In 2021, the shirts read, “Just Us Flyers,” on the front. In 2022, they read, “Ball In” with the “All” in ball shaded in a different color. They read, “Dayton Sole,” in 2023. In 2024, the slogan was “Dayton Energy.” In 2025, it was “Nothing Easy.”
No. 4 seed Dayton didn’t exactly “lock it in” in a 68-63 quarterfinal victory Friday against No. 13 seed St. Bonaventure. It posted its worst 2-point shooting percentage (29.6, 8 of 28) in four years, for example.
Most importantly, though, the Flyers lived to see semifinal Saturday at PPG Paints Arena nine years after losing their first game in the quarterfinals as the No. 1 seed at the same venue and one year after being the only top-four seed to lose in the quarterfinals.
“At the end of the day, this time of year, it’s about surviving and advancing,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “So we’re excited that we get a chance to compete again tomorrow.”
For the first time since 2023, the top four seeds all won quarterfinals, and three of those teams — Dayton, Virginia Commonwealth and Saint — are the same as they were three years ago.
Dayton (22-10) will play No. 1 seed Saint Louis (28-4) at 1 p.m. The second semifinal matches No. 2 seed VCU (25-7) against No. 4 seed Saint Joseph’s (22-10). The games will air on the CBS Sports Network.
The semifinal winners will play at 1 p.m. Sunday. CBS broadcasts the championship game.
Here’s a glance at each team:
Credit: David Jablonski
Dayton: The Flyers seek their first A-10 championship since 2003 and their first semifinal victory since 2023. They have won seven of their last eight games. No opponent has scored more than 67 points against Dayton in that stretch.
“I think we’ve been pretty good most of the year defensively,” Grant said. “We’ve had our struggles offensively at times. I think we had a bout there where we just weren’t healthy. We weren’t whole. And trying to get guys back in rhythm, trying to get guys back acclimated to what we were doing back in shape kind of took its toll on us.
“But I think defensively, for the most part, we’ve been pretty solid if you look at the analytic numbers. I think we’ve been top-50 in the country most of the year from a defensive standpoint. We need that. We need to have our defense be able to create offense and put us in a position where it gives us a chance every night.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Saint Louis: The Billikens seek their first championship since 2019. They won their other championship in 2013.
Saint Louis has lost its last three semifinal games: to St. Bonaventure in 2021, Davidson in 2022 and VCU in 2023.
Saint Louis beat No. 9 seed George Washington 88-81 on Friday, escaping a 21-point first-half hole.
“That was obviously not the way we planned it,” Saint Louis coach Josh Schertz said, “but I’m really proud of our team and the resilience we showed. GW’s got a really good team. Super talented. Very well coached. Run great stuff. Really hard to play against on both ends.”
Dayton and Saint Louis split two games in the regular season. Saint Louis routed Dayton 102-71 in St. Louis on Jan. 30. Dayton built a 25-point lead against the Billikens at UD Arena on Feb. 24 and then coasted to a 77-62 victory.
Dayton is 1-3 against Saint Louis in the A-10 tournament. The last time they played in the 2019 quarterfinals, Saint Louis won 64-55 on its way to its most recent A-10 tournament championship.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
VCU: The Rams seek their fourth A-10 tournament championship in 14 A-10 seasons. They won in 2015, 2023 and 2025 and lost in the championship game in 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2021 and 2024. They are 9-0 in A-10 semifinals.
VCU beat No. 7 seed Duquesne 71-66 on Friday. VCU led by as many as 10 points in the second half, but the Dukes made it a single-possession game several times down the stretch.
“It’s March, right?” VCU coach Phil Martelli Jr. said. “These games are going to be like this. It’s not going to be pretty. They asked me during the media timeout interview about the layoff, and honestly, I hadn’t even thought about the layoff one second. It’s just March. It has nothing to do with layoffs or any of that stuff. It’s just, you got to go make the most winning plays. I thought we made enough of them to win the game.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Saint Joseph’s: The Hawks seek their fifth A-10 tournament championship. That would tie them with Massachusetts for the second most titles behind Temple, which won nine.
Saint Joseph’s won the tournament in 1986, 1997, 2014 and 2016.
Saint Joseph’s lost 79-72 at VCU on Jan. 19. It ended the regular season with six straight victories and beat No. 7 seed Davidson 70-58 on Friday.
Saint Joseph’s is 2-2 against VCU in the A-10 tournament.
“We really have to play well,” coach Steve Donahue said. “It’s not like we can come in here and hope we play an average game. We’re going to have to play really well, and we’re going to have to play well enough on defense that they don’t play as well. I think, obviously, our strength is to make the other team we’re playing not play well because that’s the way we stay in games, and that’s how we finish games.”
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