Dec. 20, 2004

Box Score

Mark Jones poured in 17 points on a hot-shooting night from the field, leading the University of Dayton to a 64-55 win over Northwestern State University Monday at the UD Arena. Jones, who led all scorers, pulled in four rebounds and had three steals as the Flyers (5-3) won their fourth-straight game.

Jones did his damage on 6-of-9 shooting from the field (2-of-3 from three-point range) and a perfect 3-for-3 at the line to mark a new season-high - just three off his career-best.

Monty Scott and Warren Williams were the other Flyers in double-figures with 11 and 10 points respectively. Jermaine Wallace had 13 points as the lone double-digit scorer for the Demons (5-6).

After opening up to a 7-7 tie, the Flyers fell behind the Demons 10-9 before a steal by Jones led to a Trent Meacham floater on the baseline to give UD the lead and trigger an 8-0 run. Brian Roberts laid the ball in for a 13-10 UD lead and back-to-back lay-ups by Meacham and Nick Stafford put UD up 17-10.

The two teams traded buckets before a pair of freebies from Clifton Lee pulled the Demons within three at 21-18. But Scott put UD back up nine with 6:06 remaining by draining back-to-back three-pointers.

Scott connected from downtown again under a minute later to answer a three-ball from Tramaine Hancock.

Meacham, who came off the bench to finish with six points four assists and three boards, found Scott on an alley-oop with 3:10 remaining to give UD a 34-25 lead and spark the crowd of 11,525. But Northwestern State connected with a runner just before halftime as UD led 34-28 at the break. Scott, who was 4-for-11 from the field and nailed a trio of threes, scored all of his points before halftime

Sparked by threes from Wallace and Tyronn Mitchell, Northwestern State opened the second half with an 8-0 run to take the lead 36-34 before Roberts answered to tie the game. The Flyers were held to just one field goal in the first eight minutes of the second half.

But UD answered with an 14-2 run, highlighted by `and-ones' from Jones and Norman Plummer to tie the game and a three from Jones to put UD up 51-48 with 7:52 to go. Dayton stretched the lead to 56-51 on a pair of Jones free-throws but Jermaine Wallace would not let the Demons go quietly and nailed a three to silence the Flyer Faithful.

Jones responded with a jumper from the elbow to give UD a 60-55 lead with 1:41 remaining. Warren Williams knocked down four free throws in the final 1:21 and Marques Bennett came up with a steal on the defensive end to seal the win.

Plummer pulled down a team-best six rebounds and added seven points in the winning effort.

In a back-and-forth game that featured nine lead changes and six ties, the Flyers forced 22 turnovers and had 10 steals en route to an 18-2 edge in fast-break points.

The Flyers will host Akron at UD Arena on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. before breaking for the holidays. UD returns to action on December 28 at Vanderbilt in a 9:00 p.m. ET tip with the Commodores at Memorial Gymnasium. That game will be live in the Miami Valley on WHIO-TV and regionally on Fox Sports South.

POST-GAME QUOTES

UD Head Coach Brian Gregory "I'm pleased with the victory, but not with the total 40 minutes. We played really well for eight or nine minutes in the first half and a six minutes stretch in the second half."

[On Dayton's Second Half Run To Win The Game] "We played as we did during the last five games, not for the total 40 minutes."

"We judge our defense on deflections, not steals. During that stretch, we just played harder with more intensity. I always tell our guys, `It's not talent, it's effort that makes a difference.'"

[On Senior Guard Mark Jones] "He played well for us tonight and had done a tremendous job for us this season off the court. We have an inexperienced team this year, but they have great team chemistry and we stick together. That's what a senior is supposed to do. That's why they give you four years to play."

"He made some big shots for us down the stretch and hit the open shots when he took them."

"He singlehandedly won the game for us down the stretch. He wants to develop into a leader and he has done a great job of that this year."

[On Northwestern State] "They are a great team that has played some tough teams down the stretch. They will be a team to be reckoned with in their league this year."

"Coach McConathy does a good job and really gets them ready to play."

"We had a tough job defending them in the post but our guys made some adjustments to slow them down."

UD senior guard Mark Jones "They're a good team and they took us down to the wire. They had us down six at one point. But a lot of guys stepped up and made big plays on defense. And that's what won us the game. Defensive stops win games and that's what we got down the stretch."

UD junior forward Monty Scott "Mark [Jones] stepped up and made some big shots down the stretch and we got some big stops on the defensive end."

[on the alley-oop dunk] "It was a set play coming out of a timeout and Trent just threw a good pass."

UD junior guard Warren Williams "We got a lot of stops at the end and that was the key tonight. Mark Jones and the guys hit some big shots when we needed them. What won us the game tonight was the defense."

NSU Head Coach Mike McConathy "Our 10 turnovers in the second half were very crucial. Six times we went inside, went to the floor with it and got nothing. After Dayton made its run, I was proud that we battled back to stay within striking distance. You've got to give Dayton credit because they hit shots when they had to hit shots. Mark Jones had a couple of real big ones for them.

"If we had been more patient and taken care of the ball, like they did to us, we might have been in position to win in the end. They did the better job, they deserved to win."

"Coach Gregory does such a good job and you can see he's in it for the kids. That shows in the way they stayed together and played very hard for him. It's refreshing to meet a guy like him and play a program like this, in such a great environment in college basketball. And it's good for us, I'd come back here every year, they have great fans."