DAYTON -- After trailing at halftime, the University of Dayton men's basketball team defeated Vanderbilt by a final score of 68-63 Wednesday night at UD Arena.

Charles Cooke led Dayton in points with 19 while Ryan Mikesell recorded the first double-double of his career with 12 points and 11 rebounds.  Kendall Pollard added 13 points for UD.  Vandy guard Matthew Fisher-Davis led all scorers with 25 points.

 Dayton improves to 8-3 on the season, and has won six of the last seven.  Vanderbilt evens its record at 6-6.

GAME BREAKDOWN
First Half
•  Dayton started off the game strong, opening with a 7-0 run highlighted by a Scoochie Smith three.
• Midway through the first half, Vanderbilt switched to a zone defense.  It gave the Flyers trouble. The Flyers missed eight straight field goal attempts before Kendall Pollard hit a floater with one minute left in the half.
• UD held the lead for more than 13-and-a-half minutes in the first period.
• Commodore guard Payton Willis hit a buzzer-beater to end the half, giving Vanderbilt a two-point lead heading into the locker room.
• Halftime score:  Vanderbilt 23, Dayton 21.

Second Half
• Dayton scored the first eight points of the second half and held was able to hold the lead the rest of the way. 
• Shortly after a VU timeout the Commodores were able to go on a 6-0 run of their own, tightening the score to 31-29 Dayton.
• Dayton was slowly able to pull away thanks to a Darrell Davis three at the 8:25 mark giving Dayton some breathing room and a seven-point lead
• Kyle Davis was able to take the ball baseline for a layup with 2:33 left, giving the Flyers their largest lead of the game 58-47.
• As Vanderbilt was hitting their shots from behind the arc down the stretch, Charles Cooke was able to secure the win for Dayton going 6-for-6 from the charity stripe with under 20 seconds left in the game.
• Final score: Dayton 68, Vanderbilt 63

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
• 11 – With his 19 points tonight, Charles Cooke has now scored double figures in all 11 games this season. Cooke was able to go 9 of 10 from the charity stripe in the game,
• 9 – As a team, Dayton has committed only nine turnovers in each of its last two contests.
• 1st – Ryan Mikesell was able to record his first double-double of his career scoring 12 points and pulling down a career-high 11 rebounds.
• 52% – The percentage that the Flyers shot from the field in the second half, after shooting just 28% in the first half.
• 6 -- This was UD's sixth consecutive win over an SEC school.
• 17 – Dayton had 17 assists on 23 field goals, and nearly had a 2-to-1 assist to turnover radio with 17 assists against nine turnovers.
• 25 – Vanderbilt guard Matthew Fisher-Davis scored a career-high 25 points in the game, shooting 5 of 9 from behind the arc.
• 3 – Scoochie Smith is now three points away from joining UD's 1,000 point club.

UP NEXT
• Dayton will continue its three game home stretch Friday, December 23 when the Flyers take on Virginia Military Institute. 
• Game time is 7 p.m. ET.
• Friday's game will close out Dayton's non-conference portion of the schedule.  UD will begin the defense of its 2016 Atlantic 10 Conference co-regular season championship on Dec. 30 at home against La Salle.