By PAUL GOTHAM
DAYTON, OH — Dictionary.com defines balance as equal distribution of weight or amount.
Saturday afternoon that definition took the shape and form of an inside-outside attack of the No. 17 Saint Mary’s Gaels which held on to defeat an under-manned Dayton Flyers, 61-57.
Calvin Hermanson hit four of nine from behind the three-point arc en route to a team-high 16 points, and 6-foot-11 Jock Landale netted 15 in the paint to lead the Gaels to their third straight win to open the season.
Hermanson’s three from the right corner gave Saint Mary’s its largest lead of the game at 54-34 with 8:20 remaining in the game.
“Credit a very, very good Saint Mary’s team,” said Dayton head coach Archie Miller. ” I think everybody understands now why there’s so much talk about them. It’s well deserved. A very veteran-oriented, methodical system. We had deal with their ball movement, shooting and size.”
Landale scored 11 points in the first nine minutes of a game in which the Gaels never trailed.
After hitting a pair of early free throws, Landale finished a pick and roll with Emmett Naar. He converted a rebound and putback and took a Joe Rahon lob in the post and scored off the glass for a 19-11 Saint mary’s advantage.
“We knew regardless of who was on our team, this was going to be an unbelievable challenge for us this early in the season,” Miller said referring to the recent injury to Josh Cunningham and the pre-season injury to senior forward Kendall Pollard. “Coming into the game size was really a concern.”
The Gaels out rebounded Dayton 38-31 and outscored the Flyers on second-chance points (17-11) and points in the paint (22-14).
“Our glaring weakness right now is our interior toughness and our group toughness on the glass,” Miller noted. “We are just not the team we typically have been in terms of the scrappiness, the nasty mentality. We’ve been small before, but we’re not rebounding with any force and it’s not going to be any different against other team that we play.”
Charles Cooke scored nine of his game-high 19 points in the final 6:21 of the game as the Flyers eventually cut the deficit to two at 59-57 with 25 seconds remaining.
“There’s a resolve about us,” Dayton coach Archie Miller said. “I’m not disappointed we lost. I’m disappointed in the way we lost. The last eight minutes should be the full 40 minutes in terms of the toughness and the resolve on both ends.”
Scoochie Smith drilled a 3-pointer from the left wing, and Ryan Mikesell scored on a drive. Cooke hit a three from the top and knocked down four straight free throws cutting the deficit to a dozen at 56-44 with 3:31 remaining.
“To be down 20 with eight to go and to have the ball with twenty-some seconds to go down two. Give credit to the internal leadership. Charles, Scooch, Kyle (Davis) they’re talking. They’ve been there before. They know one stop after a stop can lead you to some transition. I thought us just being able to get back in the game was a good sign in terms of our commitment. We’re going to put this to bed.
“Just like the Alabama game on Tuesday we’ve could have very easily folded there a couple times. We didn’t.”
Sam Miller‘s rebound and putback made it a 58-54 game, and Cooke used a spin move in the lane to get contact and set up a leaner to make it two-point game at 59-57 margin with 25.7 seconds on the clock.
When Cooke’s free throw attempt kicked out of bounds, the Gaels were forced for the third time on the afternoon to call a timeout before getting the ball inbounds.
Dayton had a chance to tie the game when Xeyrius Williams stole the ensuing inbound pass, but the sophomore was whistled for an offensive foul when he tried to go to the basket.
“He did fine,” Miller commented. “That’s not the reason we lost the game.
“You just got to pick it up. Any time you have a steal or a loose ball, the first thing you do is pick it up. Pick the ball and just see. In his defense, he picked it up and a little bit of a fray, craziness. He just put it down. Once you put the ball down at that point in time you’re going to be in a situation where you’re in traffic.”
“We had some real scramble opportunities there at the end,” Miller added. “We had some situations where they took the ball out and couldn’t get it in. We had some deflections. We just needed one of those things to go our way. I think we could’ve gotten another basket.”
Dayton used three-quarter court pressure to score eight straight late in the first half. Mikesell converted one of two from the free throw line before Cooke scored four straight the stripe. Darrell Davis made it a six-point game when he connected on a catch-and-shoot three pointer from the left wing.
Smith started the play on the right side when the senior point guard beat a defender with the dribble and fed Williams opposite who in turn led Davis for the trey. Saint Mary’s led 32-26.
The Gaels scored seven straight going into the locker room for a 13-point advantage.
Landale pulled down a game high 14 rebounds.
Naar finished with eight assists. The junior guard came into the game averaging 9.5 dimes per contest. Saint Mary’s scored 24 points behind the arc.
Smith scored 16 points.
After committing eight turnovers in the first half, the Flyers had just four mishandles in the second half. UD forced 10 Saint Mary’s turnovers in the second stanza.
“From an offensive perspective, eight turnovers in the first half is really hard to deal with,” Miller noted. “We’ve played three games now I think we’ve turned it over eight or nine times every first half. Then we turn it over two or three times the second half… taking care of the ball continues to really hurt us. We didn’t make enough shots today. If you go back two games we’re making shots, whatever. I thought we had some good looks. They just didn’t go in.”
UD heads to the Wooden Legacy where they will face Nebraska Thanksgiving night. An 8:30 pm tip time is slated.
Saint Mary’s hosts San Jose State Tuesday night.
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