Steve Serby

Steve Serby

Sports

Gritty underdog Dayton had the answers in thrilling finish

BUFFALO — The ball left Tyler Ennis’ hands, and now everyone inside First Niagara Center and everyone tuning in around the country breathlessly watched the flight of the ball as the clock ticked toward zero.

Hearts raced — and maybe a few stopped — in Dayton and in Syracuse.

At stake was another Sweet 16 berth for coach Jim Boeheim and Syracuse.

As well as Dayton’s first Sweet 16 berth in 30 years.

“Lord, please don’t let the shot go in,” Jordan Sibert remembers thinking.

It didn’t. Dayton 55, Syracuse 53. Prayer answered.

“I always want to take the last shot,” a classy Ennis said in the corner of a crushed Orange locker room. “I thought it was good. … I think everybody on the team would take that shot,”

The miracle men of Dayton shocked the world, just as they believed they would.

Cinderella lulled Syracuse to sleep. The Flyers’ only chance was to dictate the pace and tempo of the game. On virtually every possession, they would milk the shot clock, sometimes to inside five seconds, before they attacked. They refused to be rattled by the vaunted 2-3 Syracuse zone. They shared the ball like the Red Holzman ’69 Knicks. They played so hard, so smart, so together. A Hoosiers movie made in Ohio. The pro- Syracuse crowd? They shrugged.

“We deal with yelling from Coach every day,” Sibert said, and smiled. “It doesn’t bother us.”

It looked like the Villanova game plan from the 1985 NCAA Championship against Georgetown, and Dayton needed to play the perfect game against Syracuse.

The Flyers vowed there would be no post-Ohio State hangover, that they would come down from Cloud Nine for Syracuse.

The last several minutes was everything we love about March Madness.

A flying Sibert threw the ball off Jerami Grant near midcourt to retain possession.

“I just wanted to make a hustle play,” Sibert said. “I didn’t see any of my teammates open so I figured I could throw it off him.”

Ennis lost the ball and Scoochie Smith fed Devin Oliver for a breakaway lay-in.

Sibert banged a 3-pointer from the right wing and smiled.

Ennis answered by converting a three-point play.

Oliver missed the front end of a one-and-one with 37.8 seconds left.

Ennis drove the lane and was fouled and sank both free throws.

Dayton 52, Syracuse 51.

Just 24.8 seconds left.

Pierre sank a pair of free throws.

Just 22.4 seconds left.

Ennis drove the lane for an uncontested layup.

Just 16 seconds left.

Dayton 54, Syracuse 53.

Sibert, hounded, stepped out of bounds by the Syracuse bench.

“They trapped me in the corner — I shouldn’t even have been there — I saw Dyshawn [Pierre] open, I tried to turn to get it to him — me, personally, I didn’t feel I was out of bounds, but they said my foot hit the line, so …,” Sibert said.

Just 13.8 seconds left.

Ennis, so effective driving the lane down the stretch, missed a 15-foot jumper.

“I had some space,” Ennis said. “They knew I was driving, so I just pulled up. Any given day I can make that shot.”

Pierre got the rebound and sank the first of two free throws.

Missed the second.

Just 6.5 seconds left.

It was then and there, with two seconds left, that Ennis, the phenom freshman point guard, launched what will be the last shot of his collegiate career should he turn pro.

Sweet 16 for Dayton, Sour Orange for Syracuse.

If the Orange thought this was going to be a show, they quickly learned what Apollo Creed had learned: Dayton had showed up for a fight.

When the first half ended Dayton 20, Syracuse 18, Flyers coach Archie Miller was on the court applauding with his assistant coaches. As Vee Sanford trotted by him, Miller shook his hand.

The best was yet to come.

“I feel like we shock everybody we play,” Sibert said. “A lot of people don’t respect us as much.”

They do now.

Kendall Pollard danced in the middle of the Dayton locker room, and his Flyers teammates whooped and hollered and danced euphorically around him.

“We want to take it all the way to the end,” Sibert said. “We want to win it all. We just go to take it one game at a time.”

Dance, Dayton, dance.