University of Dayton head coach Oliver Purnell earned his 200th career coaching victory tonight as his Flyers defeated the Duquesne University Dukes 70-61 at the UD Arena. In a game not quite as close as the score indicated, the Flyers only had to withstand one run by the Dukes to improve their mark on the year to 10-4. It was also UD’s first Atlantic 10 conference game, as the Flyers – in this year’s new one division format – look to build on last year’s Western Division championship. Duquesne falls to 6-9 on the year, and 0-2 in conference play.Freshman Keith Waleskowski continues his impressive play, as he led the Flyers to the victory with a career-high 23 points. In addition to the scoring, Keith also controlled the glass – grabbing 14 rebounds. Tony Stanley was his usual self, collecting 18 points.

Rounding out the strong offensive play was David Morris’ strong effort. He dished out eight assists (many to Waleskowski) against only two turnovers, giving him 16:3 over the last two games. Meanwhile, on the defensive end of the floor, the Flyers held DU’s main threat, Wayne Smith, to half of his season total – nine points on 4-14 shooting.As usual, Dayton got off to a strong start, opening a 20-9 lead midway through the first half. After two Waleskowski free throws, UD opened the advantage to 16 points with 2:50 to play in the half. However, the Flyers only managed two Stanley free throws the rest of the half, while the Dukes got hot. Duquesne closed the first half on a 10-2 run to trail 38-30 at the break.

The second half started the same way as the first half ended, with the Duke’s Jack May (11 pts, 6 rbs) hitting back-to-back shots, narrowing the Flyer lead to 38-34. This sent many of the 13,200+ fans into relapses of the home losses to Cincinnati, Old Dominion, and Marshall. Consecutive three-pointers by Morris and Stanley quickly pushed the lead back to 10. The teams traded baskets for the next ten minutes, until a pair of free throws and another Stanley three-pointer built the Flyer lead to their largest of the night at 67-50 with seven minutes to play. From that point on, the Flyers simply ran out the clock, not allowing Duquesne to get any closer than the final margin of nine.Unlike some of the early games this year, Dayton attacked Duquesne when they tried to press, and as a result, netted a few easy hoops. This seemed to take the early wind out of the DU sails. Conversely, Dayton used a press of their own to bring a more up-tempo flow to the game. Looking at the shot chart from the game, only three of Duquesne’s baskets came from outside the paint. The Flyer defense held DU to 1-6 from three-point land, and 40% shooting for the game. Meanwhile, Dayton shot 47% from both three-point land and from the field overall.Looking ahead, Dayton has a pivotal early A-10 matchup against perennial national power Temple. The game is at the UD Arena on Thursday night at 8pm and will be televised on the Atlantic-10 network. Temple has won four straight after dropping seven in a row (four against Top-15 teams) and is playing typical Owls defense – holding two of their last four opponents under 50 points. The winner not only will have the early inside track on the rest of the Atlantic-10, but also, looking ahead to March, an important win against a quality opponent.