Dayton women’s basketball: Flyers lose at buzzer in A-10 quarterfinals

No. 2 seed George Mason (22-8) advanced to a semifinal game against No. 3 seed Richmond on Saturday.

No. 7 seed Dayton, which beat No. 10 seed George Washington 62-54 in the second round Thursday, finished the season with a record of 17-14. That followed an 18-13 season.

Coach Tamika Williams-Jeter is 54-67 after four seasons.

Dayton almost upset a team it lost to 86-53 in the regular season. Nayo Lear sent the game to overtime by making a layup with six seconds to play in the second half. That came after Dayton blew a 10-point lead in the last four minutes.

Fatima Ibrahim led Dayton with 18 points. Four other players scored in double figures: Ajok Madol (15); Lear and O’Riordan (14 each); and Nicole Stephens (13).

“I think it was a heavyweight fight tonight,” Williams-Jeter said in the postgame press conference. “George Mason definitely came as the heavyweight, coached by someone I really look up to. We wanted to throw punches, and we did. I wanted the players to respond because we’ve been through a lot this year, and they did. For us, we wanted to win the battle in the paint against a team that doesn’t give that up. We did that. We forced them to make a lot of tough twos. We executed pretty decently to throw punches. I have a senior group that has built culture, confidence and leaves a phenomenal foundation from where we were four years ago.”