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Dayton Closes Out Regular-Season by Topping the St. Bonaventure Bonnies

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Basketball

The University of Dayton men's basketball team closed the regular season with a hard-fought 55-52 win over the 2020-21 Atlantic 10 regular season champion St. Bonaventure Bonnies.

Dayton held SBU to a season-low 52 points, and 30% shooting from the field.

Ibi Watson led UD with 14 points (5-7 FG).  A pair of freshmen – R.J. Blakney and Mustapha Amzil – added nine each.  Senior point guard Jalen Crutcher scored just six points, fouling out with 3:51 left after playing a season-low 22 minutes.  Yet he was +15 in +/- efficiency ratings.

The Flyers finish the regular season 13-8 overall, and 9-7 in the A-10.

GAME BREAKDOWN
First Half:  St. Bonaventure 27, Dayton 26

  • Dayton jumped out to a 10-5 lead at the 15:51 mark, behind a pair of three-pointers by Ibi Watson.
  • SBU scored seven unanswered points to take the lead at the next media Brea, 12-10 with 11:54 left in the half.
  • Koby Brea broke a six-minute Flyer field goal drought, and it UD trailed by one (17-16) with 7:52 to go.
  • After scoring 10 points in the game's first four minutes, it took Dayton nearly 12 minutes to get the next 10 due to eight turnovers.
  • The Flyers scored the last two buckets of the half to cut the Bonnie advantage to one 27-26 at halftime.
  • Rebounds were even (15-15) and UD held St. Bona to 38% shooting (while shooting 48% itself), but the Flyers committed 11 turnovers. Leading to 12 points off turnovers for the Bonnies.
  • Ibi Watson led the Flyers with seven points, with R.J. Blakney right behind with six.


Second Half:  Dayton 55, St. Bonaventure 52

  • UD scored the first seven points of the half to force a Bona timeout at the 17:36 mark with the Flyers ahead 33-27.
  • The Flyers led by eight (37-29) at the first media break with 16:18 to go.
  • A three-pointer by Zimi Nwokeji stretched the Dayton lead it to 11 (42-31) with 13:38 left.
  • Mustapha Amzil drained another trey to give Dayton its largest lead, 47-35, with 11:46 remaining. 
  • Jalen Crutcher was charged with his fourth foul with the 12-point lead.
  • The Flyers led 49-40 with 7:19 to go, and when Crutcher fouled out with 3:51 left, led 52-46.
  • The Bonnies made it a two-point game with a three-pointer at the 3:05 mark.
  • After a Dayton timeout, UD ran a high pick play that resulted in Rodney Chatman in hitting Jordy Tshimanga on an alley-oop layup to make the score UD 54, SBU 50.
  • The Bonnies scored with 2:40 to cut it to a 52-50 game.
  • Ibi Watson made one of two free throws at the 1:02 mark.  
  • The Flyers got a stop on the next possession, took the clock down to 10.1 seconds, and then got another stop to pull out the win.

BY THE NUMBERS

  • Every Flyer who played, scored, and all but one pulled down a rebound.
  • UD's top three scorers – Ibi Watson (5-7, 2-3), R.J. Blakney (3-4, 1-2) and Mustapha Amzil (3-3, 1-1) – combined to shoot 11-of14 from the field, and 4-of-6 from beyond the arc.
  • Five Dayton player grabbed at least five rebounds, led by Jordy Tshimanaga's seven.
  • Jalen Crutcher had five assists.
  • The Flyers held the Bonnies to 22% shooting in the second half.
  • Dayton ended the regular season 9-3 against teams with a winning record, and 4-5 against teams with a losing record.


UP NEXT

  • Dayton will face Rhode Island in the second round of the Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Championship on Thursday, March 5.  Game time is 3:30 p.m. ET.  
  • The winner advances to play the tournament's No. 2 seed, VCU in the quarterfinals on Friday.
  • Dayton is the seventh seed in the tournament.