The Dayton Flyers have no one to blame but themselves for their most recent setback of the season, this time to St. Bonaventure in front of 5,912 rowdy spectators at the Reilly Center in Olean, NY. Despite a six point halftime lead and a 15-pt second half advantage, the Flyers fell apart with the precision of a Swiss wristwatch down the stretch to lose 77-67 on Saturday night.

Mark Ashman scored 19 points and Tony Stanley 18 in the losing cause. Coby Turner added 12 points and a team-high 9 boards. The Flyers fall to 9-12 (4-7) while the Bonnies improve to 11-11 (5-5).

Things started off on a sour note for Dayton as Jim Baron’s club built an early lead to pace the early minutes of the game. While the Bonnies converted on lay-ups and open jumpers, Dayton hurt themselves by coughing up the ball on every other possession.

With 7 minutes to go in the half however, Dayton picked up the intensity on defense and started converting on the offensive end. Tony Stanley hit several first-half treys and Mark Ashman did some damage at the foul line to get Dayton back in the ballgame. Like a flip of the switch, the Bonnies started to panic and UD actually took charge. Soon the Flyers erased a 10 point deficit and turned it into a 3 point lead. With the final shot of the half, David Morris nailed a trey as the clock expired to send the Flyers to the locker room with a 33-27 advantage, their largest of the game.

Though Dayton’s weakness all season has been establishing a presence in the early minutes of the second half, Oliver Purnell’s club picked up where they left off in the first half and eventually built a 10 point lead. After a three-second lane violation on St. Bonaventure, Head Coach Jim Baron got hit with a technical foul and things started looking rosy for the Flyer Faithful listening back home on the radio. Dayton got two points out of the “T” and on the following possession Coby Turner took the ball down the floor, stopped and popped a trey without hesitation, and the Flyer lead grew to 46-31 with 15 minutes to play. Surely they could hold on to this lead?

As it turned out, Dayton got outscored 11-0 in the following three minutes before Mark Ashman stopped the bleeding with a lay-in to make the score 48-42. A few minutes later the Bonnies took the lead for good on blistering shooting from behind the three-point arc. In crunch time, Baron’s club had an answer for every Dayton offensive.

The Bonnies shot .536% from the field for the game and a sizzling .650% in the final half. A poor 3-PT shooting team all year, the Bonnies hit 8-16 to defy the stat sheets. They also hit 9 of 10 at the charity stripe.

On the other hand, Dayton shot a better-than-average .456% from the field, particularly good since it was away from the UD Arena. The Flyers went 8-22 from behind the arc but a handful of the misses were earned in the last seconds of the contest.

Turnovers, poor decisionmaking, and a severe lack of mental toughness continue to slice the throat of this ballclub. The Bonnies collected 11 steals — most of which resulted in uncontested lay-ups and dunks.

Once again the point guard position fails to be a scoring threat for Dayton. Edwin Young dished out 5 assists on only 2 turnovers, and collected 5 rebounds, but played only marginally better than freshman David Morris who dished out 4 assists and 4 turnovers. Young scored just one point while Morris sank the trey late in the first half. Defensively, Young is still a better choice then Morris, but fans have to wonder how long it will be before Morris gets the nod at PG. With so little separating these two on the offensive end, it may be wise to play for next year since a postseason birth this season is all but lost.

The Flyers had their chances Saturday night but the storyline is becoming repetitive. In the end, it’s just another disappointing loss in a season full of utter frustration.

Dayton returns home and gets a week off before hosting GW next weekend. Visit DFE soon for a full pregame report.