Max Weisbrod's Late 3s Lift Northern Illinois Past Dayton 81-76 in Overtime

Thirteen seconds. That is how close Dayton came to completing a 17-point comeback at UD Arena on Saturday night. Then Max Weisbrod pulled up from 27 feet, the building went quiet, and Northern Illinois went on to steal an 81-76 overtime win that nobody in red and blue saw coming five days after a 31-point opening-night rout.

David Douglas Jr. led the Huskies with 27 points on 7-of-14 shooting and a 10-of-13 night at the line. Weisbrod finished with 19 points and eight assists, and Weisbrod's two biggest shots came in the final minute of a period: the tying 3 with 13 seconds left in regulation and a dagger from 23 feet with 22 seconds left in overtime. Bennett Basich finished with nine points, seven of them in the extra period.

For Dayton, freshman Aiden Derkack posted 20 points and 10 rebounds, a second straight double-double to open a college career. Amaël L'Etang added 16 points on 5-of-6 shooting, and Landen Joseph scored 19 off the bench. It was not enough. Northern Illinois, which came in 0-2, picked up its first win of the season. Dayton falls to 1-1.

A First Half to Forget

The Flyers never led in the first 20 minutes, and for long stretches they barely kept pace. Mykolas Ivanauskas opened the scoring with a short jumper, Weisbrod turned a three-shot foul into two points, and Douglas scored on a layup for a 6-0 Huskies lead before Derkack got Dayton on the board.

From there the Huskies did the one thing Dayton could not do all night: make 3s. Douglas hit from 27 feet and again from 24. Nino Carter-Smith added a pair from 26 feet, both set up by Weisbrod, and Keller Hanson knocked down one from 25 off the bench. When Carter-Smith's second 3 dropped with 3:57 left in the half, Northern Illinois led 35-18, its largest lead of the night.

Joseph was the only Flyer who could answer from deep, hitting back-to-back 3s at 3:40 and 2:58, both assisted by Derkack, to cut the gap to 35-24. Weisbrod responded with a 25-footer, but Joseph and Derkack scored layups in the final 70 seconds, and the Flyers went to the locker room down 40-29.

Those two Joseph 3s turned out to be Dayton's only made 3-pointers of the game. The Flyers finished 2-of-17 from beyond the arc. Northern Illinois went 12-of-30. That is a 30-point gap from deep, and it is the main reason this game reached overtime at all instead of ending as a comfortable Dayton win.

The Flyers Punch Back

Whatever Anthony Grant said at halftime worked. Dayton opened the second half on a 10-0 run, attacking the rim instead of the arc. L'Etang scored on a layup off a Tristian Ford feed, Grant Randall threw down a dunk, Derkack converted a layup, and Ford made two free throws with 12:52 left to cut the deficit to 40-39. Northern Illinois went nearly eight minutes without a point to start the half, finally breaking through on a Douglas and-one at 12:12.

The middle of the half became a trade of blows. Jalen Haynes answered Douglas with an and-one for Dayton. Derkack's two free throws at 9:57 gave Dayton its first lead of the night at 46-45, but Douglas hit a jumper and Weisbrod a 29-footer, and when Brayden Gross finished an and-one with 7:49 left, the Huskies were back up 53-46.

Then the Flyers made the run that should have won it. Randall's three-point play cut it to 54-51, and after Douglas made two free throws, Dayton scored 10 straight. Derkack made two at the line, L'Etang scored inside, Joseph's layup gave Dayton a 57-56 lead with 5:26 left, Derkack made two more free throws, and Randall laid one in off an L'Etang assist at the 4:01 mark. Dayton led 61-56, its biggest lead of the game.

The Turning Point

Northern Illinois did not blink. Douglas buried a 23-footer from Weisbrod at 3:46. Gross scored on another Weisbrod assist at 3:08. And with 1:51 left, Carter-Smith hit a 24-footer, again from Weisbrod, to flip the lead back to the Huskies at 64-62.

Dayton kept coming. L'Etang made one of two free throws, Joseph scored on a layup with 42 seconds left for a 65-64 lead, and L'Etang made both free throws with 24 seconds to go. The Flyers led 67-64 and needed one stop.

They did not get it. Weisbrod rose up from 27 feet and drilled the tying 3 with 13 seconds left. Dayton could not get a winning basket in the final seconds of regulation, and the game went to overtime tied at 67.

Overtime Belongs to the Huskies

Basich opened the extra period with a 3 off a Weisbrod pass. L'Etang answered with a layup, Northern Illinois was called for a shot-clock violation, and Derkack scored off an L'Etang assist to give Dayton a 71-70 lead with 3:23 left. It was the last time the Flyers would lead.

Douglas made two free throws to put the Huskies back in front, and the next possession may have been the one that decided the game. After Randall missed a 3, Basich missed a layup, Gross grabbed the rebound and missed a tip, and Colin Hardrick grabbed another offensive board before Basich finally scored at 2:08 for a 74-71 lead. Northern Illinois finished with 13 offensive rebounds to Dayton's six and won the glass 43-29.

Joseph cut it to one with a layup, Weisbrod made two free throws, and L'Etang made one of two at 1:28 to make it 76-74. Dayton got a chance when L'Etang stole a Weisbrod pass at 1:11, but Ford missed a 4-foot jumper with 50 seconds left. Out of a timeout, Weisbrod hit a 23-footer from Gross with 22 seconds left for a 79-74 lead. L'Etang scored once more, Basich made two free throws with four seconds left, and Joseph's 29-foot try at the buzzer was off.

The Numbers That Tell It

In a lot of ways Dayton played the game it wanted to play. The Flyers shot 45 percent from the field to Northern Illinois' 40 percent, won the paint 40-20, owned fast-break points 12-0 and scored 15 points off 20 Huskies turnovers. Northern Illinois committed 33 fouls, and three starters fouled out: Ivanauskas, Trevor Polite and Carter-Smith.

That foul trouble handed Dayton 41 free throws. The Flyers made 30 of them. Eleven misses at the line in a five-point overtime loss will sting all week, and so will a 2-of-17 night from 3, with no made 3s over the final 28 minutes including overtime. Ford, who had 13 points and three 3s in the opener, went 0-of-8 from the floor and 0-of-4 from deep, scoring five points on free throws.

The Huskies did the opposite. They shot poorly inside the arc, gave the ball away 20 times and still won because they hit 12 3s, made 25 of 31 free throws and kept getting second chances. Weisbrod was the engine, with a hand in 10 of the Huskies' 12 made 3s as a shooter or passer.

What It Means for Dayton

There is real good here. Derkack is two games into a college career and has two double-doubles. L'Etang was efficient again at 5-of-6 from the field. Joseph gave Grant 19 points off the bench and was the only Flyer who could make a perimeter shot.

But the shooting is a problem worth watching. Through the NJIT opener, the questions about this roster were mostly about depth and polish. Against a Northern Illinois team that came to UD Arena without a win, the Flyers could not space the floor, and a defense that held the Huskies scoreless for nearly eight minutes still gave up 12 3s. Early-season home losses like this one do not end seasons, but they do show up in March resumes.

For Northern Illinois, this is the kind of road win that can define a November. The Huskies trailed by five with four minutes left in a building that does not lose many of these, and they responded with poise.

For full stats, see the ESPN box score (opens in a new tab).

Sources: ESPN box score, team stats and play-by-play, University of Dayton Athletics. More men's college basketball coverage on Undrafted.

Dayton gets a quick chance to clean it up. Next up is Siena at UD Arena on Tuesday, Nov. 10.

Photo: University of Dayton Athletics (file photo).