By Hal McCoy
Washington, D.C. — In the end, it was a street fight, a barroom brawl, a throwback to the Gillette Friday Night Fights.
The University of Dayton Flyers finished with a couple of black eyes, but with a will to win they survived with a 68-66 victory over George Washington Friday night in a hostile Charles A. Smith Center.
It was a wild, heart-thumping finish before the Flyers won their fifth straight, their 20th overall win and advanced to 11-5 in the Atlantic 10 Conference.
The final 43 seconds were helter-skelter.
Keonte Jones scored only four points, but he wore the hero’s crown with a dying-seconds blocked shot.
GW’s Tyrone Marshall scored on a little side jumper with 43 seconds left to give GW a 66-64 lead.
With 21.8 secons left, Javon Bennett drove and was fouled, putting a 91% free throw shooter on the line. He made the first, but alas, he missec the second, leaving the Flyers dow;n, 66-65.
But don’t put a goat’s head on him. His season’s-best 25 points, many clutch baskets, kept the Flyers afloat.
After he missed the second free throw, the Flyers fouled Rafael Castro, GW’s leading scorer, leading rebounder, leading defender and leading man.
With 20.7 seconds left he missed both free throws. While he scores, he rebounds and he defends, the foul line is a mystery. He was 2 for 10.
And GW missed 13 free throws (16 fof 29) while the Flyers made 17 of 21;
On the Castro’s second miss, UD’s Amael L’Etang was fouled and he buried both free throws to give the Flyers a 67-66 lead.
And that’s when GW got ‘Jones-ed.’
The Revolutionaries called time to set up a game-winning play with 13.9 seconds to play.
It was determined that Tyrone Marshall would drive through the paint and score a layup or get fouled.
Neither happened. Keonte Jones went straight up with both arms high in the air and blocked the shot.
There was a melee scrambling for the ball and it was shocking that GW didn’t grab it. The Revolutionaries had 16 offensive rebounds.
DeShayne Montgomery secured the ball and was fouled with 0.4 seconds left and he made one of two free throws for trhe 68-66 win.
Of Keonte Jones’ defensive dandiness, UD coach Anthony Grant said on his post-game interview with Larry Hansgen, “Coach Henderson (Assistant Coach Jermaine Henderson) knew who they were going to.
“He told our guys what we needed to do and we got the right match-up (Jones on Marshall), If we had to have a guy to get a stop at the end, that’s the guy we want,” said Grant.
“He was big-time there, big-time stop,” he added. “Then being able to come up with that loose ball (Montgomery) at the end was huge.”
In the first 11 minutes, it looked as if the Flyers would run away and hide.
Their stifling full-court pressing defense had GW playing give-the-ball-to-UD, six turnovers in the first six minutes to help the Flyers construct a 16-3 lead.
When Bennett drove for a basket midway through the half, the Flyers led, 23-10.
That’s when GW decided to quit playing with the ball on the perimeter and get it to the 6-foot-11 Rafael Castro under the basket.
He scored on a thunder-dunk and scored at close quarters, a four-point surge in less than a minute, igniting a 21-11 run that left GW down just 34-31 at intermission.
The Flyers led the entire first half and led for five more minutes into the second half. But another Castro slam dunk gave GW its first lead, 39-37, with 15:53 left in the game.
From there it was you lead and I’ll lead and you lead — six ties and 10 lead changes.
“Those guys (GW) are really good and their record (16-13, 7-9) does not do justice to how good they are,” said Grant. “They’re extremely talented, extremely well-coached (Chris Caputo). We knew it was going to be a battle.”
It was a one-sided battle on the backboards. GW knows how to clean the glass without Windex. The Revs outboarded the Flyers 35-20 and they snagged 14 offensive rebounds to UD’s two.
That led to 30 points in the paint for GW, but they scored only two points on fast breaks.
The Flyers forced 20 GW turnovers that were converted into 29 points.
But the Flyers also committed 17 turnovers, most of them in the second half skirmishes.
UD also was charged with two technical fouls, a trash-talking taunt by Montgomery after he dunked and the same on Jaiun Simon.
GW hit all four technical fouls, something that could have been deadly for the Flyers in a two-point game.
En route to his 25 points, Bennett buried six of nine three-pointers. Two of the misses came on desperate heaves as the shot clock expired. He also dished four assists and committed only one of UD’s 17 turnovers while playing 37 of the 40 minutes.
Montgomery added 11 and Amael L’Etang scored 10, but six came from the foul line, including the two game-winners. But he was only 2 for 7 from the field as the 6-foot-11 Castro put the clamps on him.
“We knew that GW is capable of being one of those teams that can compete for a championship,” said Grant. “We knew how difficult it was going to be to come in here (Smith Center) and win. We had to dig dip and our guys were able to come out with the win.
“This time of year, this type of game, you gotta make some toughness plays,” he added. “That’s what it came down to and our guys were able to make the plays.”
And Keonte Jones and his long arms in the lane made the biggest play of all.