The first five minutes of the game threw a scare into the Flyer Faithful Saturday night, but once the turbines warmed up and started chugging, it was all over. Dayton withstood a 15-5 deficit to start the game by ripping off a 29-2 run during the middle 10 minutes of the first half to coast over Coastal Carolina 104-79 at the UD Arena. Coastal Head Coach Pete Strickland, a former assistant t Oliver Purnell at Dayton, suffers his fifth loss in six games this season while the Flyers remain unbeaten.

The beginning of the game brought a few susprises as Brooks Hall started in place of Cain Doliboa — sitting on the bench in street clothes because of pain in his lower back and foot. Hall stepped up and filled Doliboa’s sneakers nicely as the freshman from Troy, OH, dropped in 16 points and nabbed 8 rebounds. Before things were clicking however, the Flyers came out sluggish.

Coastal Carolina started the game by applying a full-court press that rattled the home team and caused a couple early turnovers that were converted into three-point bombs. Matt Gladieux nailed two from long distance in the first five minutes of the contest and Purnell had no choice but to burn a timeout with Dayton trailing 15-5. When the two teams retook the floor, it was a different game.

Oliver Purnell inserted David Morris and before long the Flyers were pushing the ball at every opportunity and cashing in with transition baskets and fast-break points. On the other end, the Flyers tightened up defensively by bumping and pushing CCU on the perimeter and forcing the Chants to take off-balanced jumpshots. It worked. The Chants went ice-cold while Dayton started lacing together terrific passes on the fast break that threaded defenders and brought the crowd to its feet. Ashman, Stanley, and Morris led the scoring in the first half as the Flyers shot .580% from the field. Morris went 3-4 from behind the arc including a buzzer-beating trey to send Coastal into the locker room trailing 62-32.

In the second half, it was more of the same. The Flyers didn’t push the ball as often as they did in the first half, but Dayton played well enough to increase the lead to 41 points at 89-48 before Purnell called off the dogs and started substituting liberally. At times, Ted Fitz was playing shooting guard and Books Hall at the point. Walk-on Joe Ashburn saw 10 minutes of action — including the first half — and dished out three assists. All told, UD took advantage of the massive size and quickness advantage in the frontcourt by outscoring CCU 64-22 in the paint.

Tony Stanley had a terrific all-around game, dropping in a team-high 22 points to go along with a team-high 11 boards. It’s Stanley’s second double-double of the season. Brooks Hall added 16 points in his first career start while Mark Ashman added 15 and David Morris 13.

On the other side, CCU’s Matt Gladieux led all scorers with 26 points while former Big South Rookie of the Year Steve Miles dropped in 19.

For the game Dayton shot .575% from the field but allowed Coastal to connect on 10-23 (.435%) from behind the arc. The Flyers — leading all A-10 teams in 3-pt FG defense — were a bit loose on the perimeter but managed to make up for it inside the paint by out-rebounding CCU 44-28. The Flyers also had an amazing 26 assists on the night compared to Coastal’s 11

The Flyers are now 8-0 and have a week off to concentrate on exams before taking on Cleveland St. next weekend. The Vikings are struggling this season, but possess a lot of talent and have a stable of Ohio Mr. Basketballs on their roster. Two seasons ago CSU snuck out of UD Arena with an improbable upset that likely meant the difference between Dayton earning an NCAA bid and accepting the NIT invite at the end of the year. Assuming Ashman remains healthy and Doliboa can heal, Dayton has every reason to believe they can win the game. Even if Doliboa doesn’t get the green light, tonight’s win showed that Brooks Hall is a capable substitute.

The talk will surface yet again on whether Dayton will recieive a Top-25 ranking when the new polls come out. It should be a non-issue. The Flyers are 8-0 precisely because they have taken one game at a time and refuse to start counting wins before the games are played. As long as the Flyers keep taking it one game at a time, the good fortune will continue and the nation will recognize them. The more everyone worries about polls and victory projections, the sooner things will go wrong.