The University of Dayton pulled off the improbable, defeating the #12 Kentucky Wildcats 68-66 at the Firstar Center in Cincinnati.

Dayton finally gets the monkeys off its back. Those monkeys would be Jim O’Brien, winning in Cincinnati, composure down the stretch, beating a top team, and the road woes suffered throughout the 90s. Dayton proved for the third time this year that it could win away from the friendly confines of UD Arena. The Flyers started out slowly, often getting pounded on the offensive glass and coughing up the basketball under the intense weight of the Kentucky full-court press. Sophomore David Morris entered the game and brought leadership beyond his years by settling down the team. Dayton could only muster outside shots in the first period as Ashman sat with two fouls. Fortunately, several well placed three-pointers kept the Flyers in the game.

While Dayton was having problems offensively, the defense rose to the occasion throughout the contest. UD’s smothering half-court pressure, powered by good footwork and outstanding court vision, kept Magloire and Prince in check. But as the Flyers’ man-to-man coverage would force a Kentucky turnover, they gave it right back at the other end in the second half. Kentucky could not capitalize on Dayton’s mistakes. Mark Ashman returned and showed why he is the top center in the Atlantic-10. Mark was fabulous inside 15 feet. Kentucky’s Jaamal Magloire, known nationally for being a premier shot-blocker, had no answer for Mark’s near-perfect textbook jumper and post moves. The senior from St. Mary’s, OH, hit two patented, turnaround, fadeaway jumpers on the baseline that left the 17,200 in attendance in disbelief as the game wore down to the final minutes.

The boys from the North finally broke through with just under 8 minutes to play in the game. After a see-saw battle, key shots from Stanley, Ashman, and Doliboa extended Dayton’s lead. Kentucky began to foul furiously and Dayton’s guards stepped up with huge free throws. Kentucky remained within striking distance but could not drain enough 3-pointers to overtake Dayton at the buzzer.

Notes from Chris Rieman, in attendance Monday night…

ALL BUSINESS…

“First and foremost, Dayton was all business. Though the Flyers coughed up the ball early and often and had trouble nabbing defensive rebounds, UD stayed in the game with superlative halfcourt defense. On the whole, the Flyers played about as bad of a first half as a team could – defense aside. The fact that UD was down just 39-33 in spite of this was encouraging.”

DAY DAY A GREAT DAY…

“David Morris was the best point guard on the floor for either team. His stats say five assists and six turnovers, but Day Day played assertive ball all night and forced Kentucky to adjust. Were it not for David’s smarts in attacking the press, UD would have been in serious trouble. Saul Smith, Bogans et al could not handle him all night. Time and time again Morris seemed to come up with the big steal.”

TONE, TONI, TONY…

“Tony Stanley played up to his abilities tonight. As good as his offensive game was, his defense is his best asset when he applies himself. His 5 treys from behind the arc kept Dayton from losing hope when the gap started to widen.”

IN THE PAINT…

“Ashman’s fade-away jumpers were NBA caliber shots. Only 4-5 players in the country can hit that shot on a consistent basis and he’s done it for four years. Ashman isn’t all things to all people, but he’s as good as we’ve seen at center in a long, long time.”

THE FANS…

“The Flyer Faithful were in rare form Monday night. With only about 4,000 of the 17,000 in attendance rooting for the Flyers, the UD fans out-yelled, out-cheered, out-supported, and outdid Big Blue’s contingent time and time again. Without a doubt, the Faithful are the best fans in the country and no group of people deserves this win more than them.”

THE THREE BLIND MICE…

“As has been the case too often in this young season, the officiating was very poor on both sides of the whistle. Ashman was dinged yet another blocking foul for doing nothing but standing firm and stiffening the chest. Kentucky had two blocked shots that were borderline goaltends, and the fouls were in favor of Kentucky until late in the game when the Cats had to foul habitually to get back in the contest. Once again, charges were mistaken for blocking fouls and blocking fouls for charges. Several walking calls were also missed on both teams.”

ON THE VICTORY…

“As nice as this win is, it still only counts as one win. The Flyers are only as good as their last game and need to take care of business at home in the next week. Failure to do that will tarnish the luster on the Kentucky victory. The quicker the players forget about beating UK and focus on tearing apart UM-BC, the better off we’ll be.”