‘A heartbreaker’: UNLV misses at buzzer, falls at No. 22 Dayton
Dedan Thomas Jr. had the ball in his hands with eight seconds left with a chance to give the UNLV men’s basketball team a signature nonconference victory Tuesday at nationally ranked Dayton.
The Rebels had battled to hold leads late in the second half by hitting key baskets every time Dayton responded with a score.
But the basket the Rebels needed the most didn’t fall.
Thomas raced the length of the floor and got an open look for the win. But the sophomore point guard’s baseline jumper at the buzzer missed, and UNLV fell 66-65 to the No. 22-ranked Flyers at UD Arena in Dayton, Ohio.
“We were trusting (Thomas) to get down and make a play,” UNLV coach Kevin Kruger said in his postgame interview with Learfield Sports. “It’s a shot we’ll take every single time to win a game.”
Thomas led UNLV (5-5) with 16 points and added six assists. Junior guard Jaden Henley, in his second game back after missing a month with a foot injury, scored 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds for the Rebels.
“It turned out to be a great college basketball game, but at the same time, there’s things we got to clean up,” Kruger said. “We got to keep taking steps to get better. We’ll have some good teaching points from this one, both positive and things to get better.”
‘Two really bad possessions’
Malachi Smith finished with 11 points for Dayton (10-2) but had two key baskets in the final minute.
With Dayton trailing 65-63 after a Julian Rishwain 3-pointer, Smith hit a jumper and knocked down the ensuing free throw after being fouled with eight seconds left to give the Flyers the lead.
UNLV had a chance to extend a 62-61 lead a few possessions before Smith’s final basket, but Dayton forced Thomas into a difficult 3-pointer. Smith caught a long pass and scored a layup, evading Rishwain as he tried to take a charge, to put the Flyers ahead by a point.
“Unfortunately, we just had two pretty bad possessions, and it led to five quick points from Dayton,” Kruger said. “We’re going to be kicking ourselves.”
Rishwain scored all 12 of his points on four 3-pointers in the second half. Nate Santos paced Dayton with 14 points, and Zed Key added 13.
The Flyers have won 25 straight home games, which is tied for the fourth-longest winning streak in Division I.
UNLV held a 28-27 halftime lead, but Dayton scored the first nine points out of the break and went ahead 36-28 less than two minutes into the second half.
Dayton led 51-44 with eight minutes left before Rishwain found his shot to keep UNLV in it. The sixth-year sharpshooter hit his first 3-pointer with 7:53 left and scored nine points during an 11-2 run to give the Rebels a 55-53 lead left with 3:34 to play.
Thomas made four free throws, and Henley converted a three-point play with 1:25 left to give UNLV a 62-58 lead with 1:25 to play before Dayton hit its final three field goals of the game to hold on for the win.
The Flyers made 13 of 26 field goals in the second half.
“The fight (that I saw) — that’s the price of playing basketball or playing sports,” Kruger said. “That fight, the compete, that togetherness, that’s what you do in any sport. That’s what it’s got to be like with a group of guys that you should enjoy competing with. Tonight, we really enjoyed competing and working with each other to try to get a really good win on the road.”
‘See how we respond’
UNLV and Dayton were scheduled to play last year in the second-ever meeting between the schools, but the game was canceled because of the deadly shooting on UNLV’s campus and rescheduled for this season.
The Rebels host UC Riverside at noon Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center to conclude nonconference play.
“We’ll see, with (Henley) coming back and being a little closer to full strength, we’ll see how we respond,” Kruger said. “Obviously, this is a heartbreaker, but we’ll see what we come out like on Saturday in those first 10 minutes.”
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.