Dayton beat George Washington 68-66 on Friday thanks to a 4-0 run in the last 21 seconds, and it beat Richmond 65-60 on Tuesday with a 5-0 run in the last 39 seconds.
“It just shows our competitive nature, our resilience and our trust in one another,” said Montgomery, who led Dayton with 15 points and seven rebounds.
Coach Anthony Grant questioned that competitive nature 25 days earlier in Dayton’s last trip to Richmond. It suffered a 99-73 loss at Virginia Commonwealth on Feb. 6, losing for the fifth time in six games.
Since then, Dayton (21-9, 12-5) has won six straight games. It’s the program’s longest A-10 winning streak since it started 6-0 in the 2023-24 season.
The latest victory clinched a top-four seed and a double-bye in the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament, which starts March 11 at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.
“It’s critical,” Grant said. “You want to put yourself in the best position possible as you head to the postseason.”
Here are three takeaways from Dayton’s final A-10 road game:
Credit: David Jablonski
1: Jordan Derkack saved the Flyers: With the game tied at 60-60 in the final minute, the senior guard took on his defender, Collin Tanner, dribbling from the 3-point line, creating space near the basket and making a layup with Tanner draped all over him.
The only surprise was that Derkack, one of the best players in the nation at getting to the free-throw line, did not draw a foul on the basket. The score gave Dayton a 62-60 lead with 39 seconds to play.
“The coaches put us in position for multiple guys to make a play, depending on what kind of covers they were in,” Derkack said. “The ball came to me, and I saw a gap.”
Derkack credited Amaël L’Etang for sealing off another defender, Mike Walz, in the paint, so Tanner was the only defender he had to worry about.
“I took my right hand and just kind of went with it,“ Derkack said. ”The guy cut me off late, but I was able to make the layup.“
That was Dayton’s first field goal in just over five minutes. It had missed its last five shots and scored only two points at the free-throw line since taking a 58-56 lead with 5:35 to play.
“We needed it for sure,“ Montgomery said. ”Somebody was going to have to make the play. I knew he was either going to make the basket or get two free throws.”
Derkack did get to the line two more times in the last 30 seconds, sealing the victory by making 3 of 4 free throws. He finished with 13 points and made 7 of 9 free throws in the game. Dayton made 15 of 18, while Richmond made 10 of 15.
Richmond, which never led in the game, missed its last six shots after tying the game at 60-60 on a basket by Will Johnston at the 1:51 mark. It shot a season-worst 17.4% (4 of 23) from 3-point range, while Dayton shot 38.1% (8 of 21) despite a 1-of-9 performance by Javon Bennett.
Richmond ranks 35th in the country in 3-point shooting percentage (36.8) but has shot 21.8% (12 of 55) in the last two games.
“I think going into the Loyola game we were top 20 in the country in 3-point percentage,” said coach Chris Mooney, whose team (15-15, 5-12) is in 11th place with one game to play, “and we’ve shot the ball really poorly. It’s probably extra important for us because we don’t get quite as many 2-point baskets as we would like to. I thought the shots were good. We’ve got to keep practicing and keep being confident and try to get that part fixed.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
2: Turnovers hurt Dayton: After a three-game stretch in which it had eight, eight and 10 turnovers, Dayton has committed 17 and 16 turnovers in its last two games.
Richmond turned the ball over only six times. That’s one reason it ended up with 17 more shot attempts than Dayton.
For the second straight game, Dayton could only blame itself for most of the turnovers. Jaiun Simon led the team with six. He picked up two on illegal screens.
“I think most of them were on us,” Grant said. “I wouldn’t say that Richmond is a team that’s known for turning you over. We had 16, and they had eight steals, you know. Those are possessions where we don’t get a chance to score, and then they’re possessions where they get broken-floor situations, where it could change a game. We’ve got to learn from that and just have more maturity with the decisions we make on offense.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
3: The path in Pittsburgh is clearer: Dayton will start play in the quarterfinals on March 13. It has earned a top-four seed five years in a row but has not won the A-10 tournament since 2003.
Dayton will have to win its final game at home against Virginia Commonwealth (23-7, 14-3) on Friday 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.
If Dayton loses Friday or Saint Joseph’s wins its last two games, Dayton will be the No. 4 seed. Saint Joseph’s owns the head-to-head tiebreaker against Dayton because it beat Dayton 81-74 on Jan. 21 in Philadelphia.
A victory Friday would also give Dayton its longest winning streak to end the regular season since it won 20 in a row in 2020. That team didn’t get to play a postseason game because of the pandemic, so this Dayton team could be the first in school history to play in the A-10 tournament after winning its final seven games.
“You want to play your best basketball in late February or early March,” Derkack said, “and that’s where we’re at right now. Obviously, we switched some stuff up a couple weeks ago, and it’s been benefiting us. I think the most important thing for us, we always talk about it, not letting our defense negatively impact our offense and vice versa.”
NEXT GAME
Who: VCU at Dayton
When: 7 p.m., Friday
TV: ESPN2
Radio: 95.7-FM, 1290-AM
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