NEXT GAME
St. Francis (Pa.) at Dayton, 7 p.m. Wednesday, WHIO, 1290, 95.7
Dayton needed about five seconds to perform a basketball miracle Saturday at UD Arena. Jordan Sibert had the ball in his hands for less than a second before hitting the game-winning 3-pointer.
The celebration of that 81-80 victory against Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne lasted much longer.
“Twitter blew up. My phone blew up,” said Sibert on Monday as the Flyers returned to practice in preparation for a 7 p.m. home game against St. Francis (Pa.) on Wednesday. It was just a great feeling to enjoy that with my teammates. They were going crazy all night watching it on TV.”
The shot was named SportsCenter’s top play on Saturday, beating the last-second shot made by the Celtics’ Jeff Green to beat the Heat.
On Twitter, Sibert, or “Smooth_Jordan” as he’s known there, received congratulations from former Buckeye Scoonie Penn.
“Big shot Jordan, I screamed like a lil’ girl when you hit that shot,” Penn wrote.
Sibert himself wrote, “I truly appreciate all the love and support from family friends and fans!!!! I am beyond blessed!”
Two of the players who touched the ball in the final sequence were playing their first regular-season game with the Flyers. A sophomore, Khari Price, came up with the steal on a long pass to half court. A freshman, Kyle Davis, caught the pass from Price, and the Ohio State transfer Sibert then hit the game-winner.
“Watching Khari’s effort level,” coach Archie Miller said, “making a hard, hard play on the ball, watching Kyle, in his first college game, having the savvy and sense to pick it up and kick it and watching Jordan, in his first college game in a long time, step up with one of the biggest shots that’s ever went in in that arena, to me that’s what it’s about. Watching those guys make some plays under hard times and watching them execute under some drastic measures.”
Lost in the chaos of the final seconds was Dayton’s second-to-last field goal. The Mastodons led 78-74 after making two free throws with 20 seconds left.
They called timeout after the second free throw. Dayton knew it had to score quickly. Price needed just three seconds to score on an almost uncontested layup.
“After a free throw, not knowing if they would be pressing us, for us to be able to draw up a play and be able to execute it perfectly and get a bucket in three seconds, a credit to him,” Miller said. “That really helped us.”
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