ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — University of Dayton basketball coach Archie Miller told his players in the postgame locker room not to dwell on the stinging defeat.

But by the look of the Flyers’ long faces and drooped shoulders, a crushing loss to Xavier may be one that haunts them for a while.

Tu Holloway scored 21 points and Mark Lyons scored the team’s last seven as the Musketeers overcame a six-point deficit in the final 3:02 to pull out a 70-69 win in the Atlantic 10 tournament quarterfinals Friday night.

Lyons scored five straight points to cut the gap to one with 2:09 left. Chris Johnson missed a long 3-pointer as the shot clock was winding down, and Lyons gave Xavier a one-point lead on a drive with 20.3 seconds left. UD called a timeout with 16.8 to go.

Matt Kavanaugh had an inside half-hook spin off the rim after a pass from Kevin Dillard, but the ball went out of bounds to UD with 5.3 left. After timeouts by both teams, Johnson couldn’t connect on a challenged 15-footer from the baseline, which Xavier rebounded as time ran out.

“At the end of the day, it was another hard-fought game,” Miller said. “Our guys were ready to play, and they played extremely hard. We had our lapses and let them get to the basket in the second half. In the first half, we were able to make them passers.

“Put this one on me. If you’re going to blame anyone, put it right on the coach. I feel like when you’re six up and call timeout after timeout after timeout, you’ve got to be able to get quality shots. We didn’t. That to me is coaching.”

The Flyers (20-12) are hoping for an NIT bid. Kenny Frease had 17 and Lyons 12 for the Musketeers (20-11), who kept their NCAA tournament hopes alive.

“It was a great look,” Kavanaugh said of his potential game-winner. “KD drew a double team, and he found me. It was a great pass. It was an unfortunate miss.”

“(Miller) just told us we can’t be down on ourselves, that we’ve battled all year and came back and to remember this feeling for the NIT if we play there or next year,” Kavanaugh said.

Dillard scored 13 of his 18 points in the second half and Paul Williams and Josh Parker added 11 apiece.

The Flyers let a 10-point halftime lead get away and fell behind by four. But they fought. A three-point play by Dillard and a spinning drive by the point guard gave UD a 65-61 lead with 5:05 left.

Two foul shots by Kavanugh made it a six-point spread with 3:02 left. But UD didn’t score again.

Xavier won back-to-back games for the first time in six weeks. UD hasn’t beaten Xavier twice in one season since 1990.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2125 or dharris@DaytonDailyNews.com.