GLEN ALLEN, Va. -- Four scorers reached double figures for the six-seeded Dayton Flyers in their 60-45 victory over the 14-seeded La Salle Explorers on Thursday night in the second round of the Atlantic 10 Women’s Basketball Championship.
The Flyers (18-12, 12-7) will matchup with the three-seeded Davidson Wildcats on Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the quarterfinals at the Henrico Sports and Events Center. It'll be the first A-10 championship appearance in two years for Davidson after missing the 2024 championship due to injuries.
Dayton dropped its only matchup with Davidson this season. In their lone regular season contest, the Wildcats stimmed the Flyers to shoot 35.4 percent from the field and 25 percent from the 3-point line.
“Davidson is really good - senior led. A team that didn’t even come to this tournament last year because of injuries,” Dayton coach Tamika Williams-Jeter said. “We’re playing another team, full of seniors, who want to win, who are going to claw, who are aggressive, and we got to make the game ugly.”
Four Flyers dropped double-digits. Ivy Wolf led the way with 14 points followed by Rikki Harris (11), Molly O’Riordan (10) and Arianna Smith (10).
“Best way to beat a zone is passing,” Harris said. “I think everybody did good with looking for their shots but also looking for other people who get good looks at the basket.”
The Explorers ended the first half down by three. La Salle had ended the quarter on a 3-pointer banked by Jolene Armendariz. She drew a foul on the 3-pointer and nailed one of her two free throws. It gave La Salle a three-point deficit to conclude the half.
Dayton quietly opened the third with a 6-0 run. Joan Quinn responded to the Flyers short offensive burst with a 3-pointer. Ayisse Magassa followed with a layup to bring the Explorers deficit back to four points. Each time La Salle inched closer, the Flyers responded.
The Explorers limited the Flyers offense to shoot 1 of 9 from 3-point range. Harris scored the lone 3-pointer for the Flyers. La Salle forced Dayton to drive score in the paint. The Flyers scored 42 of 60 points inside the three.
“Credit to Dayton on finding a way to get that ball in the paint against our zone and be efficient,” La Salle coach Mountain MacGillivray said. “They deserved it... They went to their strengths and capitalized on it.”
The Flyers outscored the Explorers 14-7 in the third to pull away with a 10-point advantage at the end of the third. Dayton was able to pull away in the fourth quarter on a short 5-0 to begin that span.
Dayton limited La Salle to 29.4 percent (20 of 68) from the field. It’s the second time this season that the Flyers have held a conference opponent to 45 points or less.
“Defensively we really wanted to limit any clean looks,” Williams-Jeter said. “We were going to give some people shots and some people made shots tonight because they like to post up our guards. So we had to drop off a lot.”