Feb. 28, 2009
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DAYTON, Ohio -- The University of Dayton men's basketball team employed eight-straight clutch free throws in the waning moments to hold off the Temple Owls 70-65 for a 19th straight home victory before a sold-out crowd at UD Arena on Saturday. The 19 straight wins on Tom Blackburn Court is the best home winning streak in UD Arena history, and the third-best in school history.
The Flyers held the lead for the entire game, improving to 24-5. They picked up their 10th conference win, which puts UD in a second-place tie with Rhode Island in the A-10 standings. It is the first time the Flyers have mounted 24 wins in a regular season since 1953-54. Temple dropped to 17-11 and 9-5 in A-10 play.
Chris Wright stood out for Dayton with a season-high 20 points and a couple highlight-reel dunks, while London Warren had perhaps his best all-around game in a Dayton uniform. The speedy junior recorded season-highs in rebounds (9) and assists (8) to go along with two steals and four points. Warren also expertly guided the Flyer offense, which shot 46 percent from the field and outclassed the Owls in bench points 23-2.
Marcus Johnson pitched in with 14 points, while Mickey Perry continued his recent stretch of improved play by dropping 10 points on the Owls for his second-straight game in double figures - the redshirt junior came into the contest averaging 3.8 points per game. Perry also put up eight foul shots in the game, two more than he had previously attempted all season.
Temple was led by a season-high 20-point effort by Ryan Brooks. After nearly being shutout in the first half, TU senior Dionte Christmas erupted with 17 second-half points to match Brooks' scoring output and give the Flyers a late scare. Dayton responded to a relentless Temple comeback effort by burying eight straight free throws, the last of which were made by senior Charles Little to put the game away for good.
UD opened the game with some stifling defense and held Temple scoreless for the first 4:06. Meanwhile, on the offensive side of the ball the Flyers displayed a soft touch in the early going. Quick jumpers by Warren, Johnson and Stephen Thomas put Dayton on top 8-0 early. UD would go on to make seven of its first 10 shots from the field, including four straight from the three-point line.
Dayton built its biggest lead of the half after a three-point shot by Perry, and the Flyers led it 26-14 with 8:46 to go. The Owls, however, would battle back over the next five minutes. TU's Ryan Brooks free throw with 3:06 remaining cut the deficit to just four points, but it was all Chris Wright after that. The sophomore forward took over with four straight points to cap the opening stanza and give the Flyers a ten-point advantage heading into the locker room.
Part of the reason for the Flyers first half success was the way they smothered Temple senior Dionte Christmas, who averages 19.4 points per game and is one of the A-10's premier players. A collection of Flyer defenders, with Marcus Johnson taking the leads, hounded the guard all half, and Christmas made just one bucket as a result. The Dayton defense tempered Temple's shooting across the board in the half, as the Owls entered the break with just 26 points on 40.7 percent shooting.
Dayton opened the second half with a 4-0 run to force an immediate Temple timeout with 18:59 to play. Wright picked up where he left off at the end of the first half, scoring UD's first six points to give him 10 straight points as UD built its largest lead of the game, 48-32, with 13:36 remaining on a Perry free throw. Christmas began to get hot for the Owls, however, and after a 1-for-5 first half, the senior stroked six-of-11 (17 points) from the field in the second period. He cut the Flyer lead to five with an NBA range three with 2:28 to go and then again with a sneaky drive to the hoop.
Senior Charles Little polished off two free throw attempts to preserve the Flyer win.
Dayton travels to Cincinnati on Thursday, March 5 to take on Xavier. Game time for the ESPN2 telecast is 9:00 p.m. ET. UD will close out the regular season on Saturday, March 7 on Senior Day when the Flyers host Duquesne. The Duquesne game will tipoff at 8:00 p.m. ET.
NOTES: Temple's Dionte Christmas' lone three-pointer in the first half moved him into the top ten in the A-10's all-time leaders in three-point shots made with 294. He also became Temple's fourth-leading scorer in school history.
