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LOWELL, Mass. – With its 75-67 win over Temple Sunday, the University of Dayton has advanced to its first ever Atlantic 10 Women’s Basketball Championship final. The No. 6 seed Flyers will face the No. 1 seed Xavier Musketeers Monday, March 7 at 5 p.m. ET at the Tsongas Center for the A-10 title and automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

Dayton improves to 21-10 overall while Temple is 23-8. The Flyers are tied as the lowest seed to ever advance to the A-10 final game (Saint Joseph’s also advanced as the No. 6 seed in 1991).

Senior Kristin Daugherty led the way for Dayton, putting up 16 points against the Owls. Junior Justine Raterman added 15 points and junior Patrice Lalor added 11 points and four assists. Sophomore Olivia Applewhite posted her strongest performance thus far in the tournament with nine points. Sophomore Sam MacKay tied a career high with five assists.

Dayton shot 47.9 percent from the field (23-of-48) and 81.3 percent from the free throw line (26-of-32). The 26 free throws are tied for the second most made by the Flyers this year. The Owls became just the sixth team to outrebound (37-32) UD this year. Temple shot 41 percent from the floor, but just 7.7 percent from the three (1-of-13).

The Owls, who had won regular season meeting 76-52, got off to an early lead as the Flyers struggled to find the mark. MacKay finally got UD on the board at the 15:26 mark. Dayton took its first lead of the game with 7:58 left to play in the first half on a pair of Raterman free throws to make it 18-16.
Temple tied the game at 24-24 with 4:08 left in the half, but UD closed it out with a 14-8 run to take a 38-32 lead into the locker room.

Dayton’s defense held Temple to just two field goals in the first 10 minutes of the second half, and built a 20-point lead, 58-38 with 10:15 left to play.
The Owls chipped away and reduced the lead to five, but the Flyers had time and solid free throw shooting on their side. Shey Peddy’s layup with 40 seconds remaining in the game, made the score 69-64. Qwedia Wallace hit a three with nine seconds showing on the clock, but UD sealed the win by going 6-of-6 from the free throw line in the final 37 seconds of the game with Kari Daugherty, Patrice Lalor and Kristin Daugherty sinking two each.

Dayton has already faced No. 6/6 Xavier twice this season. The Musketeers escaped with a pair of four-point victories in both meetings; 63-59 on Jan. 9, 2011 at the Cintas Center and 70-66 in overtime at UD Arena on Feb. 5, 2011.