Atlantic 10 title on the line Wednesday for Dayton women

Flyers enter regular-season finale tied with Saint Louis, GW

Coach Shauna Green knows she couldn’t have drawn up a better script for the Dayton Flyers.

The team will honor four seniors — Christy Macioce, Andrijana Cvitkovic, Saicha Grant-Allen, and Kelley Austria — before their last game at UD Arena at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Then they will play Saint Louis. The winner clinches at least a share of the Atlantic 10 Conference regular-season title.

“It’s your senior night,” Green said. “You’re playing at your own place with a chance to win the championship. This is why you all came here. This is why you play basketball. They’ve all worked so hard this year. They’ve stuck together as a team. They deserve this opportunity.”

Dayton (18-9, 12-3) enters the regular-season finale tied with Saint Louis (22-6, 12-3) and George Washington (19-8, 12-3). The Colonials play at Richmond (13-15, 7-8) at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Dayton seeks its first regular-season title since it won back-to-back championships in 2013 and 2014.

After winning 11 straight games, the Flyers have lost two of their last four games. They have played without point guard Jenna Burdette, who suffered a leg injury in practice in the first week of February, in the last five games. Burdette could return to action Wednesday.

“As of right now, she should be available for tomorrow potentially,” Green said Tuesday. “Who knows how many minutes she will play. I have no way of knowing. She’s doing better. She’s feeling better. It’s been one day a time. Hopefully, she’ll feel good today.”

The Flyers could have clinched a share of the regular-season title Sunday but lost 66-52 at Fordham (19-10, 10-5). The team has been in good spirits since that defeat, Green said.

“The thing about this team is anytime adversity hits, whatever it would be, they’ve come together,” Green said. “We played really well against Duquesne after that GW loss. That’s what we talked about after Fordham. We learned from it. We moved on.”

Dayton beat Saint Louis 78-67 on Jan. 15 at Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis. Burdette scored 21. Jayla Scaife added 16 points off the bench. Dayton held two of the league’s top scorers, Jackie Kemph and Sadie Stipanovich, to a combined 17 points. Together they average 29.1.

A key for Dayton will be shooting the ball better. In their last two losses to George Washington and Fordham, the Flyers combined to make 6 of 25 3-pointers (24 percent). They’re shooting 33.6 percent from 3-point range in A-10 play.

“Sometimes we try to over-complicate this game,” Green said. “It’s pretty simple. When we hit a couple of big shots early, everything flows from there. Your defense is better. Your offense is better. I think it’s going to be really big if we can come out and hit a couple of shots early.”


WEDNESDAY’S GAME

Saint Louis at Dayton, 7 p.m., Spectrum Sports, FM 95.7, AM 1290 WHIO

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