Despite going 1-2, Flyers enjoyed trip to Paradise
PARADISE ISLAND, BAHAMAS
Dayton Flyers guard Jhery —
Matos, a native of the Dominican Republic, enjoyed his time in the Bahamas this week despite a 1-2 finish in the Battle 4 Atlantis.
“The weather, the beaches, the pool, it’s stuff you don’t see a lot of times in Ohio,” Matos said. “It was very good.”
Matos had two points and four rebounds Friday in a 65-54 loss to Oklahoma in the third-place game. He’ll head back to Dayton with the rest of the team today. The Flyers played at 11:30 a.m. on the final day of the tournament, giving the players plenty of time to explore the Atlantis resort on their final day in the sun.
“Right now, we’ve got a day off,” Matos said. “We’re going to spend time with families and friends we have here. Some of the guys have families here. It will be good for them. We’ll walk around and see things we haven’t seen yet. Now it’s time to have some fun. It was a business trip, but now it’s basically over. We’ve just to relax.”
Championship game: No. 4 Virginia (6-0) beat Wisconsin 53-46 in the championship game Friday. The Cavaliers have won six November tournaments in a row.
Wayne graduate D’Mitrik Trice set a tournament record with seven 3-pointers Thursday in Wisconsin’s victory against Oklahoma. He scored 25 points.
Semifinal loss: Dayton shot 54.3 percent from the field in a 66-59 loss to Virginia on Thursday. That’s the best percentage of any Virginia opponent this season, and it would have been the best last season. Virginia’s defense has ranked in the top five in the nation in nine of the past 12 seasons.
“Their defense is consistently good night in and night out,” said Dayton assistant coach Anthony Solomon, who played at Virginia and worked as an assistant there early in his career. “We left a couple opportunities on the table. However, they had something to do with that, too. They create a lot of pressure at all five positions. They do a great job with their ball-screen coverages as well as their help positions. Each possession is just a grind. I thought it threw off our guys mentally because it can be a different type of tempo when playing them, but I thought our guys really handled it for the first time being able to see it and go and compete against it this early in the season.”
Looking ahead: Dayton plays Mississippi State (4-1) at 7 p.m. this Friday at UD Arena. The Bulldogs rank 28th in the Ken Pomeroy rankings. They have a 72-67 loss to No. 38 Arizona State and a 61-57 victory over No. 58 Saint Mary’s.
Dayton lost 61-59 at Mississippi State last season. Quinndary Weatherspoon, who’s averaging 17.6 points this season, made a winning layup with 0.8 seconds to play after stealing the ball with four seconds left. Contact this reporter at 937244-7400 or email David. Jablonski@coxinc.com.