Dayton Flyers

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DAYTON, Ohio - The University of Dayton men’s basketball team fell to the Buffalo Bulls 84-55 on Wednesday night. The Flyers fall to 5-2 on the season while the Bulls move to 4-1.

The Bulls were led guard Zach Filzen who finished with 24 points on 7-13 including six three-point field goals. In the frontcourt, UB got a pair of double-doubles from Javon McCrea (17 & 11) and Mitchell Watt (16 & 11).  UD was led by Chris Johnson’s 12 points and Kevin Dillard’s 11.

The Flyers started off the scoring after Kevin Dillard drove and hit Matt Kavanaugh on the wing for a jumper. The Bulls responded with back-to-back threes to take a 6-2 lead.  Two straight treys from Chris Johnson tied the game 8-8. 

Buffalo continued its hot shooting with two more 3-pointers to put them ahead by six. Kevin Dillard stopped the Bulls’ run, hitting a deep three to pull UD within three, 14-11.

Buffalo’s McCrea scored five straight points to stretch UB’s lead to eight with 10 minutes left in the half. McCrea’s string of points sparked an 18-0 run by Buffalo until UD’s Devin Oliver connected on one of two free throws with 3:56 remaining in the first stanza. Dayton trailed Buffalo 38-22 at the half.

Buffalo extended its margin to 25 through the first eight minutes of play in the second half. 

Dayton’s Dillard cut the lead to 18 at the 10:27 mark, converting two free throws after being fouled on a layup attempt.  Buffalo answered with a 10-0 run in the next 2:16.  Buffalo’s largest lead of the night was 32 (82-50) with 1:56 left in the game.

This was UD’s largest home defeat since losing by 43 (82-39) to Saint Louis on Jan. 14, 1995.

Buffalo dominated statistically, out-shooting Dayton 50% (27-54) to 28.1% (16-57) from the field, and 43.5% (10-23) to .261 (6-23) from three-point range.  The most telling stat was on the boards, where the Bulls had a +21 advantage (51-30).

Dayton takes the court again Sunday as they take to the road against Murray State. Tip-off is set for 2:00 p.m. ET.