Barry Sokol on Sports

The Dayton Flyers surprised the nationally ranked #6 Pittsburgh Panthers blowing out the 3.5 point favorites 80-55 in front of a sold out crowd at UD Arena.         (Highlights from the Game)

Out of all the seasons and games I have been to at UD Arena, this was by far the best game. Sitting center court, two rows behind the scorer’s table, and the game on national television station ESPN 2, while standing up throughout the game and waving my towel like all the other 13,000 Dayton fans made the game and atmosphere of the arena exciting and memorable.

The win will go down as one of Dayton’s greatest wins over a ranked opponent and Dayton will be in the Top 25 for the first time since 2003 when the new polls come out this week.

I remember my freshman year of high school when I was 14 – it was the year for the Flyers as they won the 2003 A-10 regular season championship and the A-10 tournament and went to the 2003 NCAA tournament as a #4 seed and ending the season 25-6 with exciting and impressive wins that season at UD Arena over #9 Marquette in overtime with NBA superstar Dwayne Wade and beating #19 Cincinnati Bearcats for the first time in 20 years.

Hopefully, this year the Flyers can have a season like they did in 2002-2003. Because I believe this is the year for Dayton Flyer basketball.

Dayton, Ohio – The Dayton Flyers improved to 9-1 and got their eighth consecutive win for the season and went to 6-0 at home after winning in ugly fashion against American Wednesday night 63-56.

Brian Roberts lead Dayton with 12 points and Thiago Cordiero scored 11 points and grabbed 4 rebounds in 13 minutes of play.

Also contributing for Dayton was Kurt Huelsman who had a career high 11 rebounds, including 5 offensive rebounds and scored 5 points

Wednesday night against American, the Flyers did not look like the same team that blew out Coppin State Saturday night.

Dayton came out struggling in the first half, down by as much as 7 points with 5:03 left in the first half against American. American went into the half leading 23-22.

No one for the Flyers was in synch and foul shots killed Dayton as they shot an embarrassing 16-of-30 for 53% in the game.

Dayton came back in the second half shooting 12-of-24 for 50% improving from their 37.5% first half shooting.

The Flyers had their biggest lead of the game, leading by 12 points during the second half when they were up 50-38 with 5:24 left to go. However, American guard Garrison Carr would make 3 consecutive 3 pointers on the next 3 possessions for American to cut the score to 55-50 with 3:34 left in the game. Brian Roberts would hit a 3 on the Flyers next possession, and the Flyers made foul shots to hang on and close out the rest of the game to win.

American was lead by 5′ 9” guard Garrison Carr who had 26 points on 9-of-19 shooting and 7-of-14 from beyond the arc and Derrick Mercer who had 9 points.

Dayton, Ohio – The Dayton Flyers tenacious defense was too much for Coppin State as Brian Roberts lead the team with 14 points and had 7 assists, Chris Wright scored 13 points and 5 rebounds, Marcus Johnson had 9 points, and Charles Little recorded 9 points and 6 rebounds, as the Flyers used their 16 player depth and defense to crush Coppin State 66-34 in front of 12,063 fans Saturday night at UD Arena.

Mickey Perry made his first debut - after having to sit out until the end of the school semester because of the time he transferred from Wisconsin to Dayton – making a 3 pointer, grabbing 2 rebounds, and 1 block in 8 minutes of play.

Dayton’s pressure defense picking up Coppin State the full length of the court took a lot of time off the shot clock and held Coppin State to 14-of-45 shooting for 31% and only 15 first half points. Dayton’s good defense had 8 blocked shots. London Warren had 3 of 6 steals for Dayton.

Dayton outdid Coppin State in every stat category. The Dayton Flyers bench scored 20 points and Coppin State’s bench had 0 points. The Flyers hustle helped them get 33 rebounds and 19 assists, while Coppin State only had 21 rebounds and 7 assists.

Dayton improved to 8-1 and continues its home stand Wednesday night against American.

The Dayton Flyers lead by Brian Roberts 28 points upset the #11 Louisville Cardinals 70-65 at Freedom Hall Saturday afternoon keeping Rick Pitino from reaching his milestone 500th career victory. 

The last time the Flyers knocked off a nationally ranked team on its home court was back in 1985 when UD stopped the DePaul Blue Demons at the Rosemont Horizon. 

Dayton came out hot from the very start of the game with a 7-0 lead and Louisville was scoreless, going 0-6 for the first 4 and a half minutes of the game and used its 3rd full timeout in 9 minutes of the game to settle down Dayton as it pulled to 14-4 lead after back to back 3 pointers from Brian Roberts. 

Brian Roberts scored 14 of Dayton’s first 19 points.  After having sub par games in the last two games with only 7 points, Roberts finished the game shooting 10-of-17 and 6-6 from the charity stripe for 28 points along with 5 boards.  

Jimmy Binnie had 9 points and Chris Wright added 9 points and 7 rebounds.  Also helping out the Flyers on the boards was Kurt Huelsman grabbing 7 rebounds and contributing 5 points.   London Warren’s aggressiveness helped the Flyers with a career high 4 steals and 4 points. 

Louisville was playing without injured starters David Pagett and Juan Palaciaos.  Dayton was up by as many as 12 points in the first half.  Dayton went into the half up 34-26. 

 In the 2nd half Louisville would go on a 13-0 run, as Dayton went on a drought not scoring a basket in 8 minutes as Louisville took the lead for the first time of the game at 41-39 with 11 minutes to go. 

Dayton kept its composure and fought back going on a 14-5 run with 7:28 to go.  Louisville would cut it to 3 points several times in the last few minutes of the game, but Dayton held them off and had great free throw shooting in the game shooting 16-20 from the foul line and 8 straight in the final minutes. 

Dayton up 68-65 with 3 seconds to go, and after fouling Brian Roberts, Brian Roberts sealed the game by making both fouls shots for Dayton. 

Derrick Caracter had 16 points and 7 rebounds and Earl Clark had 15 points, 12 rebounds and 4 blocks for Louisville, but the Cardinals shot 43 percent from the field and couldn’t get the stops when they needed to the most. 

Dayton improved its winning streak to 6 consecutive wins on the season and improved its road record for its third straight road win for the season – one more road win than last years season total. 

Louisville dropped to 5-2 on the season and its next game is against Purdue.  Dayton improved its record to 7-1 and begins a 6 game home stand starting with Coppin State on December 15th.