Jordair Jett, former Billikens guard who was the star of a second-half incident involving Dayton players a year ago at the arena, also had a courtside seat for the second game of the season between UD and SLU. He stayed out of trouble this time.
Saint Louis brought out all the stars for its final home game, most notably seven players who were honored after the game on Senior Night. That gave it enough motivation to beat Dayton, but just barely.
Dayton climbed out of a 10-point hole in the second half but lost 65-61 in a game that had no impact on its own place in the standings.
“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.”
Here are three takeaways from Dayton’s 31st and final regular-season game:
1. The Flyers don’t expect the result to impact their outlook on the postseason: Dayton (20-11, 13-5) will be the No. 2 seed in the A-10 tournament for the second straight season. Saint Louis (20-11, 12-6) will be the No. 3 seed if Fordham loses at home to Duquesne on Saturday or the No. 4 seed if Fordham wins. Dayton and Saint Louis could run into each other in the semifinals if they are the Nos. 2 and 3 seeds.
The Flyers beat Saint Louis 70-56 at UD Arena on Feb. 10 and played them close enough Friday to stay confident if there’s a third game.
“We’re not really too upset about anything over here,” Dayton forward DaRon 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.”
2. Dayton had its chances in the final minutes: Saint Louis scored two baskets in the last minute of the first half to build a 41-32 halftime lead. Dayton quickly cut the deficit to two points with a 7-0 run to start the second half. From that point forward, it looked as if Dayton would be unable to get over the hump as it kept it close but not close enough.
The Flyers trailed 52-42 with 12:14 left and then made back-to-back 3s to get back into the game once again.
Then three times in the final three minutes Dayton had the chance to tie the game. Toumani Camara missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with Dayton trailing by two at the 2:47 mark. With 38 seconds remaining and Dayton again down two, Mustapha Amzil was called for traveling when he fell down near the basket while holding the ball. After a 5-second call against Saint Louis, Dayton got one more chance, but Camara missed a shot in the paint.
“The guys battled,” Grant said. “We had to figure some things out in the first half. It was a very emotional game for them at home. We knew they would come out with great emotion. We had to weather that.”
3. Camara battled foul trouble all night: On the same night Holmes scored 13 points to become the 51st player in school history to reach the 1,000-point milestone, Dayton’s second-leading scorer, Camara, was limited to seven points in 13 minutes.
Camara picked up his second foul with 15:38 left in the first half and didn’t return to the game until the 5:11 mark. He then picked up his third foul with two seconds left in the half. He didn’t play in the first six minutes of the second half and committed his fourth foul with 12:52 to play.
“I couldn’t get into a rhythm,” Camara said.
STAR OF THE GAME
Javonte Perkins, of Saint Louis, led all scorers with 17 points on 5-of-11 shooting. He was one of seven players honored after the game on Senior Night.
STAT OF THE GAME
Dayton committed a season-low four turnovers. That’s its lowest total since it had four against Davidson in the final game of the regular season a year ago.
LOOKING AHEAD
Dayton is the No. 2 seed in the A-10 tournament and will play in the quarterfinals at 5 p.m. Thursday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. The possible opponents depend on the results of Saturday’s A-10 games. The full bracket will be announced Saturday night. Davidson and Rhode Island play the final regular-season game at 7 p.m.
The A-10 tournament starts Tuesday with three games involving the bottom six seeds and ends March 12, which is Selection Sunday.
THURSDAY’S GAME
Dayton vs. TBA, 5 p.m., USA Network, 1290, 95.7
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