Flyers Survive 79-76 at VCU to Earn #3 Seed

The Dayton Flyers traveled to Richmond, VA, on Friday evening for a matchup against the #25 VCU Rams in the 2024-25 regular season finale. UD made just enough plays down the stretch and avoided another near-collapse late in the game to win 79-76 and guarantee themselves the #3 seed and double-bye in the upcoming A10 Tournament in Washington, DC.  Dayton enters postseason play at 22-9 (12-6).  VCU falls to 25-5 (15-3) and suffers their only home-court loss on the season.
The Flyers suffered a painful 73-68 collapse in the prior matchup with VCU on Feb. 7th, as UD blew a 59-54 lead with under four minutes to go courtesy of a 12-0 Ram scoring run that decided the outcome at UD Arena. Nate Santos had 18pts while Javon Bennett scored 16, but UD got little help elsewhere as the Flyers surrendered a catastrophic 23 offensive rebounds.  The Rams hold a 12-5 record in the last 17 games in the series dating back to 2018, and a 15-7 lifetime advantage going back to 1983.
Javon Bennett opened the game with a three-pointer from the left wing, followed by a dunk from Amael L'Etang for the early 5-0 lead. Bennett hit another trey to extend the cushion even further before VCU finally got on the board to trim the deficit to 8-2. Enoch Cheeks answered from behind the arc for UD's third triple, but Max Shulga replied with a trey. UD held a 13-5 lead at the first media timeout despite surrendering four offensive rebounds in the first five minutes. Posh Alexander got a friendly bounce to extend t...