Malachi Smith added 15 points for the Flyers, who will face No. 6 seed Richmond at 3:30 p.m. Saturday in the semifinals. Richmond beat No. 3 seed Virginia Commonwealth 75-64 in the final quarterfinal game of the day. No. 1 seed Davidson will play No. 5 Saint Louis in the first semifinal at 1 p.m.
Dayton (23-9) advanced to the semifinals for the first time since 2016 and beat UMass for the sixth straight time. The game marked the end of Matt McCall’s five-year tenure at UMass. Anthony Grant and Darren Hertz, who worked with McCall at the University of Florida, had long hugs for him in the postgame handshake line.
Dayton trailed 68-65 when Smith made two free throws at the 1:28 mark. Holmes then gave Dayton 69-68 lead on a jump shot with 51 seconds remaining. Smith made two more free throws with 26 seconds to go.
Noah Fernandes, who led UMass with 26 points on 10-of-20 shooting, made two free throws with 15 seconds to play. Dayton made five more free throws after that to clinch the victory.
HALFTIME RECAP
The Flyers outscored Massachusetts 8-0 in the last 2:24 of the first half and trailed 36-34 at halftime.
Dayton trailed for the last 15 minutes and faced a 36-26 deficit after a 3-pointer by Javohn Garcia with 2:27 to play.
The officials called a technical foul on Garcia after his 3-pointer for taunting the Dayton bench. Malachi Smith made 1 of 2 technical free throws to start the 8-0 run. A 3-pointer by Smith, a layup by DaRon Holmes II and then a layup by Smith finished the run.
Holmes scored 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting in the half. Smith scored eight points. Noah Fernandes led UMass with 11 points.
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