Feb. 19, 2005
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Marques Bennett's late-game heroics lifted the University of Dayton Flyers to a 59-55 win over Xavier Saturday at UD Arena. Bennett scored all five of his points in the final 38 seconds to move Dayton from two down to three ahead, and was named the game's Blackburn/McCafferty MVP.
The Flyers trailed 55-53 when Bennett scored on a driving layup and then added a free throw for a one-point lead. He then grabbed the rebound when Xavier's Dedrick Finn missed a shot with 9.6 seconds remaining, was fouled and converted both free throws to put the Flyers up by three points.
The Musketeers never got off the potential tying 3-pointer. UD point guard Warren Williams forced a turnover, and the scramble for a loose ball ended with a tie-up with less than a second remaining. The possession arrow favored Dayton, and Brian Roberts then hit one of two free throws to end the scoring.
The victory gave the Flyers (15-8, 8-4) sole possession of second place in the Atlantic 10's West Division, one-game behind George Washington. Xavier (13-10, 7-5) dropped into third place, a game behind UD. The top two teams in each division get first-round byes in the conference tournament.
Monty Scott scored 12 points and Roberts had 10 for the Flyers, whose balanced attack saw nine of the 11 players who played, score. The Dayton bench outscored the Xavier reserves 27-4. Freshmen Chris Alvarez and Jimmy Binnie led UD in rebounding (five apiece), and Williams, Mark Jones and Trent Meacham each had three assists.
Justin Cage had 16 points and Justin Doellman 15 for the Musketeers.
Xavier led for most of the first half and had a nine-point advantage with 3:48 remaining but the Flyers played the last three minutes with five true freshmen on the floor, and took a one-point lead into halftime.
Dayton scored the first five points of the second half to take a 34-29 lead. The Muskies then rallied to lead by as much as six (49-43 with 8:03 to go), but five straight points by Scott pulled the Flyers to within one (49-48 with 5:12 left). The game remained a one-possession game (with six lead changes or ties) until Roberts' free throw with 0.4 seconds left.
Dayton's next game is on Tuesday at St. Bonaventure. Game time is 7:00 p.m. EST. Xavier returns home to take on division leader GW on Wednesday.
