UD Collapses Late in 73-68 Defeat to VCU

Winners of five of the last six games after suffering three debilitating A10 loses in a row to up-end postseason optimism, the Dayton Flyers hosted league-rival VCU on Friday evening in yet another must-win game to reclaim lost ground. UD built a five-point lead with under five minutes remaining but got outscored 12-0 in the critical stretch run to collapse 73-68 in front of another UD Arena sellout crowd of 13,407. Dayton drops to 16-8 (6-5) while VCU improves to 19-5 (9-2).
VCU and UD split last year's meetings as the Rams snuck by UD at the Siegel Center 49-47 on Feb. 9, 2024, while the Flyers prevailed 91-86 in OT a month later at UD Arena. The latter game required a second half comeback by Anthony Grant's squad to avoid defeat and maintain strong NCAA at-large credentials. DaRon Holmes II had 23pts and 10rbs while Nate Santos had 21pts and 8rbs.  The Rams hold a 11-5 record in the last 16 games in the series dating back to 2018, and a 14-7 lifetime advantage going back to 1983.
The game was sluggish from the outset as neither team found much success scoring the basketball.  The Rams took an early 6-2 lead but UD answered with a Javon Bennett trey and Enoch Cheeks layup to trim the deficit to 8-7. VCU extended it again to 15-9 on a trey by Phillip Russell with 11:48 remaining in the first half, but the Flyers spent the next six minutes closing ground until a Malachi Smith trey in transition cut the deficit to 17-16 with 5:57 left. UD took their first lead of the half at 2...