By Hal McCoy
Peoria, ILL. — The assignment, if the University of Dayton chose to accept it, was a difficult one.
The Flyers not only chose to accept it, they embraced it and passed the test with high-flying colors.
After losing the Atlantic 10 Conference final to Virginia Commonwealth University, missing out on an NCAA bid, the National Invitational Tournament put in a call to UD.
“Would you play in our tournament, even though you will be a higher seed and you’ll have to play on the road?”
That’s because UD Arena was occupied by the NCAA’s First Four play-in games.
The Flyers said yes and flew to Peoria to play Bradley University on its Carver Arena floor, where the Braves were 14-2 this season.
And the Flyers put on a basketball clinic with a thorough beatdown, 80-66, earning them a second round game, also on the road despite being a higher seed.
They’ll take on UNC-Wilmington in Wilmington, N.C.
After destroying Bradley, UD’s De’Shayne Montgomery told the Dayton Daily News, “We got our heart broken Sunday. Everybody used that as fuel for this tournament.
“We want to be dancing, but we’re still playing with each other at the end of the day. We’re grateful for that,” he said.
The UD-Bradley affair was a match-up between two NIT constants. Bradley was appearing in its 25th NIT with three championships. The Flyers are in it for the 29th time with four titles.
This one, though, was over in the first 2 1/2 minutes when Dayton’s Diminutive Dandy, 5-foot-10, 160-pound Javon Bennett hit a pair of threes to give the Flyers a 6-2 lead they never relinquised.
Another Bennett three late in the first half gave the Flyers a 13-point lead, 43-30 with 35 seconds left.
Bradley called a timeout to set up a two-for-one possession.
Then came a wild skirmish that buried the Braves.
Out of the timeout they turned it over. Bennett buried another three and was fouled. He completed the four-point play with :03.2 seconds left in the half for a 47-30 Flyers lead.
When the score was 38-30 with 1:20 left in the half, UD went on a 9-0 run — seven by Bennett and a three by De’Shayne Montgomery.
Bennett finished the night with 25 points, hitting 5 of 10 from outside the arc.
The Flyers had four players in double figures — Bennett (25), Montgomery (14), Bryce Heard (12) and Amael L’Etang (11).
Heard came off the bench and was perfection personified by not missing any kind of shot — 4 for 4 from the field, 2 for 2 from three and 2 for 2 from the foul line.
Jordan Derkack had an off night in the scoring column, 0 for 3 and two points from the foul line. But he contributed five assists and two steals as he remains UD’s X-factor.
The Flyers are the epitome of teamwork making the dream work.
Montgomery, pretty much missing in action in recent games, not only scored 14 points, but he completely turned off the spigot on Bradley’s leading scorer, Jaquan Johnson.
Mostly, Montgomery and the Flyers kept the ball out of his hands, forcing him to 2 for 11 from the field.
Johnson averaged 17.2 points a game, but scored only seven and didn’t have a field goal until he hit a three with 14 minutes left in the game and UD up, 53-36.
As Flyer coach Anthony Grant says, “Defense is our calling card. We’ve been good defensively all season.”
UD’s tight, harassing defense frustrated and flummoxed Bradley all night. In the first half, UD forced seven turnovers and had zero turnovers themselves.
Bradley’s only successful operative was Wright State University transfer Alex Huibregtse, a sixth-year graduate player.
His calling card is the three-point shot — 98 on the season entering the game. He made 5 of 10 threes, most of them in the second half when the proceedings were already determined, and led the Braves with 19 points.
Only one other Bradley player hit double digits, Montana Wheeler with 10.
The officials had the Bradley fans howling most of the night with 18 personal foul calls against the home team and one technical foul.
The calls, though, were legitimate.
In the late going of their loss to VCU in the A-10 finals, the Flyers missed six of seven free throws in the final two minutes, erasing a chance to cut VCU’s lead to two points in the 70-62 loss.
But on this night, the Flyers made 21 of 25 from the foul line.
And they shot 52.1% from the field (25 for 48) and were 9 for 18 from three. They protected the basketball like Brinks, only four turnovers to 10 for Bradley, seven in the first half when the outcome was determined.
And defense? In their last 11 games, only one team has scored more than 69 points against them and that was the 70 scored by VCU in the A-10 finals.