UD Survives UNLV 66-65 with Late Heroics

Fresh off a huge victory over #6 Marquette and rewarded with a #22 national ranking for their efforts, the Dayton Flyers hosted the UNLV Runnin' Rebels on Tuesday night, surviving 66-65 on late-game heroics and avoiding the proverbial "hangover" loss that would have taken the air out of the tires following the big win three days prior . UD improves to 10-2 while UNLV drops to 5-5.
The Rebels arrived in Dayton to finish off the tail end of a two-game home/home series between the distant non-power conference schools. The Flyers lost 60-52 at the Thomas & Mack Center in 2022 despite holding a double-digit halftime lead. It was the first-ever meeting between the schools and scheduling difficulties delayed the return game until this year.  The short mid-week turnaround for Dayton resulted from accommodating the Marquette series at the 11th hour.  The school Jerry "the Shark" Tarkanian made famous lost 80-74 to Memphis on Nov. 9th, and beat Flyer foe New Mexico State 72-65 three days after UD topped the Aggies 74-53.  UNLV also lost 80-58 to #25 Mississippi State and 66-61 to Northwestern -- another team Dayton beat. More recently, the Rebels lost 83-65 at Creighton.
The Flyers opened an early 9-2 lead but in a theme that would repeat itself throughout the game, UNLV answered with a run of their own to tie the game at 11-11 shortly thereafter.  After another UD run to open up a 22-14 advantage, the Runnin' Rebels called timeout and quickly erased the deficit once again by tying...