VCU fell behind big early, then late, got the deficit down to one with six seconds left, but a missed Max Shulga three at the buzzer left the Rams with a 79-76 loss to Dayton on Friday night.
The loss drops VCU (25-6, 15-3 A-10) two spots in the NET metric, from 29 to 31, which isn’t good, but certainly not disastrous for the Rams’ NCAA Tournament at-large hopes.
VCU will still be the #1 seed in next week’s A-10 Tournament, but there will be five teams with at least 20 wins knocking on the door for the conference’s automatic bid.
Dayton (22-9, 12-6 A-10, NET: 64) will be among them.
The Flyers led 16-5 at the second media timeout, as the Rams started 2-of-15 from the floor.
VCU, though, climbed back to within one, 28-27, at the half, and the teams traded the lead back and forth for the first 15 minutes of the second half, with VCU taking its final lead at the 5:02 mark on a Jack Clark three.
Dayton responded with a 12-2 run over the next 3:03, going up eight, at 70-62, on a three-plus-one from Javon Bennett, who led all scorers with 22 points.
The Rams had a chance to tie the game with seven seconds to go and Joe Bamisile at the free-throw line, but Bamisile missed the front end of the two-shot opportunity.
He made the second to get the score to 77-76.
Malachi Smith made both ends of a two-shot foul to get the margin back to three, and VCU scrambled to get a potential game-tying shot, the final miss by Shulga, who had a rough night despite scoring 16 points – he was 3-of-13 from the floor and 1-of-9 from three, while connecting on 9-of-10 from the line.
Bamisile led the Rams with 18 points.
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Chris Graham
