Flyers overcome St. Louis, loss of Benson
Article/Photography by Mickey Shuey
DAYTON, Ohio – As he sat between two teammates on the University of Dayton bench throughout the overtime period in the Flyers’ 79-72 win against St. Louis on Wednesday night, Josh Benson was nearly silent.
Sporting dark navy sweats, Benson – a redshirt junior forward – put his hands over his mouth and sat with vacant eyes, knowing that he couldn’t be out on the court helping his teammates. Now out for the remainder of the season with a torn ACL, someone unfamiliar with Benson could have easily misread his facial expressions as peculiar, but to those who know him well, like his teammates, it was pure desire to play again.
“We lost our brother last game and now we are playing every game for [Josh],” junior point guard Kevin Dillard said after the game. Dillard, who led the way for the Flyers (11-4, 1-0) with 18 points and 10 assists, said that playing the entire game without his teammate was tough but it had to be done regardless.
During the post game press conference first year head coach Archie Miller faced questions regarding his team’s first game without Benson as well.
“No offense to Josh, but they pulled out a big win against Ole Miss without him,” Miller said. “Josh wasn’t there for us in the big moments of that game because he [was injured].”
Dayton’s depth was tested all night long, as freshman Alex Gavrilovic and junior Matt Kavanaugh got into foul trouble early, causing more problems for their 33-year-old head coach.
The Flyers, who trailed St. Louis (12-3, 0-1) for all but a single possession in the first half went on an 8-0 run to take the 28-26 lead with 3:23 left in the period. Following a media timeout, the Flyers allowed the Billikens to regain the edge, giving up 10 unanswered, including a layup by Mike McCall with five seconds to go.
“I was really disappointed, maybe as much as I’ve been disappointed all season in our inability to finish the half the right way,” Miller said of his team’s first half performance. “We fought so hard and had such great energy in [the Arena] and it was all dictated on our defense.”
Dayton trailed for 13 minutes following halftime, before Devin Oliver hit a jumper in the paint to give the Flyers a one point lead with seven minutes remaining. St Louis regained control immediately after, but after SLU’s Cody Ellis fouled Dillard on a made layup with 42 seconds remaining, Dayton took a 62-60 lead.
With 28 seconds to go, Dillard gave the Flyers their largest lead of the night, 64-61. But, as it turned out that was no problem for St. Louis as Ellis redeemed himself with a lean in three-pointer with 1.1 seconds left to tie the game, 64-64.
In overtime, it was all Dayton. Chris Johnson, with 12 points and 10 boards, hit two big free throws in the closing seconds to seal a victory for the Flyers and give the program it’s 11th Atlantic-10 opener win in 17 attempts.
In response to a question about the decision to not foul prior to Ellis’s game-tying shot, Miller said: “It was my mistake. I’ll never do it again…”
The Flyers next face Temple on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. in Philadelphia, Penn.
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