Dec. 21, 2007

Box Score

YPSILANTI, MI - Freshman Kristin Daugherty put up 17 second-half points and Kelly Keil blocked a last-second shot attempt to lift visiting Dayton to a 59-57 victory over Eastern Michigan on Friday afternoon.

The Flyers (11-2) have now won 11 straight games, which is the third longest active winning streak in the nation and second longest in program history. UD is just two wins shy of the longest winning streak in Flyer history.

Dayton also extended its Atlantic 10 Conference leading streak to 200 consecutive games with a three-point shot when Daugherty drained a shot from long range with 6:58 left to go in the opening half.

Daugherty led all players with a season-high 20 points on 3-for-5 shooting from three-point range. She hit 6-of-12 shots overall in the second half and scored 10 consecutive points to take the Flyers from down by eight to up for the first time by two points with 4:37 remaining. The freshman also finished with seven rebounds, two blocks, an assist and a steal in 36 minutes of action.

Three Flyers reached double figures in scoring including senior Nikki Oakland who tallied her fifth double-double of the season. Oakland tallied 13 points and 11 rebounds including six offensive boards. Classmate Brittany Holterman also scored 11 points for her 10th game with 10 points or more this year.

Keil finished with seven points and six rebounds to go along with the game-winning block with six seconds left. Overall, the Flyers out rebounded the Eagles, 39-34, while holding a narrow edge in overall shooting (.407 to .389), due to a 42.9 percent (12-for-28) shooting effort in the second half.

The Eagles started off strong as they went to their 6-5 post Colleen Russell for six of their first 11 points and built a five-point lead just 3:48 into the contest.

From there EMU would continue its first half dominance behind 13 first half points from Russell and a stingy defense that held all but Oakland and Holterman off the scoreboard for the first 13 minutes of the opening stanza.

After Oakland (8) and Holterman (7) scored the first 15 points of the game for Dayton, Kristin Daugherty drilled a three pointer from the corner at the 6:58 mark to pull the Flyers within seven at 25-18. The shot extended UD's Atlantic 10 Conference leading streak to 200 consecutive games with a made three-point shot. It also sparked the younger Flyers in the final seven minutes as sophomore Kelly Keil hit back to back jumpers to get UD within three.

A late run by the homestanding Eagles gave EMU another nine-point lead until a last second shot at the buzzer along the right baseline from Ashley Armstrong made it a 33-26 halftime deficit.

The Flyers shot just 38.5 percent (10-for-26) from the field while allowing the Eagles to connect on almost half (12-of-25) of their shots in the first half. UD did hold a 19-15 edge in rebounding and a 16-14 lead at points in the paint, but it was not enough to overcome eight first-half turnovers that led to a 7-0 edge for EMU in points off mistakes.

After dominating the interior for the first 20 minutes, Eastern Michigan struck from downtown to begin the second half. Three treys over the first 3:30 of the game following halftime were just enough to maintain a nine-point lead as UD came out with a seven-point surge over the same time frame.

Dayton would get as close as four at 42-38 on a jumper from Kristin Daugherty and three from the wing by Kiki Lund at the 14:03 mark. However, after the teams traded layups from the post players, EMU hit its seventh three pointers of the game with 12:44 left to build a seven-point lead.

After EMU got up by as many as 11, the UD defense settled in and ignited a Flyer comeback by holding the Eagles off the scoreboard for nearly eight minutes (7:56). Kiki Lund got things going for Dayton with a steal at mid court that was followed by a sprint to the basket and an old-fashioned three-point play at the 9:55 mark to make it a 51-43 game.

From there freshman Kristin Daugherty took over with 10 consecutive points in just 3:18 seconds to take the Flyers from down by eight to up for the first time at 53-51. She began with two free throws at the 8:55 mark followed by a three pointer with 7:10 remaining and a strong take to the basket that resulted in another three-point play exactly two minutes later to even the score at 51-all. She then gave the Flyers their first lead of the afternoon with jumper in the corner at 4:37.

EMU finally stopped the drought with a free throw at the 2:28 mark, but Kelly Keil put the Flyers ahead by three at 55-52, just 25 seconds later on a layup. EMU knotted the score again on its eighth trey of the day only to see UD take the lead back with a three of its own by Daugherty at the 1:26 mark.

The Eagles got to within one-point on a jumper with 25 seconds left forcing the Flyers to inbound the ball under heavy, full-court pressure. After a timeout, UD threw the ball in and had it deflect off of a player's knee at out of bounds in EMU territory.

Eastern Michigan got the ball into the hands of Alyssa Pittman who drove the lane and had a runner jumper blocked by Kelly Keil. The Flyer sophomore pulled down the rebound and was fouled immediately. She hit the first of two free throws with 6.0 seconds remaining on the clock. EMU pulled down the rebound, but could barely get the ball past half court before throwing up a shot that went wide to give UD its 11th straight victory.

Dayton will return to action following a week-long break to celebrate the Christmas holiday on Dec. 29 & 30. UD will host the Inaugural Dayton Flyer Classic Presented by Dynamic Pension Services against Cornell, Central Michigan and Texas A&M - Corpus Christi. The Flyers will face the Big Red on Saturday at 2:30 pm. ET in a game that will feature Gametracker, FREE live video and live audio (WHIO Radio) at www.DaytonFlyers.com.