The first line of that song is, “You better watch out.” That should have served as a warning for the Dayton Flyers. Instead, it was an omen.
Dayton lost 64-61 to Liberty, giving up a 6-0 run in the final 128 seconds. A 33-game winning streak in non-conference home games ended as the Flyers (9-4) headed to the holiday break with the type of defeat that could prevent it from earning a NCAA tournament at-large berth in March.
“Obviously, a tough outcome for our group today,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “We knew Liberty was going to be a very challenging game for us. I’ve got a lot of respect for coach (Ritchie) McKay and the way he runs his program. They’re a tough guard from a defensive standpoint. ... Then, defensively, they were able to take some things away from us that we’ve been able to have success with most of the year.”
Amaël L’Etang led Dayton with 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting, while De’Shayne Montgomery, who had not scored fewer than 11 points in a game, missed all four of his field-goal attempts and did not score.
Liberty won by shooting 48.1% to Dayton’s 37.7% and committing six turnovers to Dayton’s 10. The Flames made 8 of 18 3-pointers. They had not attempted fewer than 28 3s in their first 10 games.
“We try to take what the defense gives us,” McKay said. “They were going to take us off the line. They did the same thing with Florida State. We had 36 paint points with the third-smallest team in the country.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Here are three takeaways from Dayton’s 13th game:
1: Liberty made big plays down the stretch: Liberty took control of the game with a 13-0 run early in the second half, turning a 37-29 deficit into a 42-37 lead.
Dayton had three turnovers and missed four straight shots during that stretch.
Dayton trailed by as many as seven points, 51-44 with nine minutes to play, but rallied to tie the game twice before taking a 61-58 lead on a 3-point play by Keonte Jones with 2:28 to play.
Those were Dayton’s last points.
Colin Porter tied the game with a 3-pointer on Liberty’s next possession. Liberty took a 62-61 lead when Zach Cleveland made 1 of 2 free throws with 43 seconds remaining.
“Our guys responded,” McKay said. “They showed a lot of character and maturity. I’m really pleased with the outcome.”
Dayton’s Javon Bennett missed a go-ahead jump shot with 28 seconds to play.
Liberty scored its last basket with 12 seconds to go. Then Dayton’s Jacob Conner, who’s shooting 28.1% from 3-point range this season, missed a game-tying 3 in the final seconds.
“We were trying to hopefully create a little confusion and create some open space for either Javon or Jacob to try to get some space for 3,” Grant said. “Didn’t know if they would try to foul or if they would play it out.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
2: Dayton lost a non-conference home game for the first time in more than four years: This was Dayton’s first non-conference loss at home since Nov. 20, 2021, when it fell 87-81 to Austin Peay. That was the third straight loss at home that month.
“Kudos to them,” Bennett said. “They had a good game plan. We couldn’t get the stops that we needed. They made some timely shots.”
This will go down as a Quadrant 3 loss for Dayton in the NCAA Evaluation Tool unless Liberty can climb into the top 75 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool rankings. It entered the game at No. 140.
Dayton is 0-2 in Quad 1, 0-1 in Quad 2, 4-1 in Quad 3 and 5-0 in Quad 4. To have any chance of earning a NCAA tournament at-large berth, Dayton likely will have to finish 15-3 in Atlantic 10 Conference games.
The only time Dayton has lost fewer than four games in A-10 play in Grant’s tenure, it finished 18-0 in 2019-20.
“We feel like we have a good team,” Grant said. “Obviously, it hurts to lose. You don’t want to go into the holidays with this feeling and have a break and such a long time before you play again. But it is what it is. I feel good about our group.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
3: Dayton’s new Belgian guard debuted: Sean Pouedet, a 6-foot-2 guard from Belgium who signed with Dayton in November and arrived on campus earlier this month, was one of the first players off the bench in the first half. His only stat in nine minutes before halftime was one personal foul.
In the second half, Pouedet had two rebounds and an assist and made his only field-goal attempt, scoring two points.
“He’s learning terminology,” Grant said. “He’s learning our schemes. He’s learning just what we do and how we do it. So I thought he did a good job in the limited amount of time that he was able to be out there.”
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