Dayton rallies from 17 down, stuns Nevada in NCAA event

SALT LAKE CITY — With 7:39 left Thursday, Tenth-seeded Nevada went up 17 factors over seventh-seeded Dayton and an upset appeared all however destined, if not assured.

At that time, the Wolf Pack had a 99.1% probability to advance to the second spherical of the boys’s NCAA event, in line with ESPN Analytics. That improved to 99.5% with 7:14 left within the sport, which is correct when Dayton began chipping away at Nevada’s lead.

The Flyers then went on a 24-4 run to cap the biggest comeback within the NCAA event since 2018, successful 63-60 on the Delta Heart. Dayton will face the second-seeded Arizona Wildcats within the second spherical Saturday.

“I believed down the stretch we obtained in a rhythm the place the blokes understood how we wished to assault them and the way we wanted to make performs for one another,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant stated. “You noticed guys doing a very good job attacking the rim, additional cross for 3s, ball being fed to Deuce (DaRon Holmes II) inside, him making performs himself or making performs for his teammates, which is basically how we have performed.”

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

“Cannot actually put it into phrases actually,” he stated.

Wolf Pack coach Steve Alford stated he by no means anticipated to see Nevada’s season finish on the dropping finish of a 24-4 run. However a sequence of errors, together with one the place two gamers took the ball out of bounds, and “uncharacteristic issues” like not rotating defensively led to their first-round exit, Alford defined.

“Actually, actually poor offense the final seven minutes,” Alford stated. “Very poor protection. Once you do this on this stage, you are in all probability not going to win very many video games. That is actually what occurred tonight.”

Grant did not present any panic when the Flyers trailed by 17, and his gamers stated that poise rubbed off on them.

“In these moments, that is once we get the closest,” Dayton guard Koby Brea stated. “I feel we have been in these conditions a pair instances this yr. I feel we’re comfy in these conditions. After we take a look at our captain, our coach, we see that he isn’t nervous, he believes in us, all people from the final participant on the bench, each coach, all of them consider in us. We consider in one another. We belief one another. We’re able to doing these sort of issues.”

Added Grant: “We felt actually good. We felt good the place we had been. We felt like we might proceed to make the performs we wanted to make. The blokes made the performs offensively, and we had been in a position to be disruptive defensively. Made all of the distinction on the planet for us.”

Dayton fell behind with 2:19 left within the first half when Nevada’s Jarod Lucas gave the Wolf Pack a 27-25 lead with a step-back 3-pointer. The Flyers did not retake the lead till 2:01 was left within the sport, when Holmes put the Flyers up 59-58. However even then, the Flyers could not maintain on to their slight 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 once more 60-59 with 1:03 left.

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

After Nevada sophomore ahead Nick Davidson misplaced the ball throughout a crossover with 16 seconds left, Cheeks got here up with it and was fouled. He knocked down two free throws to seal the ultimate rating.

“There was by no means a doubt in our thoughts,” Holmes stated. “We went down lots. There is likely to be instances the place we argue on the ground, however on the finish of the day we all know we’ve got one another. That is what issues. If you wish to win massive video games, you bought to stay collectively, simply with something.”

Dayton scored 17 straight factors to start out its comeback run, throughout which the crew was practically excellent. The Flyers had been 7-for-7 from the sector, together with 4-for-4 from 3-point vary. Additionally they went 6-for-7 from the free throw line with only one turnover. Through the run, Brea had 9 factors, all on 3-pointers, Holmes had eight, Cheeks had six and Nate Santos had three.

Whereas Dayton could not miss, Nevada could not discover the basket. The Wolf Pack went 2-for-9 from the sector and missed all six of their 3-pointers whereas not making an attempt a free throw.

“We have now a crew that may get scorching at any second, even by metrics, should you simply take a look at it,” Holmes stated. “We did an excellent job with that. We obtained scorching once we obtained scorching. We caught collectively. That is what occurs.”