March 10, 2005
Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery
CINCINNATI, OH - The Dayton Flyers couldn't overcome a rough shooting stretch in the first half, falling in the quarterfinals to the Temple Owls, 61-51, Thursday night at the Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Championship at U.S. Bank Arena. Norman Plummer was the only Flyer in double-figures, finishing with 15 points on five-of-eight shooting.
The Owls (16-12) smothered UD in the first half, holding the Flyers to just 16 points in the first stanza, including a field goal drought over 11 minutes long. Mardy Collins led the Owls with 18 points and eight rebounds, while Mark Tyndale added 15 points and seven rebounds and Antywane Robinson chipped in 10 and six.
Warren Williams and Brian Roberts each finished with seven points for Dayton (18-11), with three and four assists respectively.
Plummer opened the scoring in the paint and hit a three from the corner that made it a 6-5 Temple lead. But the Owls held the Flyers without a field goal for over five minutes to extend the lead to 12-5, eight minutes into the game.
The Flyers struggled early versus the Temple match-up zone, starting the game 2-of-14 from the field. Dayton missed 15-straight shots before Plummer connected again. The drought lasted 11:38 and by then the Owls led 23-8 with 4:05 to go in the half.
Dayton closed out the first half with an 8-0 run to pull within 28-16 at the break. It marked UD's lowest scoring half of the season, fifth-lowest in since 1947 and tied the lowest scoring half in an A-10 quarterfinal. (UD held Rhode Island to 16 points in the first half of the quarterfinals in 2003.)
Plummer had 10 of UD's 16 points at the half on four-of-five shooting. Dayton shot 7-of-28 in the first. Dayton held Temple to 36.4 percent (8-of-22), but the Flyers' failure to connect from three-point range (1-of-11) had them down 12 at the break.
In the second, Dayton slowly chipped the lead down to single-digits, at 36-27 with 15:03 to go on a three by Brian Roberts. After Temple answered with a pair of free throws from Collins, the Flyers went on a 5-0 run to cut the deficit to 40-34 with 11:29 remaining.
Down 10, Dayton reeled off six-straight points to cut the margin to 44-40 with 5:27 to go, but would get no closer as Temple answered with a 7-0 run on a three by Dustin Salisbery and four-straight free-throws to take control.
UD could pull no closer than nine on a Jimmy Binnie trey, but Collins ended the scoring with a free-throw for the final 61-51 margin.
Williams and Plummer connected on 8-of-13 field goal attempts, while the rest of the Flyers combined for 11-of-42 shooting.
Against the Temple zone, Dayton shot 18.3 percent from three-point range (4-of-22).
Temple moves on to face George Washington in the second semifinal on Friday, following Saint Joseph's versus Xavier, with the winners competing for the Atlantic 10's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Dayton will wait until Sunday for a post-season announcement. Dayton has advanced to the post season in five-straight seasons with three NCAA Tournament bids and two appearances in the National Invitation Tournament.
