The Dayton Flyers hit a new low Thursday night as Temple manhandled Oliver Purnell’s club 67-54 in a game that saw UD make only four field goals inside the 3-PT arc and only one in the second half. Coby Turner kept the Flyers from getting beat by a lot more by nailing 7 of 10 treys on his way to a career-best 25 points.

Dayton falls to 9-11 (4-6) while Temple improves to 14-7 (8-1). The Flyers travel to Olean, NY, on Saturday for an evening contest against St. Bonaventure.

In a game that was close for only a few minutes, Temple opened the game by slicing through the Flyers’ matador defense for three consecutive dunks to open up an early lead. To make matters worse, Dayton turned the ball over 5 times in the first 12 possessions and found themselves on the brink of a whitewash before the 10 minute mark. Fortunately, when UD did get a look at the basket, they nailed their shots. Of Dayton’s first 15 points of the game, 12 were from 3-PTers and the other three were off a 3-PT play by Tony Stanley after a Flyer steal at midcourt.

Dayton hung around and closed the deficit to 18-17 before Temple tightened up and began pulling away. It looked so easy for John Chaney’s team at times that it seemed unfair. While Temple kept pounding the inside to Mark Karcher and Lamont Barnes, UD kept shooting treys — and started to miss. By halftime, the Owls owned a 38-27 advantage.

The second half turned out to be even more disastrous for Dayton as the love affair with the three-point shot continued to show itself. Temple methodically put points on the scoreboard and before long the lead was 18 points. Coby Turner was the only salvation, making his last 7 treys in a row while everyone else damaged the rim with bricks and windburn.

As the game began winding down it became apparent that the Flyers had not made a two-point FG in quite some time. In fact, only a freak play late in the game kept UD from earning a goose egg from inside the arc in the final frame. A Temple player threw the ball off the rim on a backcourt pass, the ball found Tony Stanley, and he stuck it in for UD’s only deuce of the half.

Dayton got outmuscled and out-executed once again and refused to play smart basketball and trust the coaching staff’s gameplan. For the contest, Dayton was 4-19 from inside the arc and 11-30 behind it. Obviously, when a team shoots 30 3-PTers and 19 2-PTers, the chances for a victory are slim.

The Flyers shot a miserable .306% from the floor and got outrebounded 38-28 and gave up 14 offensive boards. Take away Turner’s numbers and UD shot 8-37 (.216%) and just 4-20 (.200%) from behind the arc.

One of the bright spots was freshman David Morris who played 25 minutes. Morris dished out 8 assists to just one turnover and could have had 4-5 more assists if his passes weren’t dropped. Morris’ playing time was in part due to Edwin Young’s inability to handle the basketball. Young finished with four turnovers in 18 minutes and was entirely ineffective on the offensive end. Likewise, Cain Doliboa was a liability on offense, clanking several shots throughout the game. Doliboa did finish with a team-high 7 rebounds.

Tony Stanley finished with 9 points but 6 of those came in the first four minutes of the game. Mark Ashman got only limited touches and scored 6pts and took just five shots.

Dayton has had a few quality performances this year in Marquette, Louisville, DePaul, and Xavier. But for the most part, it has been a season of disappointment and a season in which dumb mistakes cannot be eradicated.

Dayton finishes the two-game road trip against Jim Baron’s Bonnies on Saturday night. The Reilly Center will be a tough place to earn a win.

Visit DFE soon for a full pregame report on the St. Bonnie contest.