Rowan DuBois | staff writer

Bench heroics from No. 4 Dayton’s Jordan Derkack and a last-second tip-in from forward Amaël L’Etang provided the Flyers with an upset over No. 1 seed Saint Louis 70-69 early Saturday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena.

The game, which punched Dayton’s ticket to the A10 Championship title game, was decided on a dramatic sequence in which both teams exchanged 3-pointers, including a bucket from A10 player of the year Robbie Avila which put Saint Louis up 69-68.

L’Etang’s tip-in came from a put-back on a spinning layup, putting the game on ice for Dayton as it led by 1 with 0.6 seconds to go.

“To be honest, I don’t know what happened. I have to watch the tape again,” L’Etang said. “I just tried to do my best to put the ball back in the rim, and that went pretty well.”

Dayton was trailing by as much as 11 on two different occasions during the game, but an 18-2 second-half run which lasted nearly 10 minutes put the Flyers back in contention.

A game-high 28 points and three game-tying or lead-changing 3-pointers from Derkack was enough to power Dayton to victory.

“My shot was falling tonight,” Derkack said. “Credit to my coaches, they’ve always been confident in me to take those, and I was feeling good tonight from behind the arc.”

After the game, Derkack, who averaged 8.8 points per game over the regular season, was greeted by Flyers fans chanting his name.

“That’s the beauty of team basketball,” Dayton Head Coach Anthony Grant said. “Last night it was Javon that had a season-high this year, and for Jordan it was tonight. You’re going to need that in this type of environment. That’s what March is all about.”

On Friday, the Billikens had a comeback of their own, surmounting a 21-point deficit in the first half against George Washington and going on to win the game, 88-81. Today, it was Dayton’s turn for a comeback, as ESPN gave Saint Louis a 93.9% chance to win with just under 15 minutes to play.

Foul trouble stifled the Billikens, as they sent Dayton to the free-throw line 29 times on the day.

“We fouled way too much. We turned the ball over way too much,” Saint Louis Head Coach Josh Schertz said. “You just can’t win big time games if you’re going to foul like that.”

Saint Louis is still likely to make the NCAA Tournament, but they will have to wait for the selection committee’s decision on Sunday. Dayton will play for an automatic bid to the big dance Sunday, where they will face either No. 3 Saint Joseph’s or No. 2 Virginia Commonwealth University.

Rowan DuBois can be reached at duboisr1@duq.edu