SALT LAKE CITY — After his team came back from a 17-point deficit with less than eight minutes remaining to beat Nevada 63-60 on Thursday, Dayton coach Anthony Grant was asked if he had any early thoughts about facing No. 2 seed Arizona next.
Not surprisingly, he did not. He was kind of preoccupied in the moment, naturally.
“Obviously this game just finished,” Grant said. “What we’ll do is we’ll let the guys get back to the hotel, we’ll watch some film tonight. The coaches will be up late tonight studying Arizona. It’s a quick turnaround for both teams. We’ll try to learn about each other the best we can and we’ll be ready to go on Saturday.”
While the Wildcats earned the right to a less-taxing game in the first round by earning the West’s No. 2 NCAA Tournament seed, beating Long Beach State 85-65 earlier Friday, the No. 7-seeded Flyers will be riding a wave of good momentum into the second-round game Saturday.
“What a battle. What a battle. Just really proud of our guys,” Grant said. “They never quit, showed tremendous resiliency. They’ve done that a few times this year where the chips weren’t in our favor. They found a way.
“I’m extremely proud of the fight, the grit, the determination that our group showed tonight. … I’m proud of the way they believed in each other, believed in what we’re doing.”
Dayton guard Enoch Cheeks, left, scrapes the ball out of reach of Nevada forward Tre Coleman during the second half.
Nevada shot 48.3% in the first half to take a 34-25 halftime lead and was cruising most of the second half with a double-digit lead. Former Oregon State guard Jerod Lucas hit a 3-pointer to give Nevada a 56-39 lead with 7:39 left before the Flyers caught fire.
Then Dayton erased that entire lead with a 17-0 run that included three 3-pointers from Koby Brea, tying the game at 56 with 2:45, then hung on when Enoch Cheeks made a layup and two free throws in the final 34 seconds. Nevada missed two 3-point attempts on its final possession.
“It’s just a mindset, understanding that there’s still a lot of time on the clock,” Brea said. “We can make something happen. It’s just believing in each other, understanding that in order for us to do that comeback, we have to do it on the other side of the floor, get stops on defense. That will make it possible for us to get some points on the board, as well. Just take it one possession at a time.”
Dayton held Nevada to just 37.9% shooting in the second half, while the Wolf Pack also had eight turnovers. Dayton scored 16 total points off 12 Nevada turnovers over both halves.
Dayton standout forward DaRon Holmes, the one-time Arizona recruiting target out of Goodyear, led the Flyers with 18 points and nine rebounds.
“We have a team that can get hot at any moment,” Holmes said. “Even by metrics, if you just look at it. We got hot when we got hot.”
Arizona men's basketball coach Tommy Lloyd, speaking March 12, 2024, at McKale Center, shares what he saw in Oumar Ballo when he recruited him first at Gonzaga, and then again to Arizona when Lloyd left his job as a Gonzaga assistant coach to become head coach in Tucson. (Video courtesy Arizona Athletics)
