Archdeacon: ‘This was about Dayton grit’

It’s what he said.

With 7:14 left — and a time out called on the floor — the Flyers looked permanently grounded.

They were down by 17 points — 39-56 — and not only could they not score, but they couldn’t stop the Wolfpack from continuing to pad their advantage.

At that moment, KenPom.com — the college statistics and probabilities website — gave the Flyers a 1.5 percent chance of winning.

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Only the Flyers’ All American big man — 6-foot-10 DaRon Holmes II — had risen to the big stage moment at the point. His stat line read 10 points, eight rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot, but the other usual box score stalwarts were struggling.

Forward Nate Santos had missed all six of his shots and had just one point.

And Brea — the nation’s best three-point shooter — had added just one trey after opening the game with a three. Too often in the second half he had passed up shots and that’s what Bennett focused on.

Although coach Anthony Grant had taken Bennett out of the game during that time out, the 5-foot-10 point guard didn’t sulk or sit back.

Instead, he lit a fire under Brea.

“Javon came up to me and said, ‘I need you to shoot the ball!’” Brea said as he sat at his dressing stall in the Flyers locker room afterward. “He said, ‘I don’t care if they’re contested or anything, you need to just shoot and keep shooting.’”

Bennett said he minced no words with the Flyers 6-foot-6 sharpshooter:

“I said, ‘Brea, we need some points right now! You’re the best shooter in the country. Do what you do!’”

That pep talk emboldened Brea, who was named the Atlantic 10 Conference Sixth Man of the Year for the second year in a row last week.

“Going forward I just switched my mindset a little bit and became more aggressive,” he said. “When I get that kind of confidence and trust from my teammates, the only thing I can do is pay it back to them.”

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Just 47 seconds after he left the huddle, Brea swished a three pointer. Two minutes later he did it again and soon after that he made a third.

His nine points ignited a 17-0 run with that last three knotting the score, 56-56.

The Flyers would end up outscoring the suddenly reeling Wolfpack 24-4 in that final 7:14.

Holmes had eight points in that comeback surge and Santos took over near the end of the game, scoring seven points on a courageous three from the baseline; a muscle-up-and-in layup with 34 seconds left; and finally, two pressurized free throws with 15.5 seconds remaining.

Nevada — the No. 10 seed which finished 26-8 — missed two final three-point heaves and that gave UD its first NCAA Tournament victory since 2015 and one of its most improbable triumphs ever.

That puts the 25-7, No. 7 seed Flyers in a second-round game Saturday (12:45 p.m.) with the 26-8, No.2 seed Arizona Wildcats, who pushed aside Long Beach State, 85-65, in an earlier game here.

At the final buzzer Thursday, Flyers players and coaches began running toward each other; roaring in delight. They hopped and hugged, slapped palms, jumped in each other’s arms and even shed some tears as the contingent of UD fans behind the bench celebrated exuberantly with them from the stands.

Players like Santos and Brea ran toward the red-clad crowd, raised their arms, and cupped their hands to form hearts that they offered to their adoring supporters.

Before leaving the court, Grant — as exultant as you’ve ever seen him in the seven seasons he’s coached at his alma mater — flashed a fist to the crowd. It was a sign of to his team’s fight.

As the players made their way back to the dressing room, they were followed by Eric Spina, the ballcap-wearing UD president who admitted he was overwhelmed.

“Have you ever seen anything like this in your life?” he gushed.

UD athletics director Neil Sullivan knew this performance would draw national attention and forever go down in UD lore and he wanted everyone to share it:

“This win was for all of Dayton – the team, the fans, the university…the whole community.”

Spina agreed: “This was about Dayton grit!”

“Leave it all out on the floor’

Bennett said his Brea challenge was an extension of what he’d heard Grant say:

“Coach told us to leave it all out on the floor. We knew it was a win-or-go-home situation and coach told us not to go out losing like that. He wanted us to fight.” Although the Flyers had led much of the first half, they went into a swoon in the final 5:06 before intermission and were outscored 16-0 and trailed 34-25 at the break.

Coming into this game, Nevada was 24-0 when leading at halftime and the Wolfpack continued to pad that lead until that turn-the-tide time out at 7:14.

“That’s how Anthony coaches, you can’t flap him,” Sullivan said in the swell of excitement right after the game. “His house could catch on fire, and he’d just stare at you.

“Kids look at that and see he’s not freaking out and they think, ‘Why am I gonna freak out?’’

Brea – who finished with 15 points on five-of-eight shooting from beyond the arc, agreed with Sullivan:

“That’s something I appreciate. It would be a serious situation if you were down 17 and you looked at your coach and he has a bad look on his face. We look at him and see his calmness; see that he’s not worried. He believes in us and that gives us confidence that we can make it happen.”

Holmes, who led the Flyers with a game-high18 points and nine rebounds, said Grant’s demeanor was a determining factor in the dramatic turnaround: “He’s very wise. He’s just going to tell us what he sees and what we need to work on and we listen to him.”

Although not on a national stage like this and not with so much at stake, the Flyers have had other big comebacks this season. They rallied from a 15-point deficit to beat LSU in a tournament in Charleston in mid-November and then erased a 17-point VCU lead to win the final regular season game in overtime at UD Arena.

“That’s the scary thing about our team, we can get hot at any moment,” Holmes said. “We believe we can come back from anything.

“Today there was never a doubt in my mind. We went down a lot and there might be times where we argue on the floor, but at the end of the day, we have each other’s back. That’s what matters if you want to win big games. You have to stick together.”

‘This is March is all about’

Brea’s been at UD for four seasons and has now played in 112 games, more than any other current Flyer.

“To be in this environment and do what we just did, this is the best win I’ve ever been a part of here for sure,” he said. “With all the emotion and everything, I’m still trying to process it all, but I know this was huge, for sure.”

Guard Enoch Cheeks, who transferred to UD from Robert Morris University this season for a moment just like this, said what made the comeback especially meaningful was the way “everybody did what they had to.”

“We fed off each other. We each did what we could do best. For me at the end, it meant diving on the floor for loose balls pressuring them on defense, forcing steals.

“When you all build off each other, that makes a good team a great team and tonight we finished great. We did something special tonight.”

And that’s what triggered the spontaneous lovefest at game’s end.

“I just remember running onto the court and seeing (Kobe) Elvis and jumping on him,” Bennett said. “I was just so proud of these guys, so ecstatic.

“This is what March is all about!”