Miller then reversed course and followed his Rhode Island players and coaches to the locker room at the other end of UD Arena. He took time to greet Willie Morris, the longtime director of the Flyer Pep Band, and then Ron and Andrea Morton, two of the biggest UD boosters, before joining his team to celebrate an 81-76 overtime victory Tuesday against Dayton.
A high point for Miller in his fourth season at Rhode Island was a low point for his successor, Anthony Grant, in his ninth season at Dayton. Eleven days after securing a 5-0 start in Atlantic 10 Conference play, Dayton (14-7, 5-3) suffered its third straight loss. This defeat followed losses at La Salle and Saint Joseph’s last week in Philadelphia.
The Rams doused Miller with water in the locker room. He dried himself off before emerging to talk to local reporters.
“Anthony does a fantastic job,” Miller said. “They’ve got a good team. It’s a long year for everybody, and I know they’ll figure it out and get back on track.”
This was the first time an A-10 team other than Virginia Commonwealth and George Mason has beaten Dayton at UD Arena since the 2020-21 season.
“I think, just the energy right now, everybody seemed kind of lost,” Dayton forward Jaiun Simon said. “We don’t know what’s going on with our team. Everybody wants to figure it out.”
Grant put the blame on himself after the game for this loss and the three-game losing streak. Dayton experienced a similar skid last season, losing on the road to George Washington and Massachusetts and then at home to George Mason.
“I have to do a better job,” Grant said. “I have to figure out how to make sure our guys understand what this is all about, what their responsibility is to each other, to the group as a whole, to the university, to the community, to everybody, right? We didn’t honor that today. That’s on me.”
Here are three takeaways from Dayton’s 21st game:
Credit: David Jablonski
1: Turnovers hurt the Flyers: Dayton turned the ball over 23 times, its second-highest total of the season. It had 25 in a 77-71 overtime victory at Marquette in November.
De’Shayne Montgomery and Keonte Jones each had five turnovers. Amaël L’Etang, Jacob Conner and Javon Bennett each had three.
Dayton committed turnovers on its first two possessions in overtime and trailed the entire extra period.
Entering the game, the Flyers were averaging 10.6 turnovers per game in A-10 play while forcing 15.1. They led the league in turnover margin (plus 5.14). Rhode Island committed 15 turnovers but only seven in the second half and none in overtime.
“A lot of times, we were just disconnected,” Simon said, “and it was a lot of guys trying to do their own thing, going one on one against the defense, and it led to a bunch of bad turnovers. We had a bunch of careless turnovers, like getting the rebound and trying to dribble it immediately. We’re just out of whack right now.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
2: Rhode Island rallied from a 15-point deficit: An 11-0 run by Dayton turned a 15-12 lead at the 10:43 mark into a 26-12 at the 7:31 mark. Bryce Heard, who led Dayton with 15 points, had five points in the run.
By halftime, Rhode Island trailed 39-31. Dayton still had an eight-point lead, 52-44, at the 8:47 mark. Then Rhode Island outscored Dayton 12-2 in the next four minutes.
The Rams led the rest of the second half until L’Etang scored a game-tying layup with 8.9 seconds left.
Jahmere Tripp, the team’s third-leading scorer on the season with 11.5 points per game, scored five of his game-high 24 points in overtime to lead Rhode Island. He stepped up in the absence of the team’s leading scorer, Jonah Hinton (14.1), who missed the game with an injury.
Rhode Island (13-8, 4-4) followed its most impressive A-10 victory Saturday at home against George Mason with its best road victory of conference play. The Rams have won three games in a row and four of their last five games since an 0-3 start in A-10 play.
Miller improved to 2-2 against the Flyers in the last four seasons. He won a game at UD Arena for the first time since his final season as Dayton coach in 2017. He’s the first former Dayton coach to beat the Flyers at UD Arena. Brian Gregory was 0-2 against Miller, including one loss at UD Arena, during his tenure at Georgia Tech.
Rhode Island also ended a four-game losing streak at UD Arena. This was its first victory in Dayton since a 72-70 overtime victory in 2019.
“Resiliency is kind of who we are,” Miller said. “We have a group that wins not on game day but with the way they handle their business. We show up every day. They try their (butts) off. We’ve got no complaining. They remind me of some of the kids that we had here at one point in time.”
Credit: David Jablonski
3: Dayton’s defense, once a strength, continues to have issues: Rhode Island entered the game with the third-worst 3-point shooting percentage in A-10 games (28.7). It made 7 of 16 3s (43.8%) against Dayton.
Rhode Island also had its most productive game of the season at the free-throw line. It made 28 of 36 (77.8%). It’s shooting 72.9% on the season.
Dayton’s last three opponents — La Salle, Saint Joseph’s and Rhode Island — have posted effective field-goal percentages of 50% or better. Only one opponent managed that in Dayton’s first five A-10 games.
“We talked about after the St. Joe’s game about how we didn’t have the energy, the effort that I’ve seen from our group,” Grant said. “We chalked it up to being on the road for a week and guys trying to come back from injuries and whatnot. The ability to be resilient has been a strength of ours, and to see what we did today, on both sides, it was a death by 1,000 cuts in a lot of different ways.
“My job is to make sure that we know what we’re doing from a defensive standpoint, that we can follow a scouting report, that we play with a sense of urgency, that we play together, that we’re able to flow offensively and guys know how to play to their strengths and help their teammates play to their strengths. None of that was on display today. That’s on me.”
NEXT GAME
Who: Dayton (14-7, 5-3) at Saint Louis (20-1, 8-0)
When: 8 p.m., Friday
TV: CBS Sports Network
Radio: 95.7-FM, 1290-AM
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