Dayton basketball: Rhode Island hands Flyers third straight loss

What it means: Dayton (14-7, 5-3) suffered its third straight loss after a 5-0 start in Atlantic 10 Conference play. It lost at La Salle and Saint Joseph’s last week in Philadelphia.

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.

Former Dayton coach Archie Miller improved to 2-2 against the Flyers in the last four seasons and won a game at UD Arena for the first time since his final season as Dayton coach in 2017.

Rhode Island ended a four-game losing streak at UD Arena. This was its first victory in Dayton since a 72-70 overtime victory in 2019.

Stars of the game: Jahmere Tripp scored 24 points on 7-of-14 shooting for Rhode Island.

Bryce Heard led Dayton with 15 points on 3-of-9 shooting.

Stat of the game: Dayton committed 23 turnovers. Rhode Island had 15.

Key plays: Amaël L’Etang scored a game-tying layup with 8.9 seconds left in the second half to send the game to overtime.

Rhode Island held the lead throughout the overtime period. A tip-in dunk by Keeyan Itejere with 40 seconds remaining gave Rhode Island a 75-71 lead. After a missed jump shot by Javon Bennett, RJ Johnson made two free throws to put Dayton in a six-point hole with 25 seconds to play.

Turning point: Dayton led 52-44 with 8 minutes, 47 seconds to play. Rhode Island then outscored Dayton 12-2 in the next four minutes.

Dayton took a 57-56 lead with 4:29 to play on a 3-point play by Bryce Heard. Rhode Island scored the next four points to take the lead.

In the final minutes, Dayton trailed 64-61. L’Etang made 1 of 2 free throws with a minute to play and then tied the game with 8.9 seconds remaining.

Injury news: Dayton guard Jordan Derkack missed his fifth straight game with a lower-body injury.

• Rhode Island played without its leading scorer, guard Jonah Hinton, who suffered an injury Saturday in a 74-65 victory against George Mason.

Looking ahead: Dayton plays No. 21 Saint Louis (20-1, 8-0) at 8 p.m. Friday at Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis. The Billikens beat George Washington 79-76 on Tuesday for their 14th straight victory.

HALFTIME RECAP

Dayton built a 15-point lead in the first half and took a 39-31 lead into halftime.

Here’s a quick recap of the first half:

Key players: Heard led Dayton with 10 points. He made 2 of 4 3-pointers and 4 of 4 free throws.

Tyler Cochran scored 12 points for Rhode Island. He made 2 of 7 field goals and 7 of 11 free throws.

Key stat: Dayton shot 50% from the field (12 of 24). Rhode Island shot 39% (9 of 23).

Big run: 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. Heard had five points in the run. Jaiun Simon scored four.

Biggest lead: Dayton led 28-13 after two free throws by L’Etang at the 6:43 mark. He scored eight points in the half.

Key moment: Heard made a 3-pointer on Dayton’s last possession to give Dayton a 39-30 lead.

Rhode Island played for the last shot of the half. After a missed 3-pointer by Cochran, Jahmere Tripp grabbed the offensive rebound and was fouled by Simon in the final second of the half. Tripp made 1 of 2 free throws.

Turnover issues: Dayton forced three 10-second calls against Rhode Island, which had seven turnovers in the half. Dayton committed eight turnovers.