9:01 p.m. Dayton dribbles out the clock and Hobbs slips back into his jacket. The game is put into the books as a 70-60 Dayton win, ending GW’s season. Check back later for a full post-game report. Thank you for reading, this time and any other time. It’s been fun.
9:00 p.m. Tim Johnson hits a three for GW and Hobbs has called a timeout with 35.2 seconds left. Dayton leads 70-60.
8:58 p.m. Williams gets two free throws after GW can’t score and now Dayton is up 11 with a minute to play. A GW turnover, a Dayton basket, and it’s a 13-point game with the Dayton faithful rising to their feet.
8:57 p.m. Johnson makes both shots and Dayton leads by nine with 1:30 left.
8:56 p.m. Marcus Johnson drives after a pump fake on the perimeter and scores, pushing Dayton’s lead to seven. Katuka misses a layup on the other end and then is stripped after grabbing the offensive rebound. Bynes fouls Marcus Johnson, sending him to the line for two shots.
8:55 p.m. Taylor skips a pass through traffic to Hollis as he tries to run around a screen toward the basket, but the ball bounces off of Hollis’ chest and out of bounds before he can grab it.
8:52 p.m. Huelsman misses a shot, then Hollis and company can’t grab the defensive rebound. Huelsman gets the ball back and is fouled by Smith while shooting, giving him two shots. He makes one and Dayton leads by five with 2:39 remaining.
8:51 p.m. A Lowery three puts Dayton ahead 61-55, then Taylor is fouled while driving to the hoop and gets a one-and-one with 3:04 to play. He makes the first and the second as well. Dayton leads by four.
8:50 p.m. Hollis misses the first shot and Dayton gets it going the other way.
8:48 p.m. Wright is called for a foul on the floor as Hollis tries to drive to the basket and Hollis will get a one-and-one opportunity after an official timeout. Dayton leads 58-55 with 3:52 on the clock.
8:47 p.m. Edwards fouls Huelsman, sending him to the line for two shots. His first rolls off the rim and his second falls. Dayton leads by three with four minutes left.
8:45 p.m. Bynes misses a three off the backboard as the shot clock expires, then Huelsman can’t pull down on offensive rebound on the other end. Taylor comes up with it to give GW the ball, then Smith turns it over, then Wright misses, then Smith misses. Back and forth. Dayton leads 57-55 with 4:10 to play.
8:44 p.m. Huelsman goes to the line for his two shots and makes both. Dayton is back up by two with 5:39 remaining.
8:43 p.m. A nice step-back jumper form Hollis ties the game with six minutes remaining. On the other end, Huelsman is fouled by Katuka while shooting. It’s Katuka’s third foul and Edwards replaces him.
8:42 p.m. Warren and Katuka collide in the paint, sending the six-foot Warren flying to the floor, but he’s called for the foul. Katuka goes to the line for a one-and-one amid a chorus of boos and misses the first shot. Dayton grabs the rebound, but misses a three. Hollis grabs it to head the other way.
8:41 p.m. Huelsman goes to the line for a one-and-one and his first shot hits off the back iron but bounces in, then his second touches nothing but net. Dayton leads by two with 6:54 to play.
8:40 p.m. Out of the break, Hollis scores after an offensive rebound to tie the game at 53 with seven minutes left.
8:38 p.m. Smith is fouled on the floor, sending the game into an official timeout with 7:24 to play. Dayton leads by two.
8:36 p.m. Taylor hits a three to momentarily cut the lead to one, then Williams hits one back. Hollis then tips in a Taylor miss and Dayton leads 53-51 with eight minutes to play.
8:35 p.m. Williams is fouled and heads to the line for a one-and-one. He makes both and the Flyers are back up by four with 9:15 left.
8:34 p.m. Edwards blocks Warren, then Taylor scores on a fast break to cut Dayton’s lead to two.
8:33 p.m. Hollis takes his two shots and makes both, cutting Dayton’s lead to four with 10:20 to play.
8:32 p.m. Hollis draws a blocking call and Wright and Warren collide and hit the floor hard as the whistle is blown. It did not look or sound good. Warren is up and fine, but Wright is limping off the court holding his right hip.
8:31 p.m. Dayton gets an over-and-back call against them and GW gets the ball back.
8:29 p.m. Taylor gets called for a travel when he steps before putting the ball on the floor while trying to drive from the perimeter, giving Dayton the ball on the other end of an official timeout. The Flyers lead 48-42 with 10:54 to play.
8:28 p.m. GW forces Dayton to take a contested three as the shot clock expires, but Huelsman grabs the offensive rebound and restarts the possession for the Flyers. They use up almost all of the clock again, then turn it over. Hollis comes up with the loose ball.
8:27 p.m. Taylor loses the ball out of bounds while driving and Dayton gets it back. Also, Dayton didn’t get to keep the ball after the shots because GW had possession when Hobbs was whistled.
8:26 p.m. Hobbs gets called for a technical foul as he stomps on the sideline, giving Lowery two free throws. He makes both and pushes Dayton’s lead from four to six points. The Flyers get the ball as well.
8:24 p.m. Tim Johnson tries to back into Dayton’s Mickey Perry along the baseline, but steps out of bounds in the process, turning it over. On the other end, Kromah is called for his fourth personal foul (it’s on the floor) and he’s replaced by Smith with 13:04 to play.
8:23 p.m. The Flyers get the ball to Wright under the basket almost immediately, where Katuka is called for the foul as Wright tries to go up with it. Wright makes one of two shots and the Flyers lead by four.
8:21 p.m. Smith pulls up and hits a three with Huelsman in his face, making it a six-point game. Ware then picks off a pass and saves it from going out of bounds before Smith grabs it to get it going the other way. King hits a three and now Dayton’s lead is down to three points. Gregory calls a timeout for the Flyers to talk things over and the Colonials look very fired up as they head into their huddle. There will be wholesale changes after the timeout, with five new players coming onto the floor for GW. There’s 13:50 left to play.
8:20 p.m. Williams gets his shots and makes one. Dayton leads by nine with about 15 minutes remaining.
8:18 p.m. Edwards gets called for the block and Dayton will get two free throws on the other end of an official timeout with 15:12 left in the half.
8:18 p.m. King pokes the ball loose and Smith grabs it and scores an uncontested dunk, cutting it to an eight-point game.
8:15 p.m. Ware misses a jumper out of the timeout, then Dayton can’t score on the other end. Ware goes to the hoop the next time down the floor and is fouled by Chris Johnson, giving him two shots from the line. He misses the first but hits the second, cutting GW’s deficit to 10 with 16:25 to play.
8:12 p.m. Hollis misses a jumper, then Kromah breaks up a potential alley-oop via foul before the shot can be taken. Wright drives and throws down a dunk off the inbound pass anyway and Kromah has three fouls. Hobbs has called a timeout with 17:21 to play. Dayton has started the second half on a 7-0 run. Saturday, GW was down one at halftime and gave up a 10-0 run to start the second half against Temple.
8:10 p.m. Kromah gets another chance at an open three but leaves it short on the front rim, then Warren drives and scores in transition while Katuka fouls him. He makes the free throw and Dayton goes up by nine with 18 minutes left.
8:09 p.m. The possession ends with Hollis missing a three, his first mis of the night. Dayton’s London Warren has a shot roll out on the other end and GW gets it back.
8:08 p.m. Johnson is called for a foul on the floor while battling Katuka, negating a Kromah three that he launched as the whistle blew.
8:07 p.m. Marcus Johnson opens the second half with a long jumper and Dayton takes a six-point lead.
7:58 p.m. Unlike the first meeting between these two teams in January, GW is holding its own on the glass so far, out-rebounding the Flyers by a 17-15 margin. The teams are also even in the turnover department with seven apiece and fairly close shooting the ball (GW is shooting 48.1 percent; Dayton 45.8). The big difference has been three-point shooting, where Dayton has made six of 14 shots to GW’s two-for-six clip.
Hollis is GW’s leading scorer with 11 points so far, coming on perfect four-for-four shooting, while Ware is second with six and Kromah has five. Taylor has yet to score on his four shots from the field, while King is somewhat surprisingly the team’s top rebounder with four so far.
If GW is going to pull off the upset at UD Arena tonight, it is going to need to continue to shoot the ball fairly well and grab rebounds. Also important will be a strong start to the second half, as comebacks are no small feat against a team like this in front of a crowd like this. Dayton’s 30-game home win streak was no fluke. The Flyers are shooting very well from beyond the arc – a common trend among Colonials opponents – so limiting their success (or attempts) from outside will also be key to slowing down the hosts’ offense. There’s a lot of basketball left to be played after halftime, so a four-point game can still go a number of different directions. We’ll be back with more updates when play resumes in about nine minutes and throughout the rest of the game.
7:51 p.m. Hollis pulls down an offensive rebound off a Taylor miss and scores as the first half expires, sending the game into halftime with Dayton leading 37-33.
7:49 p.m. Hollis grabs a loose ball that comes flying out of Ware’s hands as he drives, then puts it in for a layup. Dayton leads 37-31 and has called a timeout with 45.7 seconds left in the first.
7:48 p.m. Marcus Johnson heads to the line after Bynes fouls him and makes both shots. The Flyers lead 37-29.
7:45 p.m. Taylor misses a three as the shot clock expires, then Edwards gets stuffed trying to score off of an offensive rebound. GW gets a defensive stop, then Ware draws a blocking call on Josh Benson to earn two shots. The first one clanks off the right of the rim and the second falls. Dayton leads 35-29 with 1:38 to play.
7:44 p.m. Kromah is stripped out of the break and Chris Johnson hits a three, putting Dayton ahead 35-28.
7:43 p.m. Ah, not a foul, but the ball going out of bounds after a Dayton player last touched it.
7:42 p.m. A Dayton foul sends the game into an official timeout with Dayton leading 32-28 and 3:12 on the clock.
7:42 p.m. Lowery answers with a three and the Flyers are up four.
7:41 p.m. King blows past Lowery and scores on a layup, giving GW a bit of a run. Dayton leads by one with 3:30 to go in the half.
7:40 p.m. Hollis draws a foul from Lowery as he drives to the hoop, earning two shots. He makes both and GW trails by three.
7:39 p.m. Hollis hits a turnaround jumper, then gets called for goaltending at the other end. Dayton leads 29-24 with 4:55 left in the half.
7:38 p.m. Struggling to penetrate still, Taylor lobs an alley-oop to Edwards, who lays it in for two. Dayton leads 27-22 with 5:24 to play in the first.
7:36 p.m. Marcus Johnson gets a trip to the line for a one-and-one after Smith fouls him. He sinks both and Dayton is now up 27-20.
7:35 p.m. A Dayton three makes it a five-point game.
7:35 p.m. Now Ware is taking his second free throw and he makes it. GW trails by two. I’m pretty sure the call was that GW had six players on the floor, which they also did the last time they played here and, most famously, when the teams met last year to lose the game.
7:32 p.m. Ware’s first free throw rolls off the rim and now there’s a stoppage as the officials discuss something. Both head coaches are being called to convene at midcourt. Hobbs starts to walk away while Gregory is still talking with the officials. Hobbs has taken a seat and now they are saying there was a technical foul on Ware. Paul Williams takes two shots for Dayton and makes both. The Flyers lead 22-19.
7:30 p.m. Kromah has a shot blocked, then Dayton takes its first lead on a Chris Johnson put-back in transition. This place just got very loud. Ware is fouled by Wright, sending the game into an official timeout with 6:55 left in the first. Dayton is up 20-19.
7:29 p.m. The Colonials again struggle to penetrate the perimeter, forcing Kromah to put up a very deep three in the shot clock’s final seconds. He misses and it goes out of bounds before Smith can grab it.
7:27 p.m. Ware misses a shot, Wright tries to toss it in as he goes out of bounds, then Ware picks it off and puts it up for two. Edwards is whistled for a shooting foul as Dearcy shoots on the other end, sending him to the line for two. The first rattles through the hoop and the second clanks off the back of the rim. Chris Johnson gets the rebound over Smith, but is called for the foul. GW has it, leading by one.
7:26 p.m. Kromah hits a long two, then Chris Johnson answers it with a three. The game is tied at 17 as it nears the nine-minute mark.
7:25 p.m. Katuka loses position with the ball inside, then tries to throw a pass back to the perimeter that sails past everyone. Hollis tries to catch up and save it, but his toss goes out. Lowery then hits a three for Dayton and GW is up by one with 9:45 to play in the first.
7:25 p.m. Searcy scores bu putting back a Wright miss and GW’s lead is back down to four.
7:24 p.m. Katuka scores inside off a pass from Johnson, then a four-man pile-up in the paint on the other end results in a jump ball. Dayton keeps it.
7:23 p.m. Wright takes his two shots after the timeout and makes one, then Lowery skies over Pellom to get the offensive board and give Dayton a new possession. They can’t score and Pellom grabs the rebound to get it going the other way.
7:21 p.m. GW can’t score out of the timeout, then Dayton gets a fast break going the other way and picks up a foul on the shot attempt. The Flyers will get two shots on the other end of an official timeout with 11:29 left in the half.
7:19 p.m. Marcus Johnson hits a jumper in transition after Taylor missed a three at the end of the shot clock, prompting Hobbs to call timeout. GW leads 13-9 with 11:56 to go in the first.
7:18 p.m. Marcus Johnson hits a jumper for Dayton, cutting GW’s lead to 13-6 with about 12:30 left in the first half.
7:18 p.m. GW again takes a while to get anything going in its half-court set, then Smith misses a three. Johnson grabs the offensive rebound but is then called for a travel.
7:16 p.m. Freshman Tim Johnson has entered the game, which reminds me that I forgot to note the nice mohawk-esque haircut he is rocking tonight.
7:15 p.m. Edwards picks up his second block of the game and King grabs the rebound. On the other end, GW takes a while to run its offense before King is stripped while driving and the ball goes out of bounds and to the Flyers.
7:14 p.m. Freshman Dwayne Smith, who replaced Kromah, tries to post up but misses his shot attempt, then gets whistled for over-the-back while going for the rebound.
7:13 p.m. Freshman Bryan Bynes picks off an inbound pass and works a fast break with redshirt junior Travis King that ends with Kromah scoring a contested layup while adjusting mid-air. GW leads 13-4, but Kromah just left the floor after picking up his second foul. Redshirt sophomore Jabari Edwards also had a nice block on a three in the corner.
7:11 p.m. Hollis hits a three on his first shot attempt of the game and Pellom rises from the bench with a rousing cheer amid the Dayton fans’ silence. GW leads 11-4 during an official timeout at the 15:50 mark after Kromah was called for a defensive foul on the floor.
7:10 p.m. Lowery falls while defending Taylor, who drives to the basket and tries to kick a pass out as the defense collapses on him. He misfires, however, and it goes out of bounds before Hollis can save it.
7:09 p.m. Ware tips in a miss for GW and the Colonials lead by four.
7:09 p.m. Chris Johnson answers with a three for Dayton. 6-4 GW.
7:08 p.m. Taylor kicks it out to Pellom, who hits a three to put GW ahead 4-1. Dayton misses a three on the other end, then Katuka gets a layup. GW leads 6-1 at the 17:30 mark.
7:07 p.m. Kromah sinks the first but misses the second, then Johnson and Searcy fight one another for the Dayton rebound and lose the ball out of bounds, giving it back to GW.
7:06 p.m. Taylor drives to his left and gets absolutely swatted by Wright with one of the loudest blocks you’ll see (or hear). Dayton has it going the other way, Pellom comes up with a steal, turns it back over, and then GW gets it back. Kromah gets blocked on a fast break layup attempt, but is fouled in the process. He takes to the line for two shots.
7:04 p.m. Katuka makes an impressive move under the basket to try a reverse layup, but misses the shot. Taylor helps break up a fast break on the other end, but Dayton keeps the ball when it goes out of bounds. Pellom is called with a blocking foul on a layup attempt by Wright, sending him to the line for two shots. He makes the first and misses the second, then Pellom grabs the board.
7:03 p.m. GW wins the tip and Kromah takes a baseline jumper, but misses. Katuka grabs the offensive rebound and is fouled by Huelsman.
7:00 p.m. GW’s starters: sophomore Tony Taylor and freshman Lasan Kromah at guard, sophomore Aaron Ware and freshman David Pellom at forward, and junior Joseph Katuka at center. Pellom starting over Hollis is certainly noteworthy.
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Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the live blog for tonight’s men’s basketball game at Dayton, where the seventh-seeded Flyers (19-11, 8-8 A-10) will host 10-seed GW (16-13, 6-10 A-10) in the first round of the Atlantic 10 tournament. The winner will move on to play two-seed Xavier in Atlantic City on Friday in the 12-team tournament’s quarterfinals.
These teams have met once this season already, when Dayton gave the Colonials their most lopsided loss of the season, winning 66-51 Jan. 20. The Flyers dominated the boards in that game, holding a 43-30 rebounding advantage, though GW has seemed to be a much better rebounding team since that game. GW enters this game having lost two straight games – at home against Saint Joseph’s and on the road against a ranked Temple team – after having previously won four of five. Dayton, meanwhile, also dropped two in a row to end its season, losing at Richmond and at home against Saint Louis. The home loss was a rarity for the Flyers, who had won 30 straight home games before losing to Rhode Island Jan. 26. The Saint Louis defeat was their first at home since then.
Dayton is led in scoring and rebounding by 6-foot-8 junior forward Chris Wright, who was recently named to the A-10’s all-conference first team. Wright averages 14.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. Sophomore forward Chris Johnson, who often comes off the bench, is second in both categories with 11.8 points and seven rebounds per game. The Flyers’ starting lineup is rounded out by guards London Warren (4.6 points, 4.2 assists per game), Rob Lowery (7.4 points per game), and Marcus Johnson (eight points per game), and forward Kurt Huelsman (4.4 points, 4.2 rebounds per game).
GW is led in scoring and rebounding by senior forward Damian Hollis (13.1 points, 4.8 rebounds per game), though he has been limited in effectiveness by a lingering rib injury lately. Second in scoring is freshman guard Lasan Kromah (11.8 points per game) and senior Hermann Opoku averages four rebounds per game off the bench. The Colonials’ usual starting lineup is rounded out by sophomore guard Tony Taylor (9.5 points, 4.1 assists per game), sophomore forward Aaron Ware (6.4 points, 3.6 rebounds per game), and the red-hot junior center Joseph Katuka (5.9 points, 3.9 rebounds per game).
There’s still a few minutes until the starting lineups are introduced and the ball is tossed up for the opening tip, so we’ll be back with updates up to and throughout the game. Thanks for reading.
