WILMINGTON, N.C. – The University of Dayton men's basketball team erased a 10-point first-half deficit and rode a huge second half to an 80-61 victory over UNCW in the second round of the National Invitational Tournament on Saturday night at Trask Coliseum.
 
The Flyers (25-11) advance to play the winner of Illinois State and No. 1 seed Wake Forest in the NIT quarterfinals.
 
Junior De'Shayne Montgomery became the fourth Flyer this season to hit the 1,000 point club, scoring a team-high 20 points in the win. The sophomore duo of Amaël L'Etang and Bryce Heard added 11 and 10 points, respectively. Senior Jordan Derkack pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds while scoring seven points, and fellow senior Javon Bennett added nine points and four assists.

UNCW (27-7) led by 10 with 10:04 remaining in the first half when the Flyers began to crawl back. UD cut the deficit to just one with a 9-0 run over two minutes of action, then took their first lead of the game at the 5:45 mark of the first half when Bennett sank a nifty layup. When the dust settled on the first half, Dayton had inched out to a four-point advantage.

UD jumped out to a fast start in the second half and did not take its foot off the gas, pushing its lead to as many as 20 in the second stanza.

The Flyers shot 51.8% (29-of-56) from the floor and 36% (9-of-25) from the three-point line, while holding the Seahawks to 42.1% (24-of-57) and 14.3% (3-of-21) from beyond the arc. Dayton held a 10-rebound advantage on the boards, 38-28.
 
GAME RECAP
 
First Half – Dayton 37, UNCW 33

• The Seahawks jumped out to a 7-0 lead before a basket by redshirt sophomore Jaiun Simon got the Flyers on the board.
• Sophomore Amaël L'Etang connected from long range to make it a 7-5 contest with 17:31 to go
• Sophomore Bryce Heard stopped a two-minute scoring drought with a fancy finish underneath the basket to make it a 11-7 game.
• Junior De'Shayne Montgomery twisted past the defense and spun home a layup to make the score 16-9 in favor of UNCW.
• Senior Jacob Conner hit a layup off a great feed from Simon to bring the score to 18-11 with 11:55 to go.
• Montgomery connected on a triple to kickstart the Dayton offense, as his three made it a 20-14 game but started a 17-8 run for the Flyers.
• Montgomery made it eight straight points for UD when he swished a three-pointer and finished at the rim.
• Senior Javon Bennett got his first tally in the score column with a deep three that made it a 26-22 game.
• Conner made a three of his own to cut the deficit to one with 7:55 to go.
• An old-fashioned three-point play from L'Etang knotted the score at 28-28.
• Bennett spun a layup in to put Dayton on top for the first time on the night, giving UD a 30-28 lead.
• An alley-oop from Montgomery to a cutting Keonte Jones kept Dayton ahead, 32-31.
• Montgomery stole an inbound attempt from the Seahawks and got the Flyers back on top, 34-33 with 1:40 remaining in the half.
• Senior Jordan Derkack got in the scoring column with a free throw that put Dayton's lead at 35-33 with just :30 to go.
• After a defensive stop, Bennett knifed through the UNCW defense and dropped in a layup at the buzzer to put the Flyers ahead 37-33 at the break.

 
Second Half – Dayton 80, UNCW 61

• UNCW hit the first shot of the half, but Dayton struck back by scoring the next five points, as Montgomery made a mid-range jumper and Simon cashed a three-pointer from the top of the key to make it 42-35.
• Jones cut through the Seahawks' defense and Simon hit the graduate student for his third assist of the game, putting the Flyers up 44-37.
• L'Etang made a pair of free throws to keep the scoring run going for UD, making it a 46-37 advantage.
• Simon finished in the paint to push Dayton's lead to 48-37 with 15:47 to go in the game.
• Heard finished an old-fashioned three-point play and diced through the defense for another basket to push the Flyers' lead to 53-37 with 14:58 to go.
• Conner flushed a massive slam to make it a 55-39 score.
• Bennett made a pair from the charity stripe to keep UD's advantage in double-digits at 57-41.
• Heard made his first three of the night to give Dayton a 60-43 lead.
• The Flyers maintained their double-digit lead thanks to a basket from Jones and free throws from Derkack.
• Montgomery went 2-for-2 from the free throw line to put UD ahead 67-50.
• The game's exclamation point came on a fast break steal and slam from Montgomery, who put UD ahead 72-56 with 4:12 to go.
• Derkack knocked down a triple to keep Dayton's lead at 17 with :57 to go.
• Redshirt freshman Malcolm Thomas knocked down a triple to give UD its final of 80 points.

 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
1000 – De'Shayne Montgomery joined the 1,000 career point club with his 20-point performance.
13 – rebounds for Jordan Derkack, his third 10+ rebound performance of the season
3 – steals for Montgomery, his 12^th game with 3 or more steals this season
10 – points scored by sophomore Bryce Heard, his third straight game with 10+ points
11 – point scoring run the Flyers had in the second half to push their single-digit lead to double-digits
11 – points for Amaël L'Etang, his 27^th game of the season with 10 or more points.
 
UP NEXT
With the win, Dayton will play the winner of Wake Forest and Illinois State in the third round of the NIT.