Dayton outlasts Saint Louis in A10 thriller

PITTSBURGH – The final 30 seconds of Saturday afternoon’s Atlantic 10 Semifinal showdown between Saint Louis and Dayton played all the hits that only a conference tournament game in March can deliver.

Dayton’s Amael L’Etang was the hero, tipping in a ball that seemed to hang in the air in slow motion with less than a second to go in the game. The play by whom Dayton head coach Anthony Grant nicknames “Frenchie”, was enough to give the Flyers a 70-69 win over the top seeded Billikens, and send Dayton to the A-10 Championship game for the first time in three years.

The last 30 seconds were a back-and-forth fracas of uninterrupted madness.

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Robbie Avila was called for a five-second violation under Dayton’s basket, handing the ball to the Flyers on their own end.

The Flyers were able to inbound the ball successfully, then got the ball into the hands of Javon Bennett, who looked like he had a wide-open right-handed layup driving to his right.

Saint Louis’ Amari McCottry seemingly appeared out of thin air to swat Bennett’s attempt off the glass.

The Flyers’ Keonte Jones followed the blocked shot, quickly kicking out to a wide open Jordan Derkack on the left wing. Dercack quickly threw a “one more” pass to the corner to Jacob Connor, who drilled a right corner three and sent the large contingent of Flyers fans into a frenzy.

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McCottry calmly brought the ball over the timeline for Saint Louis, and hit a wide open Avila, who was trailing the play. He drilled a wide open three from straight on, his lone made triple of the game, as L’Etang sank back into the paint following the three by Connor.

Then the sea of blue behind the Billikens bench went bonkers.

Dayton’s Jordan Derkack, who scored a season high 28 points in Saturday’s win, raced down the court driving to his right. He spun back to his left, and threw up a tough up-and-under layup wedged in between McCottry and Avila.

L’Etang rose up over Avila to tip home the miss, giving the…

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Publish date : 2026-03-15 03:02:00

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