Kendall Pollard scored 17 points on Wednesday night, and Dayton — cheered on by the deafening home crowd — went on a closing run for a 56-55 win over Boise State in the First Four. The Flyers (26-8) will play sixth-seeded Providence on Friday in Columbus, Ohio.
At one point during the second-half comeback, Dayton’s Dyshawn Pierre had his red shorts fall down as he grabbed a rebound. Pierre grabbed the ball with one hand and his shorts with the other, quickly pulling them back up.
“Crazy play,” Dayton coach Archie Miller said. “Crazy.”
The Boise State cheerleaders certainly thought so:
https://twitter.com/ESPNMcGee/status/578395647126167552
Just as crazy: The Flyers trailed by as many as 12 points in the first half and by seven with 3:43 to go. Encouraged by the crowd of 12,592 — the largest for a First Four game — Dayton closed with a 10-2 run.
“They were electrifying,” senior guard Jordan Sibert, who hit the game-winning 3-pointer, said of the crowd. “I don’t think we would have won that game without them.”
It was the first time since 1987 that a school has played an NCAA Tournament game on its home court, an anomaly resulting from Dayton hosting the First Four games.
With AP