Dayton looked destined to watch the rest of the NCAA Tournament from home with 7:19 left to play. The Flyers trailed by 17 points, were struggling to get stops and looked hapless on offense. Add in that Nevada was a perfect 24-0 when leading after halftime and the Wolf Pack seemed destined for the Round of 32. In fact, they had a 99% chance to cover as a favorite.
Instead, Dayton went on a 24-4 run to shock Nevada … and in turn, crush the public.
The Wolf Pack were the lower seed, yet laid 1.5 points. The public agreed they were the better team as 72% of the bets and 83% of the money were on Nevada to cover. Additionally, 69% of the tickets and 60% of the money was on Nevada to win straight up at -120.
So, how did it all go down?
Well, Dayton went on a 20-0 run after Nevada’s Jarod Lucas scored five points in a 16-second span to give the Wolf Pack their 17-point lead. The Flyers’ DaRon Holmes II powered the comeback as he scored eight of those 20 points, including a dunk with an and-1 to give Dayton a 59-58 lead with 2:01 left. That was their first lead since there was 3:15 left in the first half.
Nevada took the lead on its next possession, but the Flyers took the lead on a Nate Santos layup with 37 seconds remaining. Enoch Cheeks stole the ball from Nevada’s Daniel Foster with 17 seconds remaining in the game. The Wolf Pack quickly fouled Santos, who sank two free throws to put his team up three. Nevada had a chance to tie it twice on the final possession of the game, but missed a pair of 3s.
Dayton will now take on Arizona, who easily beat Long Beach State in a win that’ll best be remembered for an awful bad beat for the public.
