‘We have to be better;’ Turnovers hurt Dayton in crushing home loss to VCU

DAYTON — Turnovers and offensive rebounds hurt the University of Dayton men’s basketball in a 73-68 loss to the VCU Rams.

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Nate Santos led two Dayton players in double figures with 18 points while Javon Bennett added 16.

The Flyers fell to 16-8 overall, and 6-5 in the Atlantic 10.

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UD led 59-54 with 4:54 remaining, but the Rams scored 12 straight points over four minutes to go up 66-59.

The Flyers committed four turnovers and a shot clock violation over the last 3:39.

VCU led 61-59 and got four offensive rebounds that led to a Christian Fermin three-point play to extend the Rams’ advantage to 64-59. Zeb Jackson scored seven points to help seal the game.

The Rams outrebound Dayton, 44-34. They grabbed 23 offensive rebounds. VCU also scored 30 points off 19 Flyer turnovers.

“The game came down to our inability to rebound the ball and our inability to take care of the ball tonight,” said Coach Anthony Grant. “It’s disappointing. Give VCU credit.”

He said it’s hard to win when they get 18 more shots up.

“We have to be better,” he added. “We have to be better.”

Grant repeated it as he cut off a reporter’s question about Zed Key.

“We have to be better. I’m not going anywhere else with that. We lost the game. We have to be better. Zed has to be better. Everybody on the team has to do their jobs better.”

Dayton will look to bounce back Wednesday night when they travel to Bronx, NY to play at Fordham at 7 p.m.

Pre-game coverage on WHIO Radio begins at 6 p.m. The game will also be broadcast here at WHIO.com.