Nov. 11, 2008

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The Dayton Flyers capped off their exhibition schedule with a 67-59 victory over Gannon on Tuesday night at UD Arena. Sophomore Chris Wright led the way with a team-high 13 points along with six rebounds, three blocks, three steals and three assists.

Junior Kurt Huelsman and freshman Luke Fabrizius each added 12 points. Fabrizius took six shot attempts in the game, all coming from three-point range, and connected on four of them.

The Flyers shot 25-of-52 (48 percent) from the field and forced 23 turnovers including 10 steals. They also dominated the paint, outscoring Gannon in the paint 38-20.

Gannon hung tough early in the contest and jumped out to a four point lead at the 13:13 mark. But the Flyers answered with an 8-0 run, capped off by a dunk and jumper by Wright to take a 15-11 lead.

The Golden Knights knotted the score at 26-26, but Dayton pulled away from there and did not look back. The Flyers ended the half on a 7-2, capped off by a Marcus Johnson lay-up just before the buzzer.

UD came out of the locker room scorching in the second half. Just 1:18 into the half, a lay-up by Wright stretched the lead to double digits at 39-28 and forced a Gannon timeout. The Knights hung close, but the Flyers went on to grab their largest lead at the 9:01 mark as a Huelsman bucket widened the gap to 60-45. Gannon trimmed the deficit to eight points with 2:17 to play, but solid defensive play by the Flyers prevented the Knights from getting any closer. Wright tallied two key blocks with less than two minutes, first smacking a lay-up attempt off the glass and then rejecting a mid-range shot attempt by Gannon.

The Knights were held without a field goal for the final five minutes of the game as UD secured the 67-59 victory.

Dayton opens regular season play Sunday night against Wofford at 7 p.m. ET at UD Arena.