Whether it was the effects of playing the previous night or simply being overmatched, the Flyers dropped a 76-63 decision to the Temple Owls in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 tournament. The loss was the third on the year to Temple and dropped the Flyers to 1-7 against Temple since joining the A10.

The Flyers fell behind early in the game, but came back to take a 9-8 lead on a Tony Stanley three. Early on, the Flyers were able to get the ball inside to Nate Green for some low post buckets, but the Temple defense began to collapse inside and force several turnovers in the high post. Those turnovers led to easy baskets in transition and the Owls extended the lead to 24-17 as Quincy Wadley and Lynn Greer lit up the Dayton perimeter defense.

Ramod Marshall got the Flyers back into the contest with a personal seven-point run, cutting the Owls lead to 26-24. The Flyers trailed just 29-26, but then collapsed. They continually lost Greer and Wadley on defense, turned the ball over with sloppy perimeter passes, and missed wide open looks at the basket. Temple took advantage to open a 41-26 lead before Stanley closed the half with a dunk. Wadley led the Owls with 16 first half points and Greer added 12. Marshall led the Flyers with seven.

Whatever the coaching staff told the players in the pregame locker room, it didn’t work. The Owls closed the first half on a 12-2 run to open up the working margin. They then used a 16-8 run to blow the game open in the first eight minutes of the second half. At the under 12 minute timeout, the Owls had a 57-34 lead.Seemingly out of the game, the Flyers began to pressure and trap full-court. Temple turned the ball over against the press and suddenly the Flyers found themselves with an opportunity to get back into the game. After converting just four of their first 15 threes, Marshall and Hall warmed up from the perimeter, knocking down four of their next five. The 23-point deficit was narrowed to 64-54 with nearly five minutes remaining. But the Flyers soon lost their shooting stroke and never got the lead under 10 despite several opportunities. Down 10 with the ball on consecutive trips, Dayton missed two wide-open treys and committed a turnover. With chances to cut the lead to eight, the Flyers committed a turnover then gave up a trey and two stick backs. Given that reprieve, the Owls closed the game out at the free throw line.

The reasons Temple opened up a 23-point lead were a microcosm of the season. Offensively, Dayton made sloppy unforced turnovers and missed wide-open shots. On the night, they committed 17 turnovers and were 9 of 27 on treys. Defensively, they allowed dribble penetration and failed to provide timely help defense. At times, the help was so late it never arrived. And continuing a season-long trend, the Flyers continually lost shooters on the perimeter. At least on this night the Flyers perimeter defenders might have had trouble sticking with a mannequin at the three-point arc. Temple shot 54% from the field and sank eight of their 13 three point attempts.

Dayton now awaits a Sunday night call from the NIT to see if their season will continue.