Feb. 4, 2009

 

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Marcus Johnson's follow-up slam with 1.2 seconds remaining lifted the University of Dayton to its seventh straight win, as UD turned away La Salle 63-61 Wednesday in Philadelphia. The Flyers improved to 21-2 overall and retained sole possession of second place in the Atlantic 10 with a 7-1 record. La Salle fell to 12-9 and 3-4 in the A-10.

Dayton never trailed in the game, but Johnson's big play thwarted a furious Explorer comeback. The Flyers led by as much as 17 in the first half and still led by 11 (39-28) at halftime. La Salle scored nine of the first ten points of the second half and held the Flyers without a field goal for the first 6:47 of the second half, but UD maintained at least a three-point lead until LaSalle leading scorer Rodney Green hit a pair of free throws to make it a 61-60 game with 2:49 to go.

On the next Dayton possession, Flyer sophomore Chris Wright grabbed two offensive rebounds before he was fouled with a minute, 53 seconds left. Wright made the first free throw but missed the second, and Green tied the game on a short fall away jumper with 45 seconds to go.

Dayton used all of the shot clock on the next possession, and Wright was unable to get a short shot to fall. UD's Kurt Huelsman was able to fight for the rebound and get a jump ball with the arrow pointing Dayton's way. The Flyers again went to Wright and he drove down the left side of the lane. His contested jumper hit glass and rim before bounding out on the left side of the basket, but Flyer junior Marcus Johnson followed right after Wright for the game-winning slam.

The Explorers were able to get the ball into Green for a desperation heave, but after scoring La Salle's final seven points of the game, Green could not pull out a miracle. Green led all scorers with 25 points, 16 coming in the second half.

It was Johnson's second game-winning slam dunk in the last three games for UD. Last Thursday at home, his alley-oop dunk with 1:06 was the final basket scored in the 47-46 win over Saint Louis.

Johnson was Dayton's leading scorer with 16 points. Wright added 14, and was also UD's top rebounder with eight. The Flyers won the battle of the boards 36-28, and shot .556 (5-9) from three-point range and .800 (16-20) from the line.

Dayton is now 9-0 in games decided by five points or less, the best record in close games in the country (four teams are tied at 5-0). The Flyers are also 5-2 on the road and 7-2 away from UD Arena this season.

The Flyers play at Charlotte on Sunday, February 8 at 1:00 p.m. ET, before returning home to face Xavier on Wednesday, February 11.