March 12, 2009

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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - Junior Marcus Johnson scored 15 points and freshman Chris Johnson was just shy of a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds as the Dayton Flyers picked up a 69-64 victory over the Richmond Spiders in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Championship.

Freshman Luke Fabrizius scored 11 points off the bench and Charles Little chipped in with nine points and seven rebounds as the Flyers improved to 26-6 overall and advanced to the A-10 Semifinals for the fifth time in school history.

UD will play the Duquesne Dukes on Friday in the semifinals. Duquesne defeated Rhode Island 78-74 on Thursday and are in the semifinals for the first time since 1994.

Dayton dominated on the glass out-rebounding Richmond 47-29 and snagged 15 offensive boards. Kurt Huelsman had six rebounds, Mickey Perry added five rebounds to go with three assists and London Warren chipped in with five boards to go with five assists and eight points.

Richmond kept the game close early in the second half. Marcus Johnson hit a jumper and Warren added a lay-up to give UD its largest lead at 42-35 at the 13:29 mark.

Fabrizius sank another thee and Paul Williams hit two free throws to extend the UD lead to 53-44 lead with less than nine minutes remaining.

However, the Spiders kept crawling back and went on a 9-1 run to cut the Flyer lead to 54-53 with 6:32 remaining. Marcus Johnson ended the rally with back-to-back three-pointers from the wing to put the Flyers back ahead by six at 60-54.

A Little dunk brought the crowd to its feet and put the Flyers ahead 62-54 with 3:48 remaining. Two Flyer blocks a minute later on a Richmond possession allowed a transition lay-up for Mickey Perry to push the UD lead back to seven.

The Spiders would eventually cut the UD advantage to 65-60 at the 1:18 mark. After a Flyer defensive stop, Warren converted two free throws to keep Richmond at a distance.

A Marcus Johnson runner in the lane put the Flyers up 28-25 despite a horrid start shooting from the field. UD missed eight of its first 10 shots from the field before settling in offensively.

Fabrizius knocked down a pair of threes to get the Dayton offense going in the first half and ended up with eight points after the first 20 minutes of play. It was a 25-14 edge on the glass that allowed the Flyers to take the three-point lead at the half.

Marcus Johnson finished the game 6-of-10 from the field and 2-of-5 from beyond the arc. Chris Wright added eight points, five rebounds and two steals.

The UD is 2-2 in the A-10 semis and is making its first appearance since 2004.