SALT LAKE CITY — With 7:39 left on Thursday, 10th-seeded Nevada was up 17 points on seventh-seeded Dayton, and an upset seemed almost destined, if not guaranteed.
At the time, the Wolf Pack had a 99.1% chance of advancing to the second round of the NCAA men's tournament, according to ESPN Analytics. That improved to 99.5% with 7:14 left in the game, just as Dayton began to chip away at Nevada's lead.
The Flyers then went on a 24-4 run to cap the biggest comeback in the NCAA Tournament since 2018, winning 63-60 at the Delta Center. Dayton will face the second-seeded Arizona Wildcats in the second round on Saturday.
“I thought down the stretch we got into a rhythm where guys understood how we wanted to attack them and how we needed to make plays for each other,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “You saw guys doing a good job attacking the rim, extra passes for threes, passing the ball to Deuce (DaRon Holmes II) inside, himself making plays or making plays for his teammates, which is really how we've played.” .
Nevada senior guard Kenan Blackshear described the final seven minutes as a “crisis.”
“I can't really put it into words,” he said.
Wolf Pack coach Steve Alford said he never expected Nevada's season to end with a 24-4 losing streak. But a series of mistakes, including one in which two players hit the ball out of bounds, and “unusual things” like not rotating defensively led to their elimination in the first round, Alford explained.
“Really poor offense in the last seven minutes,” Alford said. “Very bad defense. When you do that in this scenario, you're probably not going to win many games. That's really what happened tonight.”
Grant showed no panic when the Flyers trailed by 17, and his players said that poise rubbed off on them.
“Those times, that's when we get closer,” Dayton guard Koby Brea said. “I think we've been in those situations a couple of times this year. I think we feel comfortable in those situations. When we look at our captain, at our coach, we see that he's not worried, he believes in us, everyone from “The last player on the bench, every coach, everyone believes in us. We believe in each other. We trust each other. “We're capable of doing those kinds of things.”
Grant added: “We felt really good. We felt good where we were. We felt like we could continue to make the plays we needed to. The guys made the plays offensively and we were able to be disruptive defensively. We made all the plays.” difference in the world for us.”
Dayton fell behind with 2:19 left in the first half when Nevada's Jarod Lucas gave the Wolf Pack a 27-25 lead with a step-back 3-pointer. The Flyers didn't regain the lead until 2:01 remained in the game, when Holmes put the Flyers up 59-58. But even then, the Flyers couldn't maintain their slim lead. Nevada's Kenan Blackshear, whose father, Kerry Blackshear Sr., was coached by Dayton head coach Anthony Grant at Stetson, gave the Wolf Pack the lead again at 60-59 with 1:03 left.
Then, with 34 seconds left, Dayton guard Enoch Cheeks scored a layup to put the Flyers ahead, making it final, 61-60.
After Nevada sophomore forward Nick Davidson lost the ball during a cross with 16 seconds left, Cheeks recovered it and was fouled. He made two free throws to seal the final score.
“We never had any doubt,” Holmes said. “We fell out a lot. There may be times when we argue on the court, but at the end of the day we know we have each other. That's what matters. If you want to win important games, you have to stick together.” just with anything.”
Dayton scored 17 straight points to start its comeback streak, during which the team was nearly perfect. The Flyers were 7 of 7 from the field, including 4 of 4 from 3-point range. They were also 6 of 7 from the free throw line with just one turnover. During the streak, Brea scored nine points, all on three-pointers, Holmes scored eight, Cheeks scored six and Nate Santos scored three.
While Dayton couldn't miss, Nevada couldn't find the basket. The Wolf Pack shot 2 of 9 from the field and missed all six of their three-pointers without attempting a free throw.
“We have a team that can get hot at any time, even in terms of metrics, if you just look at it,” Holmes said. “We did a really good job with that. We got hot when we got hot. We stuck together. That's what happens.”
