I don’t even want to watch the film and count how many layups we had. (Saint Louis) made plays when they had to. They made some big-time shots.”

Despite the loss, Dayton remains in first place in the A-10. Saint Louis (10-3, 8-3), which avenged a 59-52 overtime loss to Dayton on Feb. 2, is in third place.

Second-place Fordham (11-3, 8-2) hasn’t played since Feb. 12 and was scheduled to play Dayton on Friday in Bronx, N.Y., but that game was postponed because of the COVID-19 situation at Fordham. Dayton’s next scheduled game is at Davidson (7-11, 4-8) on Feb. 28.

Green expects Dayton will add one game in the first week of March because the A-10 tournament, which will be held in Richmond, Va., was moved from March 3-7 to March 10-14.

“We’re still in control of our destiny,” Green said. “Our goal is to win a regular-season championship and get that one seed. We can still get that done. We’ve only lost once. They feel like the season’s over. It sucks to lose, but we’ve got to learn and get better.”