ANALYZING NIGHT WHEN UD JUST COULDN’T MISS
Outright A-10 title earned in UD’s best offensive showing.
The shots kept falling. The shooting percentage rose. Everyone knew the Dayton Flyers had caught fire at the right time, delivering their best offensive performance of the season in front of a national television audience on ESPN2 with the chance to clinch the outright Atlantic 10 Conference championship online.
For most fans and media in the building, however, it was hard to keep track of just how strong Dayton was shooting the ball. Anyone could have stuck their nose in their phones, connected to the Fioptics WI-FI and examined the play by play. However, they would have missed some unforgettable moments on the court.
It wasn’t until after the game that everyone noticed Dayton had won its 27th game by making 27 straight 2-point field goals. The Flyers shot 72.3 percent from the field in an 82-67 victory against Davidson. That number stood out on its own as the second-best shooting performance in school history.
The greater achievement came inside the 3-point line. Dayton missed its first 2-point attempt, a jump shot by Jalen Crutcher just over two minutes into the game, and then made 27 in a row.
“(That’s) unheard of,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “Great job tonight taking quality shots and sharing it. We had one of those nights where it was good to see the ball go in, but overall, we played really really well on both ends tonight.”
How did Dayton become the first team in the nation since at least 2010 to make 27 straight 2-point field goals and the first team in the last 20 seasons to shoot 96.4 percent from 2-point range? Here’s a by-the-numbers rundown of the amazing feat:
13: Number of assists on 2-point baskets
Rodney Chatman, Crutcher and Obi Toppin each had three. Dwayne Cohill, Ibi Watson, Trey Landers and Ryan Mikesell all had one.
In all, Dayton recorded 20 assists on 34 made field goals. It ranks fourth in the country with 17.6 assists per game.
12: Number of jump shots
Watson continued to struggle from behind the arc, missing all four of his 3-point attempts. He has made 1 of his last 17 in a seven-game stretch. In this game, however, he made six 2-point shots, including five jump shots. He scored 13 points, his highest total since Jan. 25.
8: Number of layups
Five different players scored on layups. Chatman and Cohill each had two layups. Mikesell, Watson and Landers all had one. Jordy Tshimanga scored on a tip.
7: Points scored by Cohill
The sophomore guard made 3 of 3 field goals and 1 of 2 free throws. He has made 13 of his last 14 fieldgoal attempts and 11 of his last 12 2-point attempts. That covers the last seven games in which he has played double-figure minutes. He’s shooting 54 percent on the season (27 of 50).
6: Number of dunks
Toppin dunked four times. Landers dunked twice. Toppin regained the national lead in dunks. He has 94, two more than Kansas center Udoka Azubuike. Landers has 13 dunks. The rest of the team has 25 dunks, and nine of those were by Chase Johnson, who withdrew from school in January.
4: Number of alley-oop passes
Landers caught a lob pass from Crutcher for a dunk. Crutcher threw a pass from beyond half court to Toppin for another dunk. Crutcher and Toppin connected again in the final minute of the first half with Crutcher penetrating into the paint and lofting a pass to Toppin.
In the second half, Landers lobbed a pass to Jordy Tshimanga, who was able to tip the ball in for his only basket and only shot.
3: Number of shots made while drawing a foul
Watson converted a 3-point play in the second half. Cohill twice made shots while being fouled and converted one of the 3-point opportunities.
2: Number of floaters by Crutcher
The Dayton guard has turned the short floater into his go-to shot. He scored 10 points in the game by making 2 of 3 2-pointers and 2 of 4 3-pointers.