By Hal McCoy
Dayton, OH. — It was not an engraved invitation nor was it a hand-written invitation.
But the Illionois State basketball team definitey was inviting the University of Dayton to join it at the top of the scoreboard.
The Flyers did knock on the door, but couldn’t get it open Wednesday night in the National Invitation Tournament quarterfinals at UD Arena.
Illinois State held Flyers at arm’s length for a 61-55 victory in front of 10,444 fans.
With 9:05 remaining in the game, Ilinois State led by 19, 53-34, because the Flyers couldn’t throw the ball into the Great Miami River if they all stood on the Stewart Street bridge.
The Flyers missed 20 of their first 21 three-point attempts and finished 3 for 25. They could have pulled a senior citizen out the 400 level to shoot that poorly.
Then came the invitation via a slew of missed shots and five turnovers in 7 1/2 minutes by the visitors.
The Flyers exploded on a 14-0 run, cutting the lead to 53-48 with 2:25 left. And UD pushed to within five twice, 55-50, and 57-52, with 47 seconds left.
The crowd was on its feet, shaking the walls and it implored the Flyer to stage a Mircale Finish. But they had dug themselves into a deep black hole, too deep to scramble to the surface.
Time ran out and the season ran out with the Flyers finishing 25-12 with no hardware to put in the trophy case.
The tone was was set eary in this one. The Flyers began the game looking as if they’d rather be canoe-ing on the Great Miami River. Illinois State jumped to a 13-0 lead in the first 4 1/2 minutes and the Flyers were mostly tone deaf trying unsuccessfully to catch up.
They never did.
“I don’t think we came in with the right mindset these last two days,” said UD guard Jordan Derkack. “That bit us in the butt early. When you go on the road there is more fire.
“The last couple of days when we figured out we were at home I felt we just kinda coasted in practice a little bit. There was a little coasting going on,” he added.
UD coach Anthony Grant piled and heaped praise on his players for their grit and elasticity and resiliency over an injury-plagued season.
It continued Wednesday. After the Flyers fell behin 13-0, they scrambled back to within 15-8 with 11 1/2 minutes left in the first half.
That’s when Javon Bennett went down with injury and never returned. For the Flyers, losing their leading scorer and their spiritual leader was like a Ferrari losing its accelerator.
In a matter of minutes after Bennett sat down, Illinois State led 31-14 and there were more long faces on the UD bench than one fines in a horse barn.
Of his team’s performance Wednesday, Grant was evasive.
“Hey, listen, I could sit here and try to diagnose it, I could be a Monday morning quarterback for you. But I’m going to choose not to do that,” he said.
“We didn’t play our best but I don’t want to take anything away from Illionios State,” he added “But I thought mentally and physically. . .today was not our finest hour. Tonight was not our night for a variety of different reasons.”
Eleven different Flyers tried three-points but only Amael L’Etang (2 for 6) and Bryce Heard (1 for 3) connected. Overall the Flyers were 19 for 63 (30.2%).
Heard came off the bench to lead the Flyers with 12 points while Derkack also came off the bench to score 11 and L’Etang scored 10.
Illinois State advances to the semifinals next Thursday in Indianapolis against Auburn.
Illinois State head coach Ryan Pedon is a Columbus native who played college basletball at the College of Wooster and was an assistant coach for Charlie Coles at Miami and an assistant for five years under Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann.
“This is a tough environment, I’ve been here many times,” said Pedon. “Grew up as a kid coming here (UD Arena), watching my high school team. I’ve seen many UD games here, coached in a good handful of ‘em when I was at Miami.
“I knew what a tough environment this would be, so I’m just really proud of our guys,” he added. “The composure you need for any road team coming in here. It’s a very difficult place to win.”
His team nearly lost that composure when the Flyers erupted from the 53-34 deficit to close to within 53-48 with 2 1/2 minutes left.
The Redbirds made four of six free throws in the final 42 seconds to hold on.
“We’ve never played in front of this many people (10,444),” said Pedon. “We never played in an enironment like that, but I knew what it would be like. I wanted to prepare them, but I didn’t want to alarm them or overplay it.
Whatever he said, how he downplayed it, it worked, especially for 5-foot-11 junior guard Johnny Kinziger. He buried two quick threes to open the game and start the 13-0 run on his way to game-high 16 points.
“It really was an incredible environment,” said Kinziger. “The Dayton fans. . .they’re awesome. But we stuck together in the hard times tonight. We knew it was going to be tough.
“It’s a great crowd here, so we couldn’t let their runs turn into bigger runs,” he added.
The Flyers put together a huge run — 14-0 to climbe from 53-34 behind to within 53-48.
And when Illinois State led, 55-50, with 48 secons left, it was Kinziger, with the crowd raising the roof, who hit two free throws, the final thrust to UD’s mid-section.