ST. LOUIS - Dayton held Saint Louis scoreless for nearly five minutes down the stretch and posted a 62-54 victory this afternoon in a non-conference men's basketball game at Savvis Center. The Billikens dropped their fourth home game in five outings.
"It's tough to put any kind of season together if you can't win your home games," Billikens junior guard Anthony Drejaj said. "If we had won these close home games, our whole season is turned around."
The Billikens had the lead for the last time at 50-49 with 5:36 to play as senior guard Reggie Bryant banged home back-to-back treys. After UD guard Trent Meacham beat the shot clock with a drive to the basket to restore a one-point lead to the Flyers, the Billikens' free throw shooting did them in. Drejaj missed his second front end of a 1-and-1 in the half with 4:38 to play. Then Flyers senior guard Mark Jones buried a pair of tosses, and SLU freshman point guard Dwayne Polk missed another front end of a 1-and-1. After UD's Brian Roberts drilled two free throws with 1:40 remaining, UD had a 55-50 lead headed for its first road victory of the year.
"I'm sick of saying that all we can do is get back in the gym and keep working hard at getting better, but that's really all we can do," Bills head coach Brad Soderberg said. "We won't quit, I guarantee that."
Earlier in the second half, the Bills appeared to be in control of the game and moved to a 38-32 on senior forward Izik Ohanon's lay-up at the 14:53 mark. The Bills then had three straight empty possessions including two missed free throws by sophomore forward Justin Johnson. The Flyers came back to tie the game at 38 on consecutive threeballs from Roberts and Marquee Bennett.
In a first half of runs, Saint Louis had the opening salvo and the final burst. The Billikens jumped to an 8-2 lead as Drejaj and Bryant nailed early treys. SLU followed that with a scoring drought of 5:40 as the Flyers ran off 13 consecutive points. Ohanon knocked in two free throws to break the streak.
With Dayton leading 28-24, the Billikens scored the final six points of the half as freshman Danny Brown followed two Tom Frericks free throws with a pair of buckets. UD freshman forward Nathan Plummer was a handful in the opening stanza as he scored all 12 of his points on 6-of-8 shooting.
Roberts led Dayton (4-3) with 14 points, and forward Monty Scott added 12. The Flyers shot 40.4 percent from the field, 31.6 percent from the arc and 63.6 percent from the free throw line. UD had a 38-32 rebounding edge.
Although Bryant had a tough day shooting only 6-of-19 from the floor, the senior led SLU with 16 points. Ohanon finished with 12 points, and Drejaj added 10. Ohanon and Drejaj each had five boards, and while Polk and Drejaj each handed out four assists. The Bills shot 40/8 percent from the field, 35.3 percent from deep and only 53.3 percent from the free throw line.
The Billikens (2-7) travel to Southern Illinois on Tue., Dec. 21, for a 705 p.m. start at SIU Arena.
