Grant improved to 3-0 in his career at Richmond’s Robins Center. He beat the Spiders in 2006, 2007 and 2008 as Virginia Commonwealth’s head coach. Two of those victories came at Richmond.
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This victory wasn’t a surprise one respect because it continues Dayton’s trend of alternating wins and losses. However, it’s a breakthrough of sorts for Dayton, even if the victory came against the worst team in the league, because it’s the team’s first true road victory.
The Flyers improved to 8-8 and 2-2 in the Atlantic 10 heading into a Friday night game at home against Virginia Commonwealth. The Spiders dropped to 3-13 and 1-3 in the conference.
Dayton led this game for 34 minutes, 15 seconds and never trailed in the second half. Richmond got as close as two points after falling behind by 15 early in the second half. Even with 1:13 to go, Dayton’s lead was only 80-77. A putback by Trey Landers with 42 seconds left allowed the Flyers to breathe a little easier in the final minute.
Landers scored a career-high 18 points. Thirteen of them came in the second half. Josh Cunningham led the Flyers with 20 points, making 8 of 8 field goals.
“I’m proud of the effort our guys put forth tonight,” Grant said. “Every game has ebbs and flows. Every team is going to make a run. Richmond did a great job in the second half of putting themselves in position to make it a one-possession game, but our guys showed a lot of toughness and resiliency, stayed together and fought through and preserved a hard-fought win.”
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