March 19, 2008
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Contact: Greg Murphy
DAYTON, Ohio - Dayton used a 22-4 run centered around halftime and defeated Cleveland State, 66-57, in the opening round of the 2008 MasterCard NIT on Wednesday night at UD Arena.
The Vikings, who were playing in the post-season for the first time in 20 years and just the fourth time in the 77-year history of the program, conclude their season at 21-13,. Dayton improved to 22-10 and advanced to the second round of the tournament to take on the winner of the Illinois State-Utah State game.
CSU, which had not appeared in post-season play since back-to-back NIT appearances in 1986-87 and 1987-88, earned an at-large bid to the tournament after being one of at least 15 teams in Division I basketball history to go from 20 losses in one season (10-21 last year) to 20 wins the next.
"We started out and made some mistakes defensively on matchups and got behind, but it was only eight points at halftime," head coach Gary Waters said. "But then Dayton came out and really executed to start the second half. Before you knew it, we were down 15 points.
"That Roberts kid is a heck of a player. He makes everything he takes and we didn't count on that. Once we were down 15, we went to the diamond and one because we had to take him out and make Dayton beat us from the perimeter. That helped us get back in the game, but we couldn't make enough shots down the stretch.
"I'm proud of my kids," Waters continued. "This group really came together this year and accomplished every goal we set. We will return almost everybody next year and we have our sights set on bigger things.
Cedric Jackson led the Vikings with a team-high 11 points and five assists. Jackson's five assists improved his season total to 168, the second most in a single-season at CSU. In addition, his 34 minutes played allowed him to finish the season with 1,034, tied for the third most in a single season in school-history.
D'Aundray Brown added 10 points and four assists, while Joe Davis chipped in 10 points off the bench. J'Nathan Bullock ended with eight points and seven rebounds.
Brian Roberts paced four Flyers in double figures with 21 points, hitting 7-of-10 from the field. Kurt Huelsman finished with 12 points and seven rebounds, while Andres Sandoval and Marcus Johnson scored 11 points apiece.
Dayton jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead less than three minutes in on back-to-back three-pointers to force a quick 30-second timeout by CSU.
The Vikings came back to take their first lead of the game (18-15) with 10:52 remaining on a three-point play from Joe Davis. The lead was still at three points (24-21) with 7:56 to play following a layup from D'Aundray Brown.
Both teams would hit a cold spell over the next two minutes, combining to miss four straight shots, while turning the ball over twice. Roberts broke the scoreless streak with a jumper at the 5:56 mark to pull the Flyers back to within one (24-23).
Norris Cole hit a jumper on CSU's next possession to extend the lead back to three points (26-23) with 5:22 to play, but Dayton closed the half on a 15-4 run to take an eight-point lead into the locker room.
The Flyers came out of the locker room and scored the first seven points of the half to open up a 15-point lead (45-30) less than two minutes into the half.
However, Brown and Jackson hit a pair of free throws apiece and Brown added a fastbreak layup for a mini 6-0 run that sliced the CSU deficit back to single digits (45-36) with 15 minutes to play.
But that would be as close as CSU would get until late in the game as the Flyers responded with six straight points of their own to regain a 15 point lead. The Vikings were able to cut the lead to six points (61-55) with 3:47 to play on a Bullock jumper, but the Vikings would go on to miss four consecutive shots and two free throws, and did not score again until a layup by Norris Cole with 17 seconds left.
Dayton also struggled down the stretch, hitting just 5-of-10 free throws in the final three minutes, but held on for the win.
The Vikings, who committed just nine turnovers, hit just .385 (20-52) from the field, including .250 (5-20) from three-point.
Dayton shot 23-of-42 (.548) from the floor, including a 13-of-20 (.650) effort in the first half. The Flyers hit six of their 19 three-point attempts (.316), while holding a 33-26 advantage on the boards.
