UMass became the most recent opponent to beat the Flyers in a close game as Bruiser Flint’s Minutemen outlasted UD 59-57 in OT Thursday night before 11,639 at the UD Arena. In what has become a broken record of near wins and agonizing defeats, the Flyers drop their second home game in a row and their second OT game of the season. UD drops to 8-10 (3-5) while UMass improves to 9-10 (5-3).

Tony Stanley, who missed a trey to win the game with 0.7 seconds on the clock in OT, finished with a team-high 18 points to go along with 7 rebounds. Mark Ashman netted 13 points and grabbed 9 boards.

The first half was a promising one for the Flyers as Stanley scored 9 quick points to pace the home team to the early lead. Dayton’s offense started to click for one of the few times this season and eventually opened up a 23-13 advantage but Purnell’s club would score just two more points in the half. UMass countered with physical inside play from Lari Ketner and Chris Kirkland. Dayton’s halftime lead was trimmed to 25-19.

In the second half, Dayton’s scoring drought continued as Lari Ketner dominated offensively and defensively to help UMass erase the halftime deficit and take a 29-25 lead just minutes into the final frame. The Flyers became too passive on the offensive end and started wasting 25 seconds on the shot clock — a habit seen too many times this year. Once a UD player managed to take a difficult shot, Ketner was there to rebound the ball.

The Flyers finally settled down and made a stronger effort to get Mark Ashman the ball down in the post. After Ketner picked up a third foul, Ashman touched the ball on nearly every possession. As the game started to wind down, Dayton clawed back to takes the lead and eventually built a 51-47 cushion with just a couple of minutes to play in the contest. But UD characteristically fell apart toward the end by missing free throws and turning the ball over and before long UMass had a chance to win the game in regulation. The Minutemen failed to get off a shot and the game went into OT.

With Ketner now battling inside with four fouls, everyone thought Dayton would feed the ball into Ashman and draw a fifth foul on Ketner or a foul on someone else and go to the free throw line. Unfortunately, UD wasted the shot clock, missed more free throws, and avoided Ashman’s leverage in the paint until the game was out of reach.
The Flyers must learn to play smarter or close losses will continue throughout the rest of the season. In fact, some might wonder if Dayton’s eight victories were in spite of themselves.

Stanley had a tough time getting open looks at the basket all night and, apart from the first 7 minutes of the game, didn’t assert himself enough on the offensive end. In his defense however, he received few quality screens and even fewer quality passes to open up scoring opportunities.

Edwin Young played 31 minutes and had 8pts, 3 assists, and 4 turnovers. His counterpart, David Morris, played 18 minutes and tallied 7 assists and 2 turnovers but did not score.

As a team UD shot a miserable .328% from the floor and just .533% from the charity stripe. The Flyers are shooting around .400% from the field for the season and must improve shot selection and execution before that number will increase. It’s tough to beat anyone shooting under .400% from the field, let alone a quality team such as UMass.

Dayton takes the court again on Saturday afternoon for a nationally televised game on ESPN against rival Xavier. Though there have been few reasons in 1998-99 to be upbeat, you can count on the UD Arena being ready for a positive turning point.