March 7, 2007

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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - Maybe it was the white uniforms, or a the chance to face the Xavier Musketeers one more time, but the Dayton Flyers looked comfortable in Atlantic City.

Led by a game-high 24 points from junior Brian Roberts and a career high eight assists by freshman London Warren, the Flyers upended the Charlotte 49ers 81-63 in the opening round of the Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Championship.

With the victory, Dayton gets another crack at Xavier who defeated UD twice during the regular season. The quarterfinal game will take place on Thursday at noon EST from Boardwalk Hall. Fans can follow the action with pay-per-view video streaming as well as free Gametracker at www.atlantic10.org and www.DaytonFlyers.com. The game will also be televised in the Dayton area on Fox Sports Ohio.

Playing as the higher seed and wearing their home white uniforms, the Flyers used an 18-7 second half run in a six minute span to pull away from Charlotte and improve to 19-11 overall. This season, Dayton is 17-2 in their white jerseys.

The 53 second half points were also a season high for the Flyers who have won three in a row.

Dayton sophomore Charles Little added 12 points and eight rebounds, while junior Norman Plummer added eight boards as well along with 10 points off the bench.

For the 49ers, junior Leemire Goldwire scored 15 of his 23 points in the second half, while senior De'Angelo Alexander added 14 points on 5-of-19 shooting from the floor.

Dayton shot extremely well from the outside hitting 56 percent of their field goals and 11-of-17 three-pointers. After forcing only two Charlotte turnovers in the first half, UD's defense clamped down and made the 49ers commit 11 miscues.

Trailing 35-28 at halftime, the Flyers opened up with a 7-2 spurt to cut the deficit to 37-35 with 18:14 to go.

Charlotte extended the lead to five before Warren changed the tempo of the second half with a block thanks to some great hustle. As Alexander was driving in for a lay-up, Warren flew in from the right side and pinned the shot along the backboard.

That sparked the Flyer offense as freshman Marcus Johnson knocked down a three-pointer and Roberts connected on a lay-up to give UD its first lead since early in the first half at 47-45.

Charlotte regained the lead briefly 50-48 after another three-point bucket by Goldwire. The Flyers answered with a 16-4 run to go up by 11 with 6:04 to play.

Little got the spurt going with two free throws to tie the game at 50-50. On the ensuing possession, Roberts then converted a three-pointer to put UD ahead by three.

The Flyers picked up two free throws from Johnson and then another three by Roberts to put the Flyers ahead 58-50 with 7:55 remaining.

Junior Andres Sandoval continued the hot shooting from the outside with a three-pointer helping extend the UD lead to 61-52. Little added two more free throws before Charlotte would connect on their next field goal.

But things started to look bleak for the Flyers. Johnson would leave the game with a lower body injury with less than six minutes remaining and Sandoval would foul out of the game a minute later.

With Charlotte down by eight, Roberts would extend the Dayton lead back to 10 with two free throws. Freshman Kurt Huelsman then forced an offensive foul on the following possession.

Charlotte would chip away once again with a field goal with just over four minutes to play. But once again, Roberts calmly knocked down a pair of free throws to keep the Dayton advantage at 10 with a 67-57 lead.

Huelsman would knock down a jumper as the shot clock expired to put Dayton ahead 69-57 with three minutes to go.

The Flyers would hold on by drawing offensive fouls, converting on free throws late and successfully breaking the Charlotte full-court press.

Huelsman finished the game with four points and two rebounds, but played strong defense for UD. Junior Jimmy Binnie knocked down four three-pointers to finish with 12 points.

The Flyers kept the score within two for a majority of the first half before Charlotte went on a 6-0 run in the final 1:54 of the first half, the largest deficit of the game for Dayton.

Roberts led the Flyers with seven first half points, while Binnie added six. UD shot 46 percent from the floor and 50 percent from beyond the arc.