Cincy Outmuscles Dayton 66-59 in Backyard Battle

The #22 Dayton Flyers traveled to the Queen City to play #19 Cincinnati at the Heritage Bank Center (formerly Riverfront Coliseum) on Friday night, the second year in a row the backyard rivals battled in a neutral site game just seven miles from the UC campus.   The Bearcats got revenge for last year's 82-68 defeat with a convincing 66-59 triumph in front of 15,107 fans -- a game that wasn't as close as the final score indicated.  Exerting a physicality that disrupted everything Dayton tried to do, UC stretched the lead to 18pts before a late Flyer rally.  UD wraps up their non-conference season at 10-3 while UC improves to 9-1.
Cincinnati entered the contest coming off an emotional 68-65 victory over Xavier in the Crosstown Shootout, while Dayton survived 66-65 after UNLV missed a shot at the buzzer to win the game at UD Arena.  Owning a 60-31 advantage in the series, the Bearcats were looking for some payback after last year's defeat and got off to a good start.
The Bearcats took control early by crashing the glass for six offensive rebounds in the first three offensive possessions. A pair of Flyer turnovers didn't help as UC took an 8-2 lead at the first media timeout by pressuring the basketball and out-hustling UD for loose balls.  Cincinnati extended the lead to 16-4 and forced Anthony Grant to burn a timeout as UD failed to score a basket in the first nine minutes of play. Nate Santos finally scored Dayton's first basket almost 12 minutes into the game on a stick-back ...