By PAUL GOTHAM
BROOKLYN — Less than 10 minutes remained in Friday’s Atlantic 10 quarter-final matchup. Richmond’s ShawnDre Jones dribbled into the open court from the right side. Without a defender between Jones and basket, it looked like a routine layup opportunity. Then the junior guard glanced to his left and saw Dayton’s Dyshawn Pierre in pursuit. Jones hesitated. His layup glanced off the backboard and into the hands of Charles Cooke. Opportunity eliminated.
Such was the case for much of the University of Dayton Flyers 69-54 victory. A spirited Dayton defensive effort from the opening tap gave Richmond little to no chance.
By the time Richmond connected for their second field goal of the day, Dayton led 20-7, and the Spiders never cut the deficit to single digits.
“I thought our defense in particular in the first half was as good as it’s been,” Dayton head coach Archie Miller said. “We were much tougher around the basket, much scrappier on the glass, and our defense carried us for most of the game.”
Dayton limited Richmond, shooting 48.7 percent for the season, to 18-of-57 (31.6) from the floor and held the Spiders 23 points under the season output. A far cry from 10 days ago when Richmond shot 52.6 percent and scored 84 points in a loss.
“They got 84 on us and killed us in transition and killed us inside,” Miller noted. “We had a heavy emphasis coming into this one, one, eliminating transition, and two, doing a much better job inside, and I thought that was a big key was them not being able to operate in and around the paint in the first half, guys did a good job digging balls out and being physical.”
Attacking the rim early, Dayton’s offense clicked scoring on six of the game’s first 11 possessions.
Kendall Pollard hit a turnaround jumper from the left block. Kyle Davis drove the lane and finished with a scoop. Pierre drove from the free throw line for two. Darrell Davis took a Pierre feed from the block and drilled a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer from the left corner. Scoochie Smith got to the rim for a basket, and Pierre made it a 14-4 game with a pair of free throws.
“We try to get guys moving, interchangeable parts, try to find the mismatches so to speak,” Miller explained. “I thought we had some good post action going on early. Dyshawn in particular I thought did a good job finding guys out of the post or working for himself. But just in general, trying to play inside-out is always an emphasis for us, especially against Richmond. You don’t want to settle for a lot of challenge threes.”
Four minutes later, Kyle Davis pushed the advantage to 20 with a pair of free throws.
Dayton’s defense forced six turnovers in the first 12 minutes and held Richmond to two field goals in their first 20 possessions.
“They were a lot tighter on defense than they were last time,” Richmond’s T.J. Cline said. “I just thought that they took away some of the passes that were there that would open some of the lanes that we capitalized on last time, and they made adjustments from last game, and it worked for them.”
For Miller, a six-day layoff between games served his team well.
“We played late last Saturday and took a couple days in a row off, get our legs back under us, and then I thought Tuesday and Wednesday we had about two of the best practices we’ve had since probably early January, late December,” the fifth-year coach said. “I mean, we looked the part, competitive. Guys were really working hard. And I thought that carried over as much as anything into our game today was an attitude. We brought what we worked on here, and we’ve got to get — we’ve got to get going a little bit better on offense just in terms of the ball movement, but I was happy with our effort level. We came in ready.”
Cooke led UD with 14 points.
“We got it going pretty early, got some good looks,” Cooke said. “We put in a lot of work the past two practices just trying to execute our game plan, so it felt like we got some really good looks to start off the game, which got us going for the most part.”
Richmond cut the lead to 11 right before halftime, but Dayton responded with an 11-4 run coming out of the locker room.
“They obviously just outplayed us today for the entire game,” Richmond head coach Chris Mooney said. “It’s hard to believe a week or so ago we scored 84 points, but they played a very good game, and we were just behind the whole time. Didn’t shoot well at all and never gave ourselves a chance to come out of that hole.”
Ten different Flyers scored. Pierre notched a double-double with 10 points and a game-high 14 rebounds. UD outrebounded Richmond, 48-30.
Cline led scorers with 25. The junior forward scored 36 in Dayton’s win at Richmond on March 1st.
Dayton advances to Saturday’s where the Flyers will meet the winner of the Saint Joseph’s and George Washington.
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