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Home Page Features Archive
Dayton Rolls On To Face X in A10 Tourney
 Brian
Roberts scored 17 of his 24 points in a decisive second-half that
led Dayton to an 81-63 victory over Charlotte in the opening round
of the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament on Wednesday.
Charles Little, the conference's sixth man of the year, added 12
points and eight rebounds as the eighth-seeded Flyers (19-11)
advanced to a second-round game against defending champion and
top-seeded Xavier (23-7) in the four-day tournament at Boardwalk
Hall in this casino resort.
Jimmy Binnie added 12 points and Norman Plummer had 10 and eight
rebounds for Dayton, which last went to the NCAA tournament in 2004.
The Flyers matched their season high with 11 3-pointers. Trailing
45-40 early in the second half, Dayton took command with an 18-5
spurt that featured eight points from Roberts, including a pair of
3-pointers.
Plummer got the spurt started with a drive down the lane and Marcus
Johnson, who left the game in the final minutes with a high ankle
sprain, nailed a 3-pointer to tie the game. Roberts then took over,
hitting two 3-pointers in an eight point run that put Dayton ahead
for good. Johnson's status for Thursday's game is uncertain.
UD Seeks Perfection @ Home - Road Woes Continue
 The
University of Dayton Flyers return home to defend Tom Blackburn
Court when the Richmond Spiders visit the University of Dayton
Arena. Dayton is 12-5, and 2-2 in the Atlantic 10, while Richmond is
5-12 and 1-3 in the A-10. Saturday's game time is 2:00 p.m. EST.
Flyers Fail To Get First Win On The Road - Charlotte
 Leemire
Goldwire scored a career-high 30 points to lead Charlotte in a 80-57
victory over Dayton on Wednesday night. Carlos Williams and
De'Angelo Alexander had 13 points each and E.J. Drayton added 11 for
the 49ers (8-8, 2-2 Atlantic 10), who won their second consecutive
league game. Charlotte finished with 11 3-pointers. Brian Roberts
had 18 points and Monty Scott 13 for the Flyers (12-5, 2-2), who
could not overcome 38 percent shooting in suffering their worst
defeat since a 30-point loss to then-No. 2 North Carolina on Dec.
31.
Dayton Squeaks By Lasalle
 Brian
Roberts scored 34 points, including a 3-pointer that put Dayton
ahead for good early in the second half, to lead the Flyers to a
84-82 win over La Salle on Saturday night. Dayton (12-4, 2-1
Atlantic 10) led by as many as seven points in the second half, but
La Salle managed to cut the deficit to 84-82 on a foul shot by
Darnell Harris with one second remaining. Harris, who was fouled
while attempting a 3-pointer and missed his first free throw,
committed a lane violation on his third attempt, turning the ball
over to Dayton. Harris led La Salle (7-9, 1-3) with 22 points. Jimmy
Binnie had 10 points and Norman Plummer had eight rebounds for the
Flyers, who shot 52 percent (26-of-50) compared with La Salle's 47
percent (25-of-53). Dayton outrebounded the Explorers 30-27. Roberts
was 5-of-8 from beyond the arc and made 11 of his 12 foul shot
attempts for Dayton.
Ball
in Possession, Ahead By One, And Still A Loss...
 Two
months plus into the season and the Flyers are still looking for
their first road win as they fall yet again to Rhode Island in a
last second effort that gave the Rams a 75-74 victory. UD had
the ball with 13 seconds left on the clock and a one point lead...
but failed twice to get it inbound. Finally after another time
out by Rhode Island, the Flyers got the ball in to poor free throw
shooting Charles Little, who failed to make the front end of a one
and one. Rhode Island scored on a shot with 1 second left to
seal the victory.
Previously, Dayton suffered
back-to-back losses at Top-10 powers Pitt and North Carolina before
winning their conference opener at home against Charlotte. The
Flyers have to shore up their road weariness in a hurry because
after a home-heavy schedule to start the season, they won't play
back-to-back games at University of Dayton Arena for the rest of the
campaign.
Dayton Squeaks By Charlotte 66-63
Brian
Roberts scored 24 points and put Dayton ahead for good on a jumper
with 49 seconds remaining to lead the Flyers to a 66-63 win over
Charlotte on Thursday night. The Flyers (11-3, 1-0 Atlantic 10) took
a 28-26 lead at halftime, but Charlotte pulled ahead 42-41 with
12:20 remaining on a jumper by De'Angelo Alexander. The 49ers (6-7,
0-1) led by as much as nine points before Dayton started a 13-4 run
with 5:39 left. After Roberts' jumper gave the Flyers a 64-63 lead,
Norman Plummer scored Dayton's final two points on free throws.
Plummer had 11 points and seven rebounds, and Charles Little added
12 points. Roberts was 8-of-12 shooting and was 6-for-6 from the
foul line.
Flyers Run Into Buzz Saw @ #2 North Carolina
The second-ranked Tar Heels
held Dayton to 31 percent shooting while blocking eight shots and
tallying 10 steals in their 81-51 win on Sunday. It was their ninth
straight victory and sixth in a row by a lopsided margin. The Tar
Heels pressured the perimeter and swatted shots inside to make
things difficult on the Flyers. Dayton shot 7-for-32 (22 percent) in
the first half and finished the game shooting 31 percent. The Tar
Heels also took a 44-31 rebounding edge, including 33 on the
defensive end. Marcus Johnson and Brian Roberts each scored 14
points to lead the Flyers, but they shot a combined 11-for-30.
Dayton coach Brian Gregory
said he could see a difference between watching the Tar Heels' first
few games on tape and seeing them Sunday. "It's a different team,"
he said. "I think they've pinpointed what they need to get better at
and they're doing a good job of doing it. ... What they do is they
force you to make a basketball play on every single possession. And
unfortunately in this day and age, there's just not a lot of guys
that can do that all the time. And maybe a couple of them are
playing on their team."
#7 Pittsburgh
Eats Dayton Alive - 84 - 54
 Pitt
was tired, unhappy and determined. That made for a very bad
combination for the Dayton Flyers, who were facing an opponent that
rarely loses at home to teams outside the Big East Conference.
Sam Young made up for star center Aaron Gray's off night by scoring
18 points and No. 7 Pittsburgh opened up big leads well before
halftime, bouncing back from consecutive losses to ranked teams by
roughing up Dayton 84-54 on Saturday night. "There are probably 12
teams out there capable of winning the national championship, and
they're one of them," Dayton coach Brian Gregory said. "That team
responded to two difficult losses and came out with a very high
intensity level. We took their first punch, but we couldn't take
their second and third punches."
Dayton Prevails
Over Miami (Ohio) 56-54
 Charles
Little scored 12 points and Dayton surged back from a 14-point
deficit in the second period to beat Miami of Ohio 56-54 on
Wednesday night. After a tie at 30 at the half, the Flyers (10-1)
trailed 48-34 with 14:07 remaining before Monty Scott's 3-pointer
started a 16-2 run to tie the score again at 50 with about six
minutes left. Dayton pulled ahead to stay on two free throws from
Andres Sandoval with 3:46 to go.
Little was the only scorer to reach double-digits for the Flyers.
Brian Roberts and Norman Plummer each added nine points, and Plummer
had 11 rebounds. Tim Pollitz led the RedHawks (4-7) with 16 points
and nine rebounds, Michael Bramos had 14 points and Nathan Peavy
added 13. The RedHawks shot about 47 percent (22-of-47), while
holding the Flyers to about 40 percent (19-of-48). Miami
outrebounded Dayton 32-26.
Chat Room Is
Back
 Since
some of the other Dayton websites seem to be missing the ball (I
say, I say - Basketball that is, son) with no live chat during games
this season, we thought that we'd step up to the hoop and bring back
our live game chat feature. Stop by for interactive discussion
during the game with your fellow Flyer fans. Game threads on
Discussion boards just don't cut it... flush 'em like a
Norman Plummer dunk!
Dayton 66, Western Carolina 55
 Brian Roberts scored 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds Saturday
night to lead Dayton to a 66-55 win over Western Carolina.
Dayton (9-1) led 36-33 early in the second half and then pulled away
with a 22-10 run, twice leading by as many as 15 points.
Norman Plummer scored 15 and Marcus Johnson added 13 for the Flyers.
Arnold Gore led the Catamounts (4-4) with 15 points, and Kyle Greathouse had 12. Dayton shot 45 percent from the floor,
while Western Carolina shot 36 percent.
Dayton Getting Inside...
 With an 8-1 record that includes wins over quality foes such as
Louisville and Creighton (the latter who beat preseason A-10
favorite Xavier on Dec. 9), Dayton is light years better than it was
a year ago when the Flyers finished with a 14-17 mark.
So what's changed, you ask?
In 2005-06, the Flyers were essentially a three-man team with Brian
Roberts, Monty Scott and Norman Plummer doing most of the scoring.
Making matters worse was the fact that the Flyers never received
consistent point guard play last season, forcing Roberts -- a
natural two-guard -- to do more of the ball-handling than coach
Brian Gregory would have liked.
The 2006-07 season is only a third of the way over, but this year's
edition of the Flyers is playing killer D and has more scoring
options and capable ball-handlers than last season. Sure, Roberts
(17.9 points per game), the ultra-quick junior guard, is still the
team's No.1 scoring option, but coach Brian Gregory has four other
guys capable of reaching double figures on any given night -- 6-6
senior Scott (10.9 points per game), 6-6 sophomore Charles Little
(10.0), 6-7 junior Plummer (9.4) and 6-3 freshman Marcus Johnson
(8.2).
Johnson and 6-4 junior Andres Sandoval, who is rounding back into
shape after returning sooner than expected from a foot injury
suffered on Dec. 9, give the Flyers two reliable floor generals, in
addition to Roberts.
The biggest weakness thus far is the team's lack of accurate
three-point shooters aside from Roberts (.412) and Scott (.381).
"That's what so good about thus team-our growth," said Brian Roberts
after last week's win over Creighton. "We've got guys who can step
up at any given time. It's not a one- or two- or even three-man
team."
Dayton Notes & Quotes
The Flyers have held four straight opponents to 55 or fewer points,
marking the first time since the 1959-60 season that a Dayton team
has done so.
With wins over Creighton and Grambling last week, Dayton (8-1) has
registered six wins in a row. Next are winnable games against
Western Carolina on Dec. 16 and Miami (Ohio) on Dec. 20 before
back-to-back games against top-10 teams in Pitt and North Carolina.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "We're a scrappy team, a blue-collar team right now.
Our record right now only has one loss, on the road to a tough SMU
team." -- Dayton guard Andres Sandoval said of the 8-1 Flyers.
Dayton 58, Grambling State 49
 Charles Little and Norman Plummer each scored 12 points and pulled
down six rebounds to lead Dayton to a 58-49 victory over Grambling
State on Saturday night. Brian Roberts added 10 points and
five rebounds for the Flyers (8-1). Dayton took the lead from the
Tigers with just under six minutes remaining in the first half and
never trailed again. The Flyers were up 29-21 at halftime and led by
as much as 11 points in the second half. They were 21-of-53
for almost 40 percent shooting, while Grambling was 16-of-50 for 32
percent. Dayton's nine blocked shots ties the team record.
Emmanuel Calloway led the Tigers (1-4) with 12 points, and Jamal
Breaux had 10 points and six rebounds. Anthony Williams added eight
points and 11 rebounds.
Dayton 60, Creighton 54
 Monty Scott scored 11 of his 13 points in the closing minutes to
help Dayton hold off Creighton 60-54 Wednesday night. Norman
Plummer also scored 13 points and Brian Roberts added 11 for the
Flyers (7-1). Dayton blew a 13-point lead in the first five minutes
of the second half, but still won thanks to Scott. The senior
forward scored 11 straight points for Dayton late in the game on
three 3-pointers and a jumper, with the final 3 giving the Flyers a
57-50 lead with 1:14 to play. Nate Funk led the Bluejays (3-2) with
15 points. Anthony Tolliver had 13 points and 13 rebounds. The
Bluejays opened the second half on a 15-2 run to erase a 32-19
deficit. They tied the score at 34 and 36, but never took the lead.
Creighton shot only 37 percent from the field to 48 percent for
Dayton. The Flyers hit 13-of-26 shots in the first half, while the
Bluejays hit on only 7-of-23 attempts.
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