Dec. 29, 2005

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NEW ORLEANS - Junior Jennifer Strong drained two free throws with 2.6 seconds left as Dayton pulled out a 79-77 victory over Toledo on the first day of the Tulane Basketball Classic on Wednesday at Fogleman Arena.

The Flyers (7-3) will face Samford on Thursday in the Championship Game of the Tulane Basketball Classic at 9 p.m. ET in a game that can be followed with Gametracker. Samford beat host Tulane 64-55 on Wednesday in the other game of the Classic.

Strong finished with 13 points, all in the second half, for her fifth straight game in double figures. She made 4-of-7 shots from the field including two three-pointers and was a perfect 3-for-3 from the free throw line as the Flyers made 13-of-17 free throws in the second half.

"Actually Cara Wright called that play when she came to the sideline during the timeout," UD Head Coach Jim Jabir said. "We have a play called bump back, which is just posting up 'J' (Jennifer Strong). It made sense so we went right to it. 'J' is a pretty clutch kid. 'J' has won a couple of games for us. She has put a couple of games into overtime for us. 'J' is just plain clutch."

Three-time A-10 Player of the Week Cara Wright collected her conference-leading sixth double-double as she finished with 23 points and 15 rebounds. She was followed by sophomore Kiki Lund who scored 11 points in the first half while shooting 3-of-5 from behind the arc.

Senior point guard Terri Ramsey dished out eight assists and scored eight points to control a Flyer offense that shot 53.8 percent from the field (28-for-52) and made 7-of-12 shots from three-point range.

Dayton dominated in the paint with eight points by Amber Peterink, six from Nikki Oakland and four by Angela Cape as UD outscored UT 32-22 in the paint.

Lund led the Dayton attack in the first half as she hit her first three shots from behind the arc en route to 11 points before halftime. Wright followed with seven points and seven rebounds in the first half, but UD was plagued by 12 turnovers and made just 3-of-11 free throw attempts to fall behind 40-31 at the break.

The Flyers led by as many as seven with a 22-15 lead at the 8:11 mark of the first half before the Rockets responded with a 12-4 run with 5:26 remaining to take the lead for the remainder of the half. Nikki Oakland tried to keep Dayton close with five points in the final four minutes, but UD was held without a basket for the final 1:24 of the half and trailed by nine at the intermission.

In the second half, Toledo took a 10-point lead with a trey from Bishop at the 18:11 mark, but the Dayton defense held UT scoreless for the over three minutes. Then with 17:53 left, Strong dilled a trey from the corner to ignite a run that would pull the Flyers with two at 53-51 with 11:11 remaining.

Dayton came all the way back to tie the game with a steal which led to a three-point play by Ramsey at 9:57 that knotted the score at 56-all. After Dayton tied the game at 59-59 with a free throw by Wright, the Flyer defense took over as the Rockets were held without a field goal for six minutes and UD made 11 of 15 free throw attempts in the second half to stay in a tightly played game.

Then with UT ahead 73-72, Strong slipped through the Toledo defense and took and made a layup off of the entry pass while getting fouled for a three-point play that gave Dayton a 75-73 advantage with 1:09 left. The Rockets countered with a layup on the other end to tie the score again at 75-all, but Wright came back to put the Flyers on top by a pair with 30 seconds left.

However, Toledo would not go away quietly as Savannah Werner hit a jumper in the lane that tied the score again at 77-77 to setup the dramatic finish. After bringing the ball into the frontcourt and calling a timeout with seven seconds left, Strong in bounded the ball to Ramsey and then posted up on the right block. Ramsey connected on the entry pass to Strong who was fouled on the play. Strong followed by draining two free throws with 2.6 seconds left to win the game 79-77.