‘We got sizzling’: Down 17, Dayton runs down

SALT LAKE CITY — With 7:39 left Thursday, tenth-seeded Nevada went up 17 aspects over seventh-seeded Dayton and an upset gave the impact all but destined, if no longer guaranteed.

At that level, the Wolf Pack had a 99.1% probability to merely concerning the second round of the males’s NCAA tournament, according to ESPN Analytics. That improved to 99.5% with 7:14 left within the sport, which is ethical when Dayton started chipping away at Nevada’s lead.

The Flyers then went on a 24-4 urge to cap the splendid comeback within the NCAA tournament since 2018, winning 63-60 on the Delta Heart. Dayton will face the second-seeded Arizona Wildcats within the second round Saturday.

“I conception down the stretch we got in a rhythm the place the blokes understood how we wanted to assault them and the plan in which we wanted to web performs for every other,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant mentioned. “You observed guys doing a factual job attacking the rim, further movement for 3s, ball being fed to Deuce (DaRon Holmes II) inner, him making performs himself or making performs for his teammates, which is on the total how we now accept as true with performed.”

Nevada senior guard Kenan Blackshear described the final seven minutes as a “meltdown.”

“Cannot genuinely set it into words genuinely,” he mentioned.

Wolf Pack coach Steve Alford mentioned he by no technique expected to gaze Nevada’s season cessation on the losing cessation of a 24-4 urge. But a series of mistakes, collectively with one the place two avid gamers took the ball out of bounds, and “uncharacteristic issues” esteem no longer rotating defensively ended in their first-round exit, Alford explained.

“In truth, genuinely miserable offense the final seven minutes,” Alford mentioned. “Very miserable defense. Can accept as true with to you scheme that on this stage, you is seemingly to be potentially no longer going to get very many video games. That’s genuinely what came about tonight.”

Grant didn’t blow their own horns any awe when the Flyers trailed by 17, and his avid gamers mentioned that poise rubbed off on them.

“In those moments, that’s after we web the closest,” Dayton guard Koby Brea mentioned. “I specialise in we now were in those scenarios a pair times this year. I specialise in we’re fully jubilant in those scenarios. After we gaze at our captain, our coach, we watch that he’s no longer fearful, he believes in us, each person from the final player on the bench, each coach, they all imagine in us. We imagine in each other. We belief each other. We’re able to doing those style of issues.”

Added Grant: “We felt genuinely factual. We felt factual the place we were. We felt esteem we could well proceed to web the performs we wanted to web. The guys made the performs offensively, and we were in a problem to be disruptive defensively. Made your complete incompatibility within the sphere for us.”

Dayton fell within the serve of with 2:19 left within the most predominant half of when Nevada’s Jarod Lucas gave the Wolf Pack a 27-25 lead with a step-serve 3-pointer. The Flyers didn’t retake the lead except 2:01 was left within the sport, when Holmes set the Flyers up 59-58. But even then, the Flyers couldn’t defend on to their diminutive edge. Nevada’s Kenan Blackshear, whose father, Kerry Blackshear Sr., was coached by Dayton head coach Anthony Grant at Stetson, gave the Wolf Pack the lead again 60-59 with 1:03 left.

Then, with 34 seconds remaining, Dayton Guard Enoch Cheeks hit a layup to set the Flyers up, for what ended up being for factual, 61-60.

After Nevada sophomore forward Gash Davidson lost the ball for the length of a crossover with 16 seconds left, Cheeks got here up with it and was fouled. He knocked down two free throws to seal the glorious rating.

“There was by no technique a doubt in our mind,” Holmes mentioned. “We went down loads. There could be seemingly to be times the place we argue on the ground, but on the cessation of the day each person is aware of we accept as true with each other. That is what issues. When it’s good to to get huge video games, you bought to stay collectively, loyal with the rest.”

Dayton scored 17 straight aspects to originate its comeback urge, for the length of which the team was almost splendid. The Flyers were 7-for-7 from the discipline, collectively with 4-for-4 from 3-level differ. They also went 6-for-7 from the free throw line with loyal one turnover. In each place in the urge, Brea had 9 aspects, all on 3-pointers, Holmes had eight, Cheeks had six and Nate Santos had three.

Whereas Dayton couldn’t omit, Nevada couldn’t web the basket. The Wolf Pack went 2-for-9 from the discipline and uncared for all six of their 3-pointers whereas no longer attempting a free throw.

“We now accept as true with a team that can web sizzling at any moment, even by metrics, must you loyal gaze at it,” Holmes mentioned. “We did a genuinely factual job with that. We got sizzling after we got sizzling. We caught collectively. That is what occurs.”