Sixth-seeded Dayton pushed past No. 14 La Salle, 60-45, in the second round of the Atlantic 10 tournament Thursday night at the Henrico Sports & Events Center in Glen Allen, Va.
Graduate forward Mackenzie Daleba led the Explorers with 14 points and seven rebounds. Sophomore guard Aryss Macktoon contributed 12 points on 5-for-13 shooting. Ivy Wolf led the Flyers with 14 points and seven rebounds. Wolf was 8-for-8 at the free throw line.
La Salle (10-23, 3-15 A-10) took 16 more shots than the Flyers thanks to a 17-6 advantage on the offensive glass, but only converted five second chance points. Dayton shot 48% from the field, while the Explorers shot 29.4% on 68 attempts.
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“We got 68 shots to their 52, that’s normally a recipe for winning a basketball game,” La Salle coach Mountain MacGillivray said.
Dayton (18-12, 11-7 A-10) will face No. 3 Davidson (18-12, 13-5 A-10) in the tournament quarterfinals on Friday.
Third-quarter tumble
The Explorers never led the matchup, but entered the halftime break within a possession of Dayton, 31-28. La Salle was outscored, 14-7, in the third quarter. The Flyers finished the period with six straight points, including four Wolf free throws, to grow their lead to 10.
La Salle was able to momentarily hang in with the Flyers with its rebounding effort. La Salle outrebounded the more physical Flyers, 39-35.
“Obviously, it wasn’t the outcome that we expected, but we did fight hard,” Macktoon said.
Graduate guard Jolene Armendariz led the Explorers with eight rebounds, while three other Explorers, including Daleba, finished with five or more boards.
“That is a ferocious rebounding team, and we found a way to outrebound them,” MacGillivray said. “It was an advantage for us in a game that it probably shouldn’t have been an advantage. Thank you to our seniors, [Armendariz] and [Daleba], our two leading rebounders tonight, on top of that. They got the message and they went out there and did that.”
Season-to-season
With only Macktoon and Armendariz returning from the Explorers’ 2023-24 roster, La Salle won 10 games this season. It’s a two game improvement over last season, when the Explorers finished 8-22 with a loss to No. 13 Massachusetts in the first-round of the A-10 tournament.
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The Explorers finished with a worse conference record than last season’s 5-13 mark, but finished the 2024-25 campaign strong with back-to-back conference wins over Virginia Commonwealth, including Wednesday’s first round conference tournament win.
“Our kids really wanted it,” MacGillivray “They really went out and attacked. That’s what you want every night from your team. To get that down the stretch, after the season we had, says a lot about the character of the young ladies I got to coach this year.”
La Salle struggled to find an identity throughout the year, in large part due because of the roster’s inexperience. That youth is an opportunity for the Explorers to build on, so long as they can avoid a mass exit during the spring transfer portal period.
Redshirt sophomore guard Ashleigh Connor and Macktoon, the team’s two top scorers, both have two seasons of eligibility remaining. A-10 all-rookie honoree freshman guard Joan Quinn averaged 9.1 points across 33 appearances, 24 of them starts. Junior guard Ayisse Magassa was the lone Explorer to start all 33 games this season.
Daleba, who transferred to La Salle this offseason after four seasons at Fairfield, and Armendariz are the only Explorers whose eligibility expired Thursday. Ten players with remaining eligibility left the Explorers last season. But if MacGillivray and his staff can retain the most important parts of the Explorers’ roster, it will have some promise to build on for next season.
“They were all upset in the locker room,” MacGillivray said. “That’s what you want. When the season ends, you should be heartbroken because you knew you had a chance, and you didn’t go as far as you wanted. That’s what I saw from them tonight, and I’m proud of them.”