Sanford beat Ohio State in the first round of the NCAA tournament 10 years ago with a similar shot. Holmes had a chance to send the game against VCU to overtime, but the ball bounced off the backboard and then the rim, just missing the outstretched fingertips of Dayton’s Nate Santos, who tried to tip in the miss.
VCU grabbed the rebound as time expired and celebrated a 49-47 victory against the No. 18 Dayton Flyers.
“It was a good look,” Holmes said. “I just have to finish it. It’s hard. I saw the help guy pull all the way over. I didn’t know if I had enough time to make the skip pass. I thought that was the best look just to try to get it off at that time.”
“We wanted to get him downhill and hopefully get something at the rim or draw a foul,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “It just didn’t work out for us.”
The loss dropped Dayton (19-4, 9-2) out of first place in the Atlantic 10 Conference and left it 0-2 on the season against the two Richmond teams. The Richmond Spiders (18-6, 8-1), who play a home game against La Salle (11-12, 2-8) on Saturday, now lead the conference. Loyola Chicago (16-7, 8-2) is a half game back of Dayton entering a game Saturday at George Washington (14-8, 3-6).
VCU (16-8, 8-3) kept its hopes of repeating as A-10 champions alive. It plays at Dayton on March 8 in the final game of the regular season.
Here are three takeaways from Dayton’s 23rd game:
1. Both offenses struggled: After scoring 60 points in the second half Tuesday in a 94-79 victory at Saint Joseph’s, Dayton scored 22 in the first half against VCU and trailed at halftime for the third straight game. It was only a three-point deficit, though, because VCU’s offense didn’t play much better.
The second half was more of the same. VCU, in fact, didn’t score in the last 5 minutes, 58 seconds, and Dayton didn’t score after cutting VCU’s lead to 49-47 on two free throws by Nate Santos with 3:03 to play.
“It’s tough,” Santos said. “I think frustrating is a perfect way to describe it. We were right there. I don’t think we played our best.”
Dayton’s effective field-goal percentage (40.4) was its worst mark of the season. VCU’s number (42.5%) was its third-worst of the season. The Flyers made 4 of 17 3-pointers (23.5%), their fourth-worst performance of the season. VCU made 5 of 21 (23.8), their second-worst performance.
2. Missed free throws hurt Dayton the most: Holmes made 5 of 13 free throws. He was shooting 70.7% on the season. His percentage dropped to 68.6. Just two games ago, in a victory against St. Bonaventure at UD Arena, he made 13 of 17.
“We’ve just got to keep our heads up,” Holmes said. “There were a bunch of things. That game was more on us, I felt like, than it was on them, especially with the free throws. I know I didn’t have a great free-throw shooting day today. We didn’t have the best shooting day overall from the perimeter and just finishing. That’s all stuff we can clean up. Luckily, we get to see them again and we’re gonna be OK at the end of the day.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
3. Mistakes also cost Dayton in the final minutes: Santos stepped out of bounds with 1:31 to play. On Dayton’s next possession, Holmes was called for an offensive foul. The official thought he used his arm to hook the defender.
Meanwhile, on the other end, VCU twice missed the front end of 1-and-1s and committed two turnovers in the final four minutes. VCU still hung on for its fourth victory by two points or one point against Dayton in the last six seasons.
“Our offense was not very good down the stretch,” VCU coach Ryan Odom said. “We’ve got to be better going forward to finish games. We had to rely totally on our defense down the stretch, but we were able to get that stop on the last possession.”
STAR OF THE GAME
Jason Nelson scored 11 points off the bench for VCU, making 3 of 4 3-pointers. He was the only VCU player to score in double digits.
STAT OF THE GAME
Nine players saw action for VCU, and they all scored at least one point. The VCU bench outscored Dayton’s bench 23-8.
LOOKING AHEAD
Dayton plays Duquesne (13-9, 3-6) at 7 p.m. Tuesday at UD Arena. Dayton won 72-62 at Duquesne on Jan. 12. The Flyers have won 10 of the last 11 games in the series and are 10-2 against Duquesne in coach Anthony Grant’s tenure.
Duquesne started 0-5 in A-10 play but has won three of its last four A-10 games. It plays at St. Bonaventure (5-5, 14-8) at 2 p.m. Saturday.
TUESDAY’S GAME
Duquesne at Dayton, 7 p.m., Spectrum News 1, 1290, 95.7
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