Dayton Flyers

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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Two free throws by Luke Fabrizius with 5.8 seconds remaining in regulation helped the Dayton Flyers upset the No. 18/20 Xavier Musketeers 68-67 in the 2011 Atlantic 10 Men’s Basketball Championship Quarterfinals.

Chris Wright had 15 points, Chris Johnson had a double-double with 12 points and 10 boards and Paul Williams scored 14 as UD improved to 21-12 overall.

Fabrizius finished with 10 points on 3-of-6 shooting from the line. Prior to his two game-winning free throws, Fabrizius was 1-of-3 on the season at the charity stripe.

A couple of streaks were broken. It’s the Flyers first win over Xavier since 1990 in a conference tournament. The win is also UD’s first outside of Dayton since 1981 over the Musketeers.

Dayton will play in the A-10 Semifinals at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday, March 12 against the winner of the Duquesne/Saint Joseph’s game.

Xavier had a foul to give and it did with 12.6 seconds remaining. Johnson missed a jumper in the lane on the inbounds play but Fabrizius got the rebound and was fouled hard by Mark Lyons on his way back up.

Fabrizius fell hard to the floor and hit his head. For a couple of seconds there was concern he was hurt. Instead, he hit two free throws to help UD regain the lead.

Xavier took its first lead of the game with 23.9 seconds left at 67-66 after a three-point play by Tu Holloway. However, Fabrizius got an offensive rebound and hit both free throws to give Dayton the lead by one.

Dayton was up big early on and led 54-37 after back-to-back three pointers by Fabrizius and Williams with 12 minutes remaining.

But the Flyers were thin in the front court after Devin Searcy went out with an ankle injury and Josh Benson picked up his fourth foul with 10 minutes to play.

Xavier tied the game at 64-64 with 2:37 using a 20-5 run midway through the second half to claw back into the contest.

In the first half, the Flyers led 36-27 thanks to some red hot shooting. UD hit 56 percent of its field goals. The Flyers also out-rebounded Xavier 18-11 in the opening 20 minutes.

Overall, Dayton shot 52 percent from the field and hit 8-of-13 three-pointers. UD also dominated the glass out-rebounding Xavier 32-24.

Other contributors for the Flyers included an eight-assist effort from Juwan Staten and seven points from Josh Benson.

The Flyers also improved to 17-0 this season when leading with five minutes left in regulation.