Dayton Flyers lose A-10 women’s basketball opener to LaSalle

It was another case of similar issues for the Dayton women’s basketball team Sunday afternoon at UD Arena.

The Flyers struggled from the foul line, were out-rebounded and shot less than 40-percent from the floor in dropping their Atlantic 10 Conference opener to LaSalle 54-51 in front of a crowd of 1,841.

“We are too inconsistent and this week, I think we weren’t really focused,” Flyers point guard Jenna Burdette said after leading the team with 15 points and six assists. “We talk about the same things all the time, we just need to put them in action.”

Despite a lot of their woes, the Flyers had a chance to force overtime, but Kelley Austria’s 3-pointer at the buzzer was short and the Flyers fell to 3-5 overall and 0-1 in the A-10.

“I’ll take Kelley shooting an end of the game three any day,” Flyers coach Shauna Green said. “With five seconds left, you don’t have enough time to go for two and then foul, but I am proud of the execution.”

The loss in the A-10 opener is the third consecutive year the Flyers have opened in the wrong column in conference play.

“This is what you work for,” Green said of the A-10. “Every game matters, and to start this way, and at home… it hurts, and I told them if it didn’t hurt then there is a problem.”

The game was tied 39-39 entering the fourth quarter after the Flyers erased a six-point halftime deficit (30-24) on a free throw by Saicha Grant-Allen.

LaSalle (4-4, 1-0) began the fourth with a 6-0 run before Grant-Allen and Alex Harris got the Flyers back to within 47-44 and Austria tied the game at 51-51 with 2:17 remaining.

That was to be as good as it got for the Flyers as they turned the ball over twice, missed three free throws and were 0-for-2 from the floor over the final two minutes.

“The second and fourth quarters are not going the way we want,” Green said. “And it comes down to us doing the little things that we stress all the time.”

Dayton was 8-for-20 from the free-throw line for the game (40 percent) and shot just 37 percent from the floor (20 of 54).

“The free throws is glaring,” Green said. “You can’t miss 12 free throws and expect to win games against good teams. You can see the hesitancy when we go to the line, like they are thinking ‘Don’t miss it’ instead of looking at it as free points.”

Grant-Allen added 14 points and eight rebounds while Andrijana Cvitkovic had six points and four rebounds.

Burdette had two of the three 3-pointers Dayton made in 11 attempts.

“We knew they were going to try to take the perimeter away,” Green said. “We’ve always been a program of multiple scorers, and we are not getting that right now.

“They are getting open shots off the ball screen, and we are yelling at them to shoot, and they aren’t. They’ve got to get a lot of reps and get their confidence back until things change.”

The Flyers return home at 11 a.m. Friday when they host Toledo.

“I’m worried about us improving the stuff that happens every game,” Green said. “They have to roll up their sleeves and come ready to work because we have a lot of things we need to work on.”

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