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 "It was a true team effort," Dayton coach Archie Miller said
after his bench outscored the Stanford bench 34-2 and 11 different
Flyers scored in the game. "It was nice to see us on the biggest
stage be ourselves."
The 11th-seeded Flyers (26-10) advance to play top-seeded Florida
(35-2) on Saturday for a berth in the Final Four. The Gators beat
fourth-seeded UCLA 79-68 Thursday.
Guard Jordan Sibert led Dayton with 18 points, as he shot 4-for-9
from 3-point range. Freshman forward Kendall Pollard scored a
career-high 12 points off the bench for the Flyers, forward Devin
Oliver had 12 points and seven rebounds, and center Matt Kavanaugh
finished with 10 points.
After beating sixth-seeded Ohio State by one point and third-seeded
Syracuse by two points, the Flyers will were able to breathe a bit
easier at game's end this time.
"Definitely a relief," Siebert said.
But there was no rest for Stanford this night. While Dayton played
10 players at least seven minutes, the Cardinal only played seven
players that much.
"They were relentless," Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins said. "They
came in waves. They had two guys at every position."
Tenth-seeded Stanford (23-13) got 21 points from guard Chasson
Randle, and 17 points and nine rebounds from forward Dwight Powell.
Center Stefan Nastic had 15 points for the Cardinal but fouled out
with 5:04 left in the game. It was his ninth disqualification of the
season. Stanford forward Josh Huestis added 13 points and eight
rebounds.
Stanford wanted to go inside to use its size and length advantage,
but Nastic had to sit down early in both halves because of his foul
trouble.
"When he came out, it kind of disrupted our offense," Dawkins said.
Stanford pulled within 47-43 with 15:53 to go on a Powell layup as
the Cardinal made a 7-0 run to cut into the Flyers' lead. However,
that was close as Stanford could get, and Dayton's advantage never
dropped below 10 points in the last five minutes of the game.
Dayton shot 48.3 percent (28-for-58), and Stanford shot 37.9 percent
(22-for-58). The Cardinal finished with 10 assists and 12 turnovers.
Dayton led 42-32 at halftime and Dawkins picked up a technical foul
late in the first half.
"More or less just trying to get my team going," he said. "The ref
did the right thing. I should have been teed up."
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Dayton's Pollard was averaging 8.3 minutes a game. He still only
played 14 Thursday night, but made the most of them as he was
5-for-6 from the floor.
"Big-time winner, not afraid of anything," Miller said. "I don't
think he checked into (games) a couple of times in January and
February and he's at his best now."
Miller said there were times during the season when it would have
been easy to just ride the starters, but the right decision proved
to be employing the team's depth.
"You have to have a feel," he said. "Some of our best moments this
season were when we stuck with everybody."
Randle suffered through a 5-for-21 shooting night and made five of
Stanford's turnovers, but was encouraged by making the Sweet
Sixteen.
"It's motivating," he said. "It means we have to work so much harder
to advance and go farther."
And advancing is exactly what's on Sibert's mind, especially given
the predictable lack of recognition accorded a team that is seeded
11th.
"People have doubted us, not given us a lot of credit," Sibert said.
"At the end of the day, we want to be considered winners and show we
can compete with anybody, we can handle anybody."
NOTES: The Cardinal played 13 teams in this year's NCAA Tournament
field and went 9-9. Six of Stanford's 12 non-conference foes made
the NCAA bracket. ... In Stanford's 60-57 upset of second-seeded
Kansas, the Jayhawks were held more than 20 points below their
season average (79.6). ... Reaching the Sweet 16 marks Dayton's
deepest NCAA run since 1984, when the Flyers lost to Georgetown in
the regional finals. ... Dayton improved to 13-2 in its past 15
games.
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