WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The University of Dayton women's basketball team finished up the West Palm Beach Invitational with an 85-66 win over Georgia Tech Friday in Florida.
 
The Flyers (5-6) finished up the non-conference portion of the schedule against the Yellow Jackets (9-3) with an outstanding performance.
 
KEY MOMENT
2^nd half – After going into the locker room down three at the half, Dayton outscored Georgia Tech 55-33 in the second half.
 
GAME BREAKDOWN
  1st Quarter: Dayton 13, Georgia Tech 20

• It was a physical start to the game, setting the tone early on in the contest that buckets were going to be hard to come by.
• Georgia Tech was able to fight its way to a 9-2 lead in the first 4:30 of the contest.
• Junior Jayla Scaife scored the first five points for Dayton.
• By the media break, the Jackets held a 14-5 lead over the Flyers.
• Redshirt sophomore Araion Bradshaw hit a big three out of the break to close the gap further.
• The Flyers kept within a few possessions the rest of the quarter.

 
2nd Quarter: Dayton 30, Georgia Tech 33

• Dayton came out firing in the second and closed the margin to five at 23-18 with 7:01 to play in the quarter.
• The bench played important minutes contributing to the effort on both ends of the floor.
• The Flyers made it a two-point game at 23-21 midway through the second.
• A Lauren Cannatelli pull-up jumper on a fast break tied the game up at 25-25 with two minutes to play.
• Junior Jenna Giacone then hit a three to give Dayton 28-25 lead.
• UD rode a 19-7 run over 10 minutes to get back into the game.
• The Flyers went into the locker room down just three after Tech hit a deep, defended three to take the lead.
• Scaife had a team-high eight points and four rebounds while Giacone and senior Maddy Dennis added six each.
• The Flyers were in the game despite shooting 28.6 percent compared to the Jackets' 44.8 percent.

 
3rd Quarter: Dayton 54, Georgia Tech 42

• The game was back-and-forth again in the early stages of the third with Dayton taking the lead back at 38-37 by the 7:00 mark.
• At the media timeout, the Jackets had climbed back on top 40-38 with 4:57 to go in the game.
• Dayton took a 44-42 lead after a bucket and a free throw from Scaife at the 3:00 mark.
• The Flyers took momentum over and it resulted in two technical fouls from the Georgia Tech bench.
• By the end of the quarter, Dayton had a double digit lead after outscoring Georgia Tech 24-9.

 
4th Quarter: Dayton 85, Georgia Tech 66

• Dayton added it its lead to start the fourth quarter.
• The Flyers had to defend a surging Jacket squad though.
• Every possession was a battle for the rest of the game with neither team wanting to give up momentum.
• With 4:42 left in regulation, the Flyers held a 65-51 advantage over the Jackets with fouls starting to become an issue for Tech.
• During a 1:00 stretch, Dayton scored eight straight points off of free throws.
• Dayton scored a season-high in total points for a game.

 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
27 – Jayla Scaife had a season-high 27 points and grabbed five rebounds in the game.
24 & 14 – Lauren Cannatelli scored a season-high 24 points and hit 14 free throws while dishing out five assists and grabbing five boards.
46-41 – Dayton outrebounded Georgia Tech 46 to 41 in the game.
21-10 – The Flyers scored 21 points off turnovers compared to Tech's 10.
33 of 41 – Dayton hit 33 of 41 free throws in the game.
10 & 11 – Maddy Dennis had a career-high 11 boards and scored 10 points for her first double-double of the season.
22 – Dayton had 22 points off the bench.
 
KEY STAT
Dayton outscored Georgia Tech 24-9 in the third quarter and had 21-10 points off turnover advantage.
 
UP NEXT
The Flyers take a break for the holidays before opening up Atlantic 10 play at home with La Salle at 1 p.m. on Jan. 5 at UD Arena.