Dayton Flyers

Feb. 24, 2007

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Audio: Coach Gregory Press Conference

DAYTON, Ohio - Dayton sophomore forward Charles Little had five dunks, but Xavier junior guard Drew Lavender answered with five three-pointers and that, as much as anything decided the ownership of the Blackburn/McCafferty Trophy and its accompanying MVP trophy as the Musketeers defeated UD 75-67 Saturday at UD Arena.

A sellout crowd of 13,435 saw Little have his second double-double the last three games. He tallied a career-high 28 points to go with 10 rebounds, giving him a spectacular week of 21points and 10 rebounds against UMass, 23 and 6 at Saint Louis and 28 and 10 against Xavier.

Lavender led Xavier with 27 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor, 5-of-7 from beyond the arc and connected on all eight free throw attempts. He made his first five three-point attempts and was named the game's Blackburn/McCafferty MVP.

Junior Brian Roberts added 14 points and three rebounds for Dayton, while junior teammate Andres Sandoval scored eight of his 10 points in a 45-second span.

Joining Lavender in double figures for X were senior forward Justin Doellman with 11 points and junior guard Stanley Burrell added 10.

Dayton scored the first four points on an alley-oop to Little and an end-to-end layup by London Warren, but Xavier scored the next 13 points. The Flyers responded with a run to take a 27-23 lead with 4:38 left in the half, but X came back with another 13 points to storm ahead 36-29 at halftime.

The Musketeers kept the momentum to start the second half, pushing out to a 12-point lead (48-36) at the 13:13 mark, but Sandoval's eight-point explosion tied the game at 52 just five minutes and 11 seconds later. The Flyers were never able to regain the lead, and Xavier used a 9-0 run to acquire a working margin.

UD was able to make it a five-point game (67-62) with a minute forty left on the clock, but Xavier made eight straight free throws (six by Lavender) to take the win, and the Black/Mac trophy, back down I-75.

Xavier outshot UD .511 (24-47) to .446 (25-56) from the floor, .458 (11-24) to .333 (3-9) from three-point range, and .941 (16-17) to .778 (14-18) from the line. The Flyers won the battle on the boards 29-27, and forced 17 Musketeer turnovers while committing 15 of their own. Fast-break points were even (14 apiece), X bested Dayton in points off turnovers 19-16, and UD edged Xavier 14-12 in second-chance points. Thanks to Little, the Flyers dominated points in the paint 42-22.

Dayton drops to 16-11 overall and 6-8 in the Atlantic 10. Xavier remains tied with Massachusetts for first place in the A-10 with an 11-3 record. The Muskies are 21-7 overall.

The Flyers travel to Philadelphia to battle the Temple Owls on Wednesday starting at 7:00 p.m. EST.