Dayton basketball: Derkack rescues Flyers in final minute in victory at Richmond

What it means: Dayton (21-9, 12-5) won its sixth straight game. The Flyers wrapped up a top-four seed and a double-bye in the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament, which starts March 11 at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.

Dayton will start play in the quarterfinals as the No. 3 or No. 4 seed on March 13. It has earned a top-four seed five years in a row.

Dayton will have to win its final game and hope Saint Joseph’s (19-10, 11-5) loses one of its last two games — at Davidson and at home against La Salle — to earn the No. 3 seed. Saint Joseph’s owns the head-to-head tiebreaker against Dayton.

Richmond (15-15, 5-12) lost to Dayton at home for the fourth time in five tries in Dayton coach Anthony Grant’s nine seasons. Dayton has never won a game at the Robins Center by more than eight points.

Star of the game: De’Shayne Montgomery led Dayton with 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting and seven rebounds.

Stat of the game: Dayton shot 38.1% (8 of 21) from 3-point range despite Javon Bennett making 1 of 9 one game after making 6 of 9 in a victory Friday at George Washington.

Richmond shot a season-worst 17.4% (4 of 23).

Big play: Dayton never trailed in the game but gave up a four-minute lead in the final minutes. Richmond tied the game at 60-60 on a jump shot by Will Johnston with 1 minutes, 51 seconds remaining. That was Richmond’s last basket. It missed its last six shots.

With 39 seconds to play, Derkack scored on a layup. It was Dayton’s first field goal in five minutes.

After a miss by Richmond, Derkack made 1 of 2 free throws with 25 seconds to play to give Dayton a 63-60 lead.

Richmond missed two more shots on its next possession. Derkack grabbed the rebound and was fouled. He clinched the victory by making two free throws with four seconds to play.

Derkack scored 13 points. He made 7 of 9 free throws.

Dayton made 15 of 18 free throws. Richmond made 10 of 15.

Looking ahead: Dayton plays second-place VCU (23-7, 14-3) at 7 p.m. Friday at UD Arena on Senior Night: Javon Bennett, Jacob Conner, Jordan Derkack and Keonte Jones will be honored before the game along with senior team managers.

VCU beat Dayton 99-73 in Richmond on Feb. 6. The teams have split the two-game regular-season series four years in a row.

VCU beat George Mason 70-65 on Tuesday in its final home game.

HALFTIME RECAP

Dayton led by as many as 12 points in the first half and took a 40-32 lead into halftime.

The Flyers, who have won five games in a row, have led at the half in six straight games.

Here’s a quick recap of the first half:

Key players: Montgomery led Dayton with 10 points. He made 3 of 3 field goals, including 2 of 2 3-pointers.

AJ Lopez scored 10 for Richmond on 4-of-8 shooting.

Key stat: Dayton shot 50% (7 of 14) from 3-point range. Richmond shot 18.8% (3 of 16).

Big run: Dayton outscored Richmond 9-0 to turn a 3-2 lead into a 12-2 advantage at the 15:50 mark. Montgomery capped the spurt with a fast-break dunk.

Biggest lead: Dayton led 17-5 at the 13:33 mark after a 3 by Amaël L’Etang, who scored seven points in the half.

Comeback: Richmond cut Dayton’s lead to 31-29 at the 4:11 mark on a 3 by Aiden Argabright.

Negative stat: Dayton committed eight turnovers in the first half to Richmond’s three.

NEXT GAME

Who: VCU at Dayton

When: 7 p.m., Friday

TV: ESPN2

Radio: 95.7-FM, 1290-AM