Dayton Flyers

February 2, 2011

Box Score | Photo Gallery

DAYTON, Ohio – Chris Wright and Chris Johnson combined for 25 points to lift Dayton past St. Bonaventure, 63-61, on Wednesday night at UD Arena.

The Flyers (16-7, 4-4 A-10) defeated the Bonnies for the ninth consecutive time, while improving to 8-1 against St. Bonaventure in UD Arena with a 15-8 overall series advantage. Johnson finished with a team-high 14 points on 4-of-6 shooting. Wright finished with 11 points with two blocks to become UD’s career blocks leader.

Andrew Nicholson scored 35 points to account for over half of the Bonnies’ (11-10, 3-5) 61-point offensive production. Nicholson added 11 rebounds to register his ninth double-double of the season.

Dayton came out of the gate with an early lead that expanded to 11 points – UD’s largest lead of the night – at the 5:12 mark of the first half. St. Bonaventure stormed back into contention with a 17-0 run that lasted until 18:15 remained in the second half. From that point on, the score was tied seven times with four lead changes.

With the score tied going into the final minute of the game, the Flyers took the go-ahead 58-56 lead as Wright made a jumper with 49 seconds on the clock. St. Bonaventure would not go away until the final buzzer, scoring a flurry of points in the last 20 seconds of regulation, capped off by a Nicholson 3-pointer to put the Bonnies down by one with two seconds left. Johnson then converted on the front end of a trip to the free throw line to all but ensure UD’s first win in three games.

Dayton forced 19 turnovers and out-scored the St. Bonaventure bench 20-2. The Bonnies held a 41-32 rebounding advantage, making it just the sixth time this season that UD has been out-gained on the boards.

Josh Benson made his first career start for the Flyers, finishing with nine points and six rebounds. Matt Kavanaugh tied a career-high of seven rebounds to lead the Flyers.

Recording two blocks on Wednesday, Wright passed Sean Finn’s (2000-04) mark of 139 blocks to become Dayton’s leader in career blocks. The Trotwood native has 140 blocks in his four-year career and has at least one block in 12 consecutive games.

Dayton returns to action this Saturday, Feb. 5 against La Salle in Philadelphia. The 6 p.m. ET tipoff will be nationally televised on CBS College Sports.

Note:
The University of Dayton Division of Athletics unveiled its brand new $1.3 million video boards at each corner of UD Arena on Wednesday night. The high-definition video boards by Daktronics were installed mid-season in order to accommodate the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship First Four beginning in March at UD Arena.