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Dayton coach Archie Miller kept screaming from the bench, “ball pressure, ball pressure.”
What he wanted to see was tighter defense on dribblers and better close-outs on shooters, but the Flyers didn’t do much of either in dropping a 75-72 decision at Rhode Island on Wednesday.
The Rams made 10-of-22 three-pointers, including a long trey from Xavier Munford for the deciding points with 3.3 seconds left.
UD’s Kevin Dillard had hit a deep 3 with 8.8 seconds left to tie the game, capping a rally from an eight-point deficit. But Munford caught the ball on the run, raced up the sidelines and swished a jumper from 22 feet.
That shot was contested — two defenders had hands in Munford’s face — but the Flyers stayed away from other Ram shooters as if they were carrying a virus.
When Dillard missed a rushed 3-pointer as the clock hit zeros, Munford was tackled near midcourt by his ecstatic teammates.
“It’s a tough loss. It’s a controllable one, though,” Miller said. “The buzzer shot, obviously, everyone wants to look and say you’re snake-bitten. But we weren’t snake-bitten. We bit ourselves.
“We didn’t defend the 3-point line tonight. We didn’t attack shooters, whether it was our rotation or just absolutely having hands down when you needed to have them up. It just steamrolled us throughout the game. We could not prevent them from making 3’s, and when you can’t do that, it’s a long night.”
The Rams were shooting 32 percent on 3-pointers, 13th in the Atlantic 10. They started 9-for-18.
The Flyers fell to 13-11 overall and 3-7 in the A-10. They’re off to their worst start in the conference since also beginning 3-7 in 2005-06 on their way to a 6-10 record.
Rhode Island (7-16, 2-9) ended a six-game losing streak and has won six straight in the series with UD.
“They had a couple shooters with quick releases,” Dillard said. “The second we weren’t there, the second our hands were down, they were able to rise up and make the shot.”
Vee Sanford was the primary defender on the game-winner, but Dillard came over to help.
“That was a helluva shot. That was a tough shot. The basketball gods were with them today,” Dillard said.
Dyshawn Pierre had 15 points and 10 rebounds for UD, which hosts Xavier on Saturday. Dillard had 15 points and five assists.
The Flyers had an early nine-point lead, but the Rams made 5-of-12 threes in the first half and their first two after the break for a 44-37 edge with 16:14 to go.
The Flyers trailed 60-52 with just more than seven minutes to go. They cut it to three with 3:12 left on a 3-pointer by Devin Oliver.
After the teams traded free throws, the Rams’ Munford tallied a three-point play on Josh Benson’s fifth foul to make it six again.
UD’s Jalen Robinson answered with a three-point play with 1:30 left. Oliver blocked a shot and scored on the other end on a put-back.
URI’s Mike Powell converted a 1-and-1 with 33 seconds to go. Pierre couldn’t connect on a drive. But the Rams’ Munford missed a 1-and-1 with 17 seconds left, setting up Dillard’s trey.
The Flyers, who have six losses by a combined 10 points this season, and played without back-up guard Khari Price for the fourth straight game.
When Dillard picked up his second foul with 5:50 left in the first half, he was replaced by walk-on Brian Vonderhaar.
“Defensively right now, we’ve lost a little bit of our toughness, a little bit of our on-the-ball defense, a little bit of our physicality,” Miller said. “Some of it stems from the lack of depth we’ve had, and some of it stems from not giving great effort. If it’s an effort-related thing, we have to get that corrected.”
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