SOUTH KINGSTOWN — This is turning out to be one fun college basketball season in Rhode Island, after all.

Box score

For sure, the last two nights have been nothing short of fabulous.

The University of Rhode Island did its part to create thrills Wednesday night, outlasting Dayton, 93-91, in overtime at the Ryan Center. An exciting game ended with a spectacular play as Rhody point guard Marquis Jones drove to the hoop and, with his back to the basket, put up an over-the-head layup that went off the rim and settled into the basket as the buzzer sounded.

Jones, a right-hander, made the shot left-handed.

"I tried to get fouled," he said. "I had to turn my body around."

As soon as the ball dropped through, URI students, who were more than 2,000 strong at the game, rushed the court in celebration. That made it two nights in a row for such celebrations. Providence College students did the same thing as the Friars upset No. 1 Pittsburgh at the Dunkin' Donuts Center Tuesday night.

Such celebrations can be overdone at times. But neither of these were. Both shows were outstanding.

The Rhody victory will not cause as many national waves as the PC win, but in terms of importance in the league, positioning for the postseason and overall excitement, it was every bit as good.

"This is the greatest moment I’ve ever had at URI. It’s not even close. You only dream of these things," said Jimmy Baron, one of a host of Rhody heroes. "I’ll remember this for the rest of my life."

"First and foremost, you saw a great indication of how good this league is," Dayton coach Brian Gregory said. "You saw two pretty good teams out there. One with 23 wins, one with 21 now. You saw why."

Rhody coach Jim Baron was drained by the time he got to the press room, about 45 minutes after the show had finished.

"Whew," Baron said when he got to the podium. "Man, I tell you, it’s a heck of a league."

The Rams had a tough act to follow after Providence College’s upset of Pitt. They certainly did their best, with much help from Dayton. An absolute beauty of a game ended with the Rhody students doing the same thing PC students did the night before — storming the court in celebration.

The crowd of 7,218, which included PC star Weyinmi Efejuku and Pat Skerry, a former Rhody coach who is now at PC, got to see three games for the price of one. The first half was all offense. Not surprisingly, URI, the ninth-highest-scoring team in the country, won that one, 52-44. Dayton shot 63 percent in the half — yet still trailed by eight.

Dayton, which is 12th in the country in defense, allowing only 59.1 points a game, and never more than 78 until last night, made the second half more of a defensive struggle. The Flyers held URI to 26 points after the half to tie it at 78 at the end of regulation.

The overtime was a marvelous show as the teams battled back and forth, with each side taking turns coming up big. Kahiem Seawright had five points, and fellow co-captain Jimmy Baron hit a 3-pointer from the deep left corner after Seawright had kept a rebound alive and tipped the ball to him. Flyers guard Marcus Johnson had seven points in overtime, the last three on a 3-pointer from the right elbow with 12 seconds left that tied it at 91-91.

URI opted not to call a timeout and came right back upcourt.

"We wanted to open the court,’’ Jim Baron said.

The Rams were in serious foul trouble, with four players with four fouls apiece down the stretch. They modified their offense to try to protect everyone. They had had a chance to win at the end of regulation and turned the ball over.

At the end of overtime, they called for the open-court set. Jones had the ball near midcourt as the clock was winding down. He called for Seawright to come out and set a screen at the free-throw line. Seawright joked afterward that he expected Jones to pass the ball to him. But Jones saw a lane to the hoop and took it.

He drew some contact, ended up with his back to the hoop and flipped it up with his off-hand, his left hand, as he reached the basket. The ball bounced around and settled into the hoop as the buzzer was sounding.

"It was a great win for us. We needed this one. We really needed this one," said Jimmy Baron. "We're not thinking about the tournament yet. We’ve still got work to do."

URI has won 9 of 10 to get to 21-8, 10-4 in the A-10. Dayton fell to 23-5, 9-4.

Seawright, Baron and Keith Cothran all had 19 points, Delroy James 18 and Jones 13 for the Rams. Johnson had 21 and Chris Wright 17 for Dayton.

The game was the fourth overtime contest for URI, all in the Atlantic 10. That is the most the team has played since it had six in 1985-86. URI is 2-2 in those games. Dayton, which has beaten Marquette and Xavier, had been 9-0 in games decided by five or fewer points.

After trailing throughout the second half, the Flyers caught the Rams in regulation, thanks to their defense.

URI led, 71-66, with 6:36 left after a Cothran drive. The Flyers, who got URI in huge foul trouble in the second half but had problems taking advantage (they finished 21-for-35 from the line), hit four in a row, two by Wright and two by Paul Williams, to pull within 71-68. Seawright hit one foul shot for Rhode Island, but the Flyers then had back-to-back steals that led to hoops that tied it at 72 with 4:11 let.

A free throw by Cothran, then a bucket from in close by Seawright put the Rams back on top, 75-72.

Seawright then came up big on the next possession. The Rams worked the shot clock. It was down to four seconds when Jones made a move to the lane and slipped a pass inside to Seawright. Seawright went up with two seconds left and not only scored but was fouled. He made the free throws, too, to make it 78-73.

Dayton called a timeout, and came out and got the ball to Mickey Perry, its best outside shooter. Perry drained a 3-pointer to make it 78-76 with 1:10 left.

Rhode Island came back and worked the ball. It got a good shot from Baron, a 15-footer that popped in and out. Dayton rebounded, moved into its frontcourt and called a timeout with 39 seconds left.

The Flyers ran their offense well and broke London Warren free to the hoop to tie it at 78. URI called a timeout with 19 seconds left, but a pass by Baron was intercepted and the game went to overtime.

"I can’t fault our guys," Dayton’s Gregory said. "They gave great effort, showed great toughness."

"I can’t be prouder of our kids. They played with great tenacity, great resiliency," said Jim Baron. "It brought back a lot of memories of the Southern Cal game (the first one played at the Ryan Center), when it came down to the end like that."

The Rhody players spoke about how they had watched PC’s victory Tuesday night. They said it did nothing but help give them inspiration.

"It was a great win for Providence. We tried to top them, but you can’t top beating a No. 1 team," Jones said. "We wanted to win this game for the university, for our student body. It was a great game for us."

pkenyon@projo.com