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First Posted: 3/24/2013
(AP) Dayton needed two overtimes to finally stop St. John’s.
Andrea Hoover scored a career-high 24 points and seventh-seeded Dayton outlasted No. 10 St. John’s 96-90 in a double overtime thriller Sunday in the opening round of the NCAA women’s tournament.
The Flyers (28-2) will face Kentucky in the second round Tuesday night.
Brittany Wilson hit a 3-pointer and Kelley Austria had a three-point play to make it 90-86 with 2:11 left in the second extra period. After St. John’s failed to score, Olivia Applewhite added a basket with 47 seconds left to seal it.
The Red Storm (18-13) trailed by 13 with 5:30 left in regulation before rallying. Nadirah McKenith, who led her team with 22 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds before fouling out, hit a layup with one-tenth of a second left in regulation to force OT.
Dayton’s Amber Deane tied it with 15 seconds left in OT to force a second one. Aliyyah Handford had one final chance for the win in the overtime, but her floater in the lane fell harmlessly off the rim.
The win was the second for the Flyers in their brief NCAA tournament history. The team first made the NCAAs in 2010 and pulled off a win over TCU. They had lost the past two years in their opening games.
It has been an exceptional season for Dayton. The Flyers won their first Atlantic 10 regular season title before falling to Saint Joseph’s in the conference tournament semifinals. The team has already surpassed the school record for wins and is in its fourth straight NCAA tournament.
Not bad for a squad that lost a lot to graduation last year and has the sixth youngest roster in the country. The Flyers used a balanced offense that features four players averaging in double figures. Eight different players have led the Flyers in scoring at some point this season.
While the Flyers’ roster had a huge turnover, the Red Storm returned most of their team from last season’s regional semifinal run. They couldn’t duplicate the feat this season despite playing at home in the opening round.
St. John’s was hosting an NCAA tournament for the first time in school history. The Red Storm had the comfort of their own locker room, but were wearing road black uniforms.
The loss ended the St. John’s careers for seniors McKenith and Shenneika Smith. McKenith finished as the school’s all-time assist leader and Smith the fourth-leading scorer.
The pair helped St. John’s reach the NCAA tournament every year they were there. The school had reached the NCAA tournament only four times before they showed up.
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Follow Doug Feinberg on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dougfeinberg
Associated Press