In one of the stranger games the UD Arena has seen in its 30 years, the Dayton Flyers built a 17pt 1st half lead, fell behind by six points in the 2nd half, and won by 23. Despite the winning margin, most of the 11,000+ fans in attendance were squirming in their seats for most of the night as the Flyers dodged a scare of Grim Reaper proportions. Dayton finally took things serious in the final 10 minutes and did away with the Panthers — the perennial bottom-feeders of the RPI who are as well-known for their failures as any successes.

Dayton appeared to start the game with both guns blazing as the Flyers opened up a 12-2 lead and tempted fans into believing that this one would be a cakewalk. Slowly but surely however, Prairie View started draining bombs from three-point territory, and when the Flyers insisted on letting them shoot some more, they obliged. After the Flyers opened a 24-8 lead, the Panthers went on a 3-pt tear and managed to tie the ballgame up at 36 apiece by halftime on the heels of a 25-9 run to finished the 1st half.

The first five minutes of the second half would probably decides things and Dayton knocked in a quick basket to take the lead again, but PVAM wouldn’t give up on the hope that this might be their night to shock the world and become SportsCenter highlight film. All told, it was the visiting team who got their engine going and as more three-pointers fell through the hoop, Prairie View opened up a seemingly improbably 51-44 lead with just 11 minutes to go in the contest. It was do or die for the Flyers and Coach Oliver Purnell’s team awoke from a sleepwalk to retake control of the game with a 28-6 run that put the Flyers ahead 72-57 with four minutes to go. Dayton put it on cruise control for the remainder of the match and improved their record to 4-3. After UD got behind 51-44, Dayton finished the game by outscoring PVAM 42-12.

Though Dayton tightened up their defense in the final 11 minutes to pull out the victory, they were Jekyll and Hyde all evening, coughing the ball up 19 times to PVAM’s 10, but making up for things by shooting a sizzling 30-35 from the free throw line. PVAM’s fortunes took a serious hit when guard Gregory Burks went down with an apparent knee injury just after Dayton retook the lead. Burks’ injury had all the signs of an ACL or other serious setback and, once he left the game, the Panthers fell apart while the Flyers pulled away rather easily in the final seven minutes.

Yuanta Holland led all Flyer scorers with 21pts while freshman Keith Waleksowski recorded the first double-double of his career, scoring 10pts and snatching 13 rebounds. Tony Stanley chipped in 13pts and nailed three 3pt FGs to break Norm Grevey’s career 3pt FG record of 208. Stanley now has 210 trifectas. PVAM’s Xavier Lee finished with 22pts while Burks tallied 19pts before leaving the game with his injury. Brooks Hall had an uncharacteristic five turnovers and never looked comfortable, but Sean FInn played six minutes and collected 7pts, 6rbs, and 2rbs — though he got stuffed on at least two occasions and still doesn’t finish well enough for a 6-11 big man. Sammy Smith played 14 minutes and did some good things for the Flyers even though he refuses to take an open jumpshot. For the game, Dayton outrebounded its opponent a staggering 51-28.

Dayton shot just .333% from the floor in the first half while Prairie View shot .419% — including 6-12 from behind the arc. Things changed in the second half however as UD shot .516% while PVAM shot just .290%. All told however, the Panthers nailed 10-24 three pointers, and a couple of those misses were late in the game after things were decided.

Before the game, the Univ. Dayton released a statement saying freshman Stan King (Denver, CO) is under suspension indefinitely for conduct detrimental to himself and the team. No other details were given. Freshman Jason Osborne remained out of action due to injury and his status is still unknown.

The Flyers must bear down for final exams this week, then prepare for St. Louis next Saturday at the always-tenacious Kiel Center. Tip-off is 2:10pm.