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Chris Wright scored 17 points and his four blocks against Xavier were a career high. |
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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Chris Wright scored 17 points and tallied a career-high four blocks as the University of Dayton Flyers fell 78-73 to the No. 24 Xavier Musketeers in the quarterfinals of the 2010 Atlantic 10 Men’s Basketball Championship.
Marcus Johnson led UD with 18 points and Rob Lowery scored 14 as the Flyers dropped to 20-12 overall. Wright tied the Flyers single-season record for blocks with 46 after swiping away four Musketeer shots.
In front of a raucous partisan crowd, the Flyers had a 13-point advantage midway through the second half. However, the Musketeers charged back with a 13-2 run in a 10 minute span. During that Xavier run, Dayton went 0-for-4 from the field and committed and five turnovers.
One of the key plays in the game occurred with 34 second remaining. Down 70-68, the Flyer bench tried to call a timeout. However, Lowery was called for a technical foul before the timeout was called. Xavier then hit six straight free throws to pull away for good.
Dayton led 40-35 after the first half of play with three Flyers in double figures. Lowery led the first half attack with 12, Wright had 11 and Marcus Johnson scored 10.
UD got off to a strong start leading 13-8 early in the first half. A Wright pump slam brought the crowd to its feet as UD took a 23-14 lead at the 10 minute mark of the first half.
The Flyers finished the game shooting 24-of-54 from the floor and hit 8-of-20 shots from beyond the arc. Defensively, the Flyers limited Xavier to 42 percent shooting from the field, but the Musketeers converted 33 free throws.
Other contributors for UD included London Warren with seven points and four assists, Kurt Huelsman tallying five points and five rebounds and Paul Williams scoring six.
Wright finished the game shooting 6-for-15 from the field and added four rebounds. Marcus Johnson was 6-of-11 and 4-of-7 from beyond the arc.
In postseason tournament play, Dayton lost its fifth in a row to the Musketeers. The last Flyer postseason victory over Xavier was back in the 1990 Midwestern Collegiate Conference Final where UD won 98-89.
The Flyers now will wait to see where they will play in the postseason.
Dayton Head Coach Brian Gregory
"I’m disappointed at this point. For 32 minutes, I thought we played pretty good. Unfortunately some of the things that haunted us this whole year came back. We were loose with the ball and made some bad decisions at some crucial times. We couldn’t get a couple key stops and rebounds when we needed to get them. It’s tough. When you play a quality team you can’t have those mistakes."
“Unfortunately our guys had a chance to do something really good today but we let it just slip away. So, that’s hard to take."
"We did a really poor job on the glass. We did not meet that challenge at all, so that is disappointing."
"The reason we’ve been good because we gain rebounds. When your guards are only getting one and two rebounds against Xavier, you can’t do that. They hurt us on the glass and I think that was the difference in the game. I thought if we could control the glass, then that lead we had could have been even bigger."
"It was just the perfect storm. We had just enough turnovers, we had just enough second chance opportunities that we gave up, just enough missed layups, and we missed some good shots and
you just can’t do that."
Marcus Johnson
"It’s tough with me being a senior. We had the game but we made some plays in the second half that really hurt us and they capitalized on it. They came out with the win. It’s tough on me now, but hopefully we still have some games to play in the postseason."
