Flyers Spoil Spiders Upset Effort in Double OT

Saturday, March 1

Dayton, OH

2 PM

University of Richmond

10-20,5-12Atlantic 10

Dayton

20-9,10-6Atlantic 10

OT 1

OT 2

Richmond

Dayton

03/01/2025 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

DAYTON, OHIO — The Richmond Spiders came up just short in their bid to secure a signature win Saturday at Dayton, falling to the Flyers 74-64 in double overtime before a crowd of more than 13,000.

Richmond led for more than 21 minutes, including in the final minute of regulation and the first overtime period, but Dayton came up with big plays when it needed them to improve to 20-9 on the season. The Spiders fell to 10-20, including 5-12 in the A-10.

"Everything but the win, which is all that matters," said Spiders coach Chris Mooney. "It's a tough one to swallow, but there are certainly a lot of positives."

Richmond held Dayton to 35% shooting from the field, matching the Flyers lowest in any game this season, and to just 48 points in regulation, the fewest of any Spiders opponent this year.

"I thought we defended a super talented team who has great offensive numbers extremely well for 50 minutes. I thought we battled and fought," said Mooney.

Richmond's defense was at its best early, as the Spiders allowed just nine field goals, and only four two-pointers, in the first half, taking a 26-24 lead at intermission and keeping the sellout crowd sitting on its hands for most of the opening period.

Dayton rallied out of the locker room, outscoring Richmond 16-6 over the first nine minutes of the second half to take a 40-32 lead with just under 11 minutes left in regulation. Richmond's answer came from reserve forward Jack D'Entremont, who confidently stepped into a three-pointer from the wing, his first of the season, and followed it with a jumper in the lane.

"Jack was great. He hit the three on the throwback, that just kind of gave us a little bit of a lift because we hadn't scored early in the second half. Then he makes the shot in the lane in the same time period," said Mooney. "He's a physical player. He's aggressive. He's really seizing the moment and the opportunity that he has."

Mikkel Tyne followed with a jumper to make it a 7-0 Spiders run, and Richmond finally regained the lead with 1:51 to play on a long fadeaway from center Mike Walz to make the score 46-45 in favor of the Spiders.

Three Dayton free throws and a jump shot from Richmond's B. Artis White gave the Spiders the ball with a chance to win the game with 40 seconds left in regulation. Neskovic drew contact at the rim but the whistles stayed silent as Dayton grabbed the rebound. Richmond forced a contested three-point attempt at the buzzer which was off target, sending the game to overtime tied at 48.

The Spiders seemed to be on the cusp of their best win of the season twice in the overtime period. A runner by Dusan Neskovic gave Richmond a 57-54 lead with 53 seconds on the clock. But Dayton's Malachi Smith buried a jumper from the top of the key to tie the score with 34 seconds to play. Again, Neskovic came through with a clutch bucket, driving for an emphatic dunk with seven seconds to go. Dayton calmly inbounded the ball to Nate Santos, who dribbled into the frontcourt, crossed over to his left and put his head down on his way to the rim, laying the ball in with less than a second left to send the game to double OT.

"We had a great possession with Dusan where he gets through all the way to the basket for a dunk and then as they're coming down court we actually have the matchup we want. B. Artis was guarding Santos," said Mooney. "Santos is a great player, but he's a much better right-handed driver and we have a guard on him going to his left and he makes a great play."

Richmond ran out of gas in the second overtime, going 0-7 from the field and getting all five of its points at the foul line. Dayton was even more productive from the charity stripe, scoring eight of its 15 points on free throws to pull away for the win.

Free throws hurt the Spiders throughout the game, with Dayton getting 23 points from the foul line (on 33 attempts) and Richmond making only 11 (on 15 attempts). Richmond was whistled for 27 fouls, its most in a game since 2016 at Oral Roberts (also 27).

"I guess we have to go back and look at what kind of things can we do to get ourselves to the free throw line a little bit more," said Mooney.

Neskovic led Richmond with 17 points before fouling out in the second overtime. Walz had 15 points and seven rebounds, tied for the most among Spiders with Tyne, who also scored 13 points. Walz registered a team-high five of Richmond's 11 assists.

"There's a lot of pain right now," said Walz after the game. "Nobody wants to go through what we just went through, especially in a building that's so hard to win in. With the season that we've had, it would have just been such an emotional victory for us. But there's so much to take out of this game. I think we have so many positive things to come out of this game with."

Richmond has a midweek bye and will wrap up the regular season A-10 schedule Saturday vs George Mason at 6 PM in the Robins Center.

"We'll have the opportunity this week to talk a lot more about [this game] but I want them to have the feeling [that] they're proud," said Mooney. "Not satisfied — but it certainly feels a lot closer than it has at other points in this season."