The photo of a framed portrait of Ponce de Leon was purchased by a group of UD grads. The portrait has been their mascot of sorts since it was given as a white elephant gift at a Christmas gathering in 2003. The Ponce portrait lived all over campus in those days and even traveled to Daytona Beach on spring break.
The real Ponce de Leon would not have known what to make of what happened Wednesday — in part because he died more than 350 years before the invention of basketball — and the portrait must have been just as perplexed. Dayton fans sure were. Some of them voiced their displeasure on Twitter after the 67-65 loss to La Salle.
Just a tease to my exclusive interview with Ponce de Leon, who mostly wanted to talk about his discovery of Florida and not Dayton’s roster depth. pic.twitter.com/GOH1RYys63
— David Jablonski (@DavidPJablonski) December 30, 2020
If you were to wrap up all the fan reactions — or overreactions — in one paragraph, it would read like this: “The season is over. Anthony Grant can’t coach. The team’s veteran leaders have senioritis.”
The players see those comments — at least some of them do. Responding to a tweet by his brother Courtland, who criticized the negativity of bandwagon fans he saw on social media, Dayton guardJalen Crutcher wrote, “You know how them ‘so call fans’ be.’”
While it was the worst loss in two years for Dayton and, for the moment at least, removes it from any talk about contending for an at-large NCAA tournament berth, it is a loss that can be overcome. That process starts at 4:30 p.m. Saturday when Dayton (4-2, 0-1) plays George Mason (5-2, 1-0) in the second of 18 Atlantic 10 Conference games.
On paper, George Mason is a bigger challenge than La Salle. The Patriots beat Massachusetts 93-92 in double overtime on the road Wednesday. They were one of the few A-10 teams to play Dayton close last season. They won their last game at UD Arena, 67-63 in 2019.
Dayton’s hopes may hinge of getting either Elijah Weaver or R.J. Blakney, or both, back from injuries or adjusting to a new-look rotation that at no point Wednesday included five players who had ever been on the court together in a game.
That rotation included 6-foot-10 forward Mustapha Amzil, who started three days after practicing with the team for the first time. Amzil led the Flyers with 22 points but did not score in Dayton’s 15-2 run in the first 9½ minutes. The momentum shifted quickly at that point as La Salle scored nine points in the next 80 seconds.
“I just felt like we didn’t play together as a team as they were coming back,” Crutcher said. “We started to try to go by ourselves and tried to stuff on our own. That’s really it. And lack of effort.”
While Amzil delivered an unexpected performance on offense, Koby Brea made a 3-pointer in his college debut and reserve center Moulaye Sissoko contributed more than he has all season, Dayton got less production than usual from three starters.
• Jordy Tshimanga scored his four points in the first two minutes and played sparingly the rest of the way (a season-low 16 minutes) because of foul trouble. He also fell down while trying to guard Clifton Moore on George Mason’s final possession, and Moore hit the game-winning shot with 2.5 seconds to play.
• Ibi Watson scored a season-low nine points and failed to make a 3-pointer (0-for-3) after making at least two in each of the first five games.
• Rodney Chatman scored four points after tallying 36 points in the previous two games.
Dayton also shot a season-worst 23.5 percent (4 of 17) from 3-point range.
“We wanted to try it out and keep them off balance,” La Salle coach Ashley Howard told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “As the game went on, we realized that the zone was effective and gave us an opportunity to mash up on their shooters.”
SATURDAY’S GAME
George Mason at Dayton, 4:30 p.m., NBCSN, 1290, 95.7
About the Author
