Flyers just not ‘sharp enough’ to beat GW

Dayton dropped an 81-80 overtime decision on the road to George Washington today but qualified for the Atlantic 10 tournament after St. Bonaventure was upset at home by Fordham.

The Flyers have the same league record as the Bonnies, who dropped a stunning 76-72 decision to the lowly Rams but have the head-to-head tiebreaker. Their seed and opponent will be determined later.

UD had a four-point lead and the ball with under a minute to go in the OT but had two straight turnovers. Isaiah Armwood’s put-back dunk with 2.4 seconds left gave GW a one-point lead.

Dyshawn Pierre got off 3-pointer from the corner but the buzzer went off a fraction before he let it go.

GW struck first in the overtime, but a Pierre hit a 3-pointer, and UD took a 77-75 lead on the freshman’s spinning floater in the lane with 1:31 to go.

Armwood was called for traveling, and UD took a timeout with 1:13 left.

Pierre scored on a drive for a four-point lead, and Lasan Kromah missed two foul shots with 50.1 left. But Pierre lost his dribble near midcourt, and Joe McDonald scooped it up raced to a layup with 40.3 to go.

After a Khari Price turnover against the press, Dwayne Smith scored and was fouled with 34.7 left. He missed the free throw. And Matt Derenbecker drove and got a blocking call with 7.7 seconds left.

He missed the first and made the second for a one-point lead. But after GW’s Kromah drove and missed a scoop, Armwood followed with a put-back dunk with 2.4 seconds left.

The Flyers had to go the length of the floor and completed a long pass to Pierre, but he couldn’t get the shot off in time.

The Flyers, who are 0-7 in games decided by three points or fewer this season, are 17-13 overall and finish 7-9 in the league. GW, 13-16 and 7-9, all but locks up a spot in the A-10 tourney because of its head-to-head win against UD.

Pierre had 21 points. Kevin Dillard had 20 points before fouling out with 4:31 to go in overtime and Vee Sanford added 18.

Josh Benson had 10 points on 5-for-5 shooting before fouling out with 2:27 to go in regulation.

The Flyers were bloodied on the boards, unofficially giving up 23 offensive rebounds.

It was reminiscent of the Xavier road game where they were out-rebounded by 18 and gave up 20 offensive boards.

They would have been blown out of the Smith Center, but GW, which was third in the league in rebound margin (plus-4.6) and 13th in foul shooting (66.2), made only 20-of-42 free throws.

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