It was déjà vu for the Flyer Faithful Thursday night at the UD Arena, as the hometown fans witnessed another 2nd half double-digit lead evaporate. Fueled by a 33-11 run over the final 14 minutes of the game, the Temple Owls defeated the Dayton Flyers 68-58. Temple won their fifth straight game, while the Flyers five- game winning streak came to an end. The loss drops UD to 10-5 overall and 2-1 in Atlantic Ten Conference play. Temple improves to 9-7 and 3-0 in conference. The loss also denied Flyer Head Coach Oliver Purnell his 100th coaching victory at Dayton.

With just over 14 minutes remaining in the game, UD freshman Keith Waleskowski (10 pts, 7 rbs) hit a shot to put the Flyers up 47-35. From there, the Owls asserted themselves defensively as Dayton couldn’t buy a basket. On the other end, Lynn Greer (24 pts on 8-12 shooting, playing all 40 minutes) and Kevin Lyde (18 pts, 7 rbs) did most of the damage for John Chaney’s crew. The two combined for 20 points in the decisive run. Trying to turn the game into a free throw contest over the final 2:30 of the game, Lyde responded by going 8-8 for the game, a statistic that belied his 43% FT percentage he entered the game with. As a team, Temple converted 88% of their throws from the charity stripe, never allowing UD to catch up.While Greer and Lyde were too much offensively, the play of the game for Temple (not surprisingly) belonged to the defense, and Alex Wesby (8 pts, 5 rbs) in particular. Up by 12 with the ball in transition, Yuanta Holland (5 pts, 1 rbs) drove to the basket looking to put Dayton up by 14, and perhaps building a lead and momentum too much for Temple to overcome. However, Wesby came up with a critical block to hold the Flyer lead at 12. On the ensuing possession, Wesby canned a long three pointer – cutting Dayton’s lead back under double digits and taking some of the air out of raucous Dayton Arena.For the Flyers, it was the same story on offense: as Tony Stanley goes, so goes Dayton. The senior from Philadelphia was held to eight points on 3-15 shooting from the field. UD appeared to be weathering Stanley’s drought in the first half, as they shot a blistering 42% from three-point land. Brooks Hall (6 rbs) led the way with 12 first half points, finishing with 16. Ramod Marshall (9 pts, 2 ast) tossed in three 3-pointers in the first half as well, but missed his final six shots.The hot shooting in the first half disappeared as the Flyers shot a tepid 16% from beyond the arc in the 2nd half.

Often relying on a three ball as the shot clock wound down, the shots would simply not fall. The difference seemed to occur when John Chaney added a wrinkle. He extended the matchup zone defense out just a little farther, and then came with a double-team whenever the Flyers moved the ball to the wing. Dayton didn’t penetrate with much authority in the decisive moments of the game, while Temple showed their mental toughness.

Dayton must now regroup by Sunday afternoon as they will play up on Hawk Hill, taking on the surprising St. Joseph’s Hawks. It has been discussed before that this Flyer team is not good enough to win by only playing 30 minutes. Tonight’s game proved that once again.