Afterward, VCU’s two stars of the game — Zeb Jackson and Max Shulga — talked about the way their team had overcome all odds in the final 4 minutes and 54 seconds of the game.
While they both had been instrumental in VCU’s 12-0 run down the stretch that blew apart a five-point lead by the Flyers, what each especially touched on was the way they also disarmed the once-loud, partisan and “hostile” — both players used the word — crowd at the end.
“This is a great place to play,” said Shulga, a fifth-year guard from Kyiv, Ukraine, who had 16 points and eight rebounds. “I’m not sure if it was a sellout (it was), but it sure felt like it. There’s just so many people in here and when (Dayton) is playing us, it gets pretty intense. This is a game you live for, to come into a hostile environment like this and do well.
“And then to see them leave their seats, all with sad faces, that was great.”
The same thing happened 3 ½ weeks ago when George Mason came in and outplayed UD, snapping the Flyers 26-game winning streak at home.
This time the fans left more disgruntled than they did after that Jan. 15 game.
Then it may have felt like the loss had been an anomaly. But this was now a repeat occurrence.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
And save for a brainless technical foul on a Davidson player for taunting in the final minute last Tuesday night — a freak self-destruction that helped give UD five points in two seconds — this would have been a third failure in the past five games at home.
In an arena that’s always rockin’, it was eerie in the final seconds when all you heard was a smiling Jackson clapping as he and his team headed downcourt to the free-throw line after another desperation foul by UD could do nothing to stem the tide of defeat.
“Right then, it was just the feeling that ‘this one is ours,’” said Jackson, who made 13 of his 14 free-throw attempts and finished with 17 points.
He said the only thing he knew coming into the game was that it likely would be close: “It’s always a good game when we come here. It’s very rare these games are ever like a blowout.”
And he said the crowd always is a big factor for the Flyers: “They’re always going to be crazy. A lot of times there is a theme. It’s a ‘White Out” or a ‘Red Out,’ something like that.”
Friday night, not only was there no white out or red out, but the Flyers could not box out.
UD couldn’t keep VCU off the boards. The Rams had a whopping 23 offensive rebounds … eight of them coming in the final 4 ½ minutes of play.
Compounding matters was UD’s inability to hang onto the ball. The Flyers had 19 turnovers, four coming in those crucial 4 ½ minutes at game’s end.
Irritated Grant: We have to be better
Afterward, Flyers coach Anthony Grant was as aggravated, as rankled, as irritated as any time I can remember in the past few years.
Usually a guy who keeps a lid on his emotions, he couldn’t hide his feelings. And he was in no mood for chit-chat with the press.
“I think it’s pretty obvious, the game came down to our inability to rebound the ball and our inability to take care of the ball tonight,” he said.
He held a stat sheet in his hands, and the more he looked at it, the more peeved he got.
“The stat sheet tells the story tonight,” he said he tapped the table for emphasis. “We have to do better.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
When a reporter tried to change the subject to Zed Key, who had had some moments of contributions on the court after a recent slide, Grant was in no mood to take a detour.
“We have to be better. I’m not going anywhere else with that. We lost the game. We have to be better. Zed has to be better. Everybody on the team has to do better!”
When he was asked about trying to fix the team’s rebounding woes — a continuing problem that seems pretty late in the season to resolve — he was resolute:
“Box out! Box out! Go get the ball!”
The question is: Can the Flyers do that against rugged rebounding teams?
This team doesn’t do well — especially of late — against a physical opponent.
That’s how VCU always plays, and it may well be why the Rams have won 8 of their last 11 games in this series and can walk down the UD Arena court clapping like they own it.
Friday night the Rams' intentions were evident late in the first half.
With 1:40 left, the Flyers led by three, 28-25, when Enoch Cheeks managed a defensive rebound against VCU’s 6-foot-10 Jack Clark, who tried to tie him up for a jump ball, but instead got him in a headlock, which he held onto for a couple of seconds as he pulled Cheeks along.
Clark was whistled for the foul, but the message was sent.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
VCU closed out the half with a 6-0 run as UD had one shot blocked, missed another, committed two turnovers and fouled twice.
That submission at the end of the first half and the worse collapse at the end of the game gave the Flyers their fifth loss in the last 10 games. The team that went through the non-conference schedule 10-3 is now 16-8.
All that early-season promise has — like the pile up of snow we had recently — melted into a puddle of mediocrity.
Now instead of positioning themselves for an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament, the Flyers likely will have to get an invite by winning the Atlantic 10 Tournament, something they haven’t done since 2003.
Links between the rivals
Some 30 minutes after the game, the only buzz of activity on the court was down by the Rams bench, where a few of the victorious players mingled with their fans.
Unexpectedly, Flyers freshmen Amaël L’Etang and Hamad Mousa sat at the end of the Rams bench, huddled with their agent Bouna Ndiaye, who had helped bring them here from overseas.
L’Etang came from France, Mousa from Qatar.
Mousa had not played in this game and L’Etang started, but eventually gave way to Key, the former starter who is in his fifth college season, and on this night seemed more equipped to deal with the Rams’ physicality.
UD associate head coach Ricardo Greer walked down to say something to Ndiaye, who also had been his agent when he was playing professionally in France. That was the connection that got this pair of freshmen to Dayton.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
On the way to the end of the visitors’ bench, Greer passed Jackson, who is from Toledo and had 26 people here for the game. He tapped Jackson on the shoulder and the Rams’ fifth-year guard, who played his first two seasons at Michigan, smiled.
“I love their coaching staff,” Jackson said. “Coach Greer recruited me out of high school.”
Asked how seriously he considered UD, Jackson nodded: “I was probably closer than they thought I was. That was something me and my dad talked about a lot.
“I remember coming to a game here. We sat behind the bench and I loved it. This is a basketball school. A basketball town.
“And I really loved the crowd. How they got behind their ream. How loud they were all night long.”
Until Friday night.
In those final seconds.
Then, the only sound was Jackson clapping as he walked down the court, ready to make two more free throws and send the Flyers to a crushing loss.
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