The dunk that roared: UD’s Landers tips off a comeback
Clutch play regains fans in 53-50 win over Saint Louis.
Dayton Flyers DAYTON — guard Trey Landers watched the video of his alley-oop dunk on a reporter’s computer after the game.
“Can I get an #SCTop10?!” Landers shouted.
ESPN’s SportsCenter couldn’t do much better than this dunk, not only because it thrilled the crowd of 12,577 at UD Arena but because it was timely. The dunk by Landers, with an assist by freshman point guard Jalen Crutcher, played a big part in Dayton’s 53-50 comeback victory Tuesday against Saint Louis.
“That was a momentum swinger for us,” Landers said. “It got the fans back on our side. We were in a slump. We were down 13. That got us going. We got some stops, got out in transition and got a couple buckets.”
The play came at the 12:07 mark. Dayton trimmed what had been a 13-point deficit at the 18:09 mark to 37-35. Landers had another big basket with 1:45 to play, rebound- ing a missed 3-pointer by Crutcher and scoring to give Dayton a 50-45 lead.
Landers finished with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting. He had eight rebounds, four assists and two steals in 29 minutes. He also threw an alley-oop pass to Kostas Antetokounmpo to tie the game with 5:35 to play.
Still, the dunk by Landers was the play of the night.
“I just told Jalen, just put the ball up there and I’ll go get it,” Landers said.
Bench play: John Crosby received no playing time for the second straight game. Xeyrius Williams didn’t play for the fourth time in five games.
Walk-on Jack Westerfield played three minutes in the first half. Matej Svoboda played five minutes. Antetokounmpo led the reserves with 12 points in 19 minutes.
Next game: Dayton plays at Rhode Island (22-2, 14-1) at 7 p.m. Friday. The Rams beat the Flyers 88-74 at UD Arena on Jan. 20.
Rhode Island survived La Salle’s upset bid in the only other A-10 game Tuesday, winning 95-93 in overtime at Tom Gola Arena in Phil- adelphia.
La Salle’s B.J. Johnson sent the game to overtime with 2 seconds to play, scoring on a layup. Rhode Island’s Jeff Downtin made four free throws in the final five seconds to secure the victory.
Rhode Island avo ided its first two-game losing streak of the season. It lost its previous game 77-74 at St. Bonaventure.
Standings update: Rhode Island clinched a share of the regular-season title and can win the title outright with one victory in its last three games. It’s the first regu- lar-season championship for the Rams since they won a share of the Eastern Eight title in 1980-81.
Dayton (13-14, 7-8) moved out of a tie for eighth with Duquesne and George Mason into eighth place all by itself. Contact this reporter at 937244-7400 or email David. Jablonski@coxinc.com.