The Flyers hope the same happens with their season. They move into the final week of the regular season with the goal of putting their latest disappointing performance, a 74-69 loss at home to George Mason on Saturday, behind them. Dayton (19-10, 11-5) plays La Salle (13-6, 7-9) at 7 p.m. Tuesday at UD Arena and Saint Louis (19-10, 11-5) at 7 p.m. Friday at Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis.
“The mindset going into this game is just handling business and taking care of the home court,” Dayton guard Kobe Elvis said Monday. “It’s going to be our last game together on our home court, so everyone wants to get this one and go out the right way.”
“You don’t want to lose two in a row,” Grant said. “We take a lot of pride in protecting our home court. So this is an opportunity to do that. It’s the last home game of the season and Senior Night. There are a lot of things that are in play for us as we head to the postseason. We want to make sure we can put ourselves in position to secure a top-four seed, and we certainly we want to be playing our best basketball as we head toward next week and getting to Brooklyn.”
The A-10 tournament starts next Tuesday with three games involving the bottom six seeds at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Dayton can clinch a top-four seed, which would mean a double bye to the quarterfinals and a Thursday game next week, with one victory in its last two games. Dayton, Saint Louis and Fordham (23-6, 11-5) all trail first-place VCU (22-7, 13-3) by two games with two to play. Three teams are tied for fifth place: Duquesne (19-10, 9-7); George Mason (17-12, 9-7); and George Washington (15-14, 9-7).
The emotions of Senior Day or Senior Night have helped propel Dayton to 11 straight victories in its final regular-season home game. Only one player will be honored Tuesday: forward Toumani Camara. He’ll graduate this summer with a degree in general studies. He said his teammates will accompany him onto the court because his family was not able to travel to the United States from Belgium for the game.
Camara still has one year of eligibility remaining, so he could choose to stay at Dayton for another season.
“Last year, I tested the (NBA) waters,” Camara said. “I got some feedback. We’ll see what this year gives me. We’ll see how we end the season and if it helps me with that.”
La Salle has won the last two games in the series with Dayton. It ended Dayton’s 20-game A-10 winning streak on Dec. 30, 2020, when Clifton Moore made a jump shot with 2.5 seconds left at UD Arena. The Flyers lost 67-65 in their first A-10 game that season after finishing 18-0 the previous season.
Last season, with Camara sidelined by an injury, Dayton took a five-game winning streak into Tom Gola Arena and lost 62-60. Dayton blew a 15-point lead in the second half. La Salle scored 29 points in 10 minutes to turn a 36-21 deficit into a 50-43 lead. Koby Brea missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Those two results, plus Dayton’s 74-69 loss at home to George Mason on Saturday, are good reminders of the thin margin between the teams at the top of the A-10 standings and everyone else.
“I’ve had a chance to see a little bit of (La Salle), preparing for some other opponents,” Grant said Saturday. “They’ve got some really good guards. They’re tough, gritty. They have lot of similarities to the team that we just saw here tonight. We’ve got to make sure our guys understand you’ve got to be able to take the disappointment from tonight and quickly move on and get prepared for quick turnaround.”
La Salle has had an up-and-down season. It opened A-10 play with victories against Rhode Island and Massachusetts but then lost five straight games. It then won five straight only to lose its last three games to George Mason, Duquesne and George Washington. It’s 1-6 against teams with winning A-10 records.
This is the first season for La Salle coach Fran Dunphy, who took over a program that has not had a winning season since 2014-15. He is familiar with UD Arena because he coached Temple from 2006-19. He was 3-4 against Dayton and 2-2 at UD Arena until Temple left the A-10 for the American Athletic Conference after the 2012-13 season.
La Salle’s last two opponents have shot better than 60% from 2-point range. Only three other opponents have hit that number this season against La Salle.
“We’ve got to play better defense,” Dunphy said Saturday. “We’ve got to get back and watch as much film as we can on this game but also get prepared for Dayton, who’s really good. We’re going to a tremendous environment in Dayton. We’ve got our hands full there. But that’s what you get. We’ve got two more league games left. We’ll do our very best to see what we can do and see where we can finish in the league.”
Weekly honor: Dayton forward DaRon Holmes II won the the Atlantic 10 Conference Player of the Week award on Monday after averaging 28.0 points in two games last week.
This is the first time Holmes has won the award this season. Camara won the award on Feb. 13.
Holmes scored 22 points in a 72-54 victory at UMass on Wednesday and scored a career-high 34 points Saturday in a 74-69 loss to George Mason on Saturday at UD Arena.
Holmes leads Dayton in scoring (18.3) and ranks second in rebounding (7.9.) He leads the nation in dunks (79) by three over Washington’s Braxton Meah (76).
Holmes could hit the 1,000-point mark in the game. He has 979 career points, which ranks 54th in school history.
TUESDAY’S GAME
La Salle at Dayton, 7 p.m., NBC Sports app, 1290, 95.7
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