NEW YORK (AP) - Dayton coach Archie Miller calls it “advance time of the year” and his Flyers have become very good at it.
Jordan Sibert scored six points in the final five minutes on a couple of reverse layups and a nifty spin move to help Dayton slip past Rhode Island 56-52 in the Atlantic 10 tournament semifinals Saturday.
The Flyers made a run to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament last season and should be on their way to the NCAAs again, regardless of the outcome of Sunday’s A-10 championship game against fifth-seeded VCU. Dayton came up short in the race for the regular-season A-10 title, settling for second after losing its final game of the season at La Salle. A victory would have given them a co-championship with Davidson.
“That’s the thing we try to talk about most: ’This is the advance time of the year,’” Miller said. “To be playing for a championship about 12 or 13 days ago, and really not getting the job done, I’m happy for them that they have another opportunity tomorrow. But tomorrow is not going to be easy either.”
The Flyers won 59-55 at VCU in their only regular-season matchup, but the Rams were dominant in their 93-73 victory against Davidson on Saturday.
“I think any time you play VCU, first thing is take care of the ball, and that sort of can at least help you a little bit in defending the easy looks,” Miller said.
Dayton is in the A-10 finals for the first time since 2011 and looking for its second tournament title. The last was 2003.
E.C. Matthews led third-seeded Rhode Island (22-9) with 16 points. The Rams will likely continue their big turnaround season in the NIT. Rhode Island won 14 games last season.
“I think our guys felt like coming into the game that if we got the game, that we would have a chance to get in the (NCAA) tournament with the win,” third-year coach Dan Hurley said, pushing his team’s resume while seemingly resigned to the fact that an at-large bid won’t be coming selection Sunday.
“So to go 13-5 in our league, it almost - we’ll be thrilled with whatever postseason tournament we’re in.”
Sibert’s spinning move through the lane put Dayton up 46-44 with 4:43 left in the second half. Sibert’s second up-and-under layup made it 53-47 with 1:07 left. In the quarterfinals on Friday, Sibert scored nine of Dayton’s last 11 points and hit a big 3 with about a minute left to push Dayton past St. Bonaventure.
He finished with 12 points and Dyshawn Pierre had 10.
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