St. Louis--Dayton rallied from a 12-point second-half deficit to upend Saint Louis 76-73 this afternoon before a paid crowd of 11,937 at Savvis Center. Flyers senior guard Tony Stanley led all scorers with 21as UD handed SLU its second consecutive loss.
"I told our team before this game that Dayton wouldn't hand this to us," Billikens head coach Lorenzo Romar said. "They knew that if we didn't play well and made mistakes, that Dayton would make us pay, and that's exactly what happened."
In a game of runs, the Billikens missed their first two shots, which were lay-ups, as UD bolted to a 4-0 advantage. The Billikens claimed their first lead at 7-5 on a Matt Baniak lay-up. The Flyers came right back and grabbed a 21-15 advantage sparked by threes from Stanley and Brooks Hall.
Saint Louis tightened defensively and ran off 12 straight points highlighted by four points each from center Chris Heinrich and swingman Maurice Jeffers. Leading 27-21 with 5:07 to play in the half, the Bills watched the Flyers scored seven unanswered to reclaim the lead. Eventually, Stanley drilled a trey to end the half and give UD a 35-32 edge at the break. It was the first time Saint Louis had trailed at halftime this season.
The Billikens charged out of the dressing room seemingly took cammand of the game as they 51-39 lead on a Chris Braun follow shot with 12:58 remaining. In the 19-4 run, Jeffers contributed seven points and guard Marque Perry popped in six.
"We came out and turned the ball over five or six straight times and missed our first two shots, so that was a critical point in the game for us," Flyers head coach Oliver Purnell said. "We had to remain positive and keep believing in ourselves. I told our guys that if we defended and rebounded, we wouldn't stay that bad offensively."
Dayton continuously went inside to forwards Nate Green and Yuanta Holland and either got baskets or went to the free throw line. UD tied the game at 57, and the Billikens misfires from the free throw line began to plague them. In the course of a minute, Tatum, Perry and Jeffers all went 1-of-2 from the stripe.
Sophomore guard three gave the Bills their last lead at 63-61 with 4:08 remaining, but Stanley quickly tied it with a basket in the paint. Stanley's free throw put the Flyers up with 3:27 to go, and UD never relinquished the lead.
"Our defensive intensity wasn't at full force throughout the game," Perry said. "We may have had it for five minutes or 10 minutes at a time, but it wasn't consistent. They really made us pay for our defensive lapse at the end."
The Billikens suffered at the free throw line for the second straight game by making only 62.5 percent (15-24), while the Flyers drilled 29-of-34 for 85.3 percent. The Bills out-shot the Flyers from the floor 51.9 percent to 46.7 percent.
Holland joined Stanley in double figures with 14, while Green added 12 and Keith Waleskowski came off the bench ton contribute 10.
Jeffers set a career-high with 19 points as he bounced back from a tough outing at Missouri. Tatum scored a season-high 16, and Perry added 11.
The Billikens open Conference USA action on Tue., Dec. 19, at DePaul.
